Vision Zero – Is it irrational?

Vision Zero, the Swedish road safety policy goal, states that in the long run, no person should be killed or seriously injured as a consequence of road traffic. Since its adoption in 1997, the goal has been seriously criticised. In 2007, performance of the first interim target will be evaluated and a new interim target will be set. In this paper, we summarise the experiences from working with the goal and analyse the criticism that has been put forward against it. The most common criticism is that Vision Zero is an irrational goal. In order to evaluate this criticism, we compare Vision Zero with an independently developed list of adequacy criteria for rational goal-setting. We conclude that according to these criteria, Vision Zero is not irrational.