Safe System Infrastructure Approach to Cut Traffic Deaths

June 2021

Public health experts and transportation engineers have called on the U.S. to adopt a "Safe System" approach that refocuses road design and engineering on safety to cut traffic fatalities.

The Safe System approach, which has been adopted in some forms in other countries, centers around designing roads and traffic systems to minimize crashes and reduce vehicle speeds to make any crashes that do occur less harmful.

A new report, "Recommendations of the Safe System Consortium", by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Institute of Transportation Engineers, says the approach is "tolerant of routine human errors", rather than putting the onus on drivers and pedestrians to eliminate accidents. 

Report co-author and former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official, Jeffrey Michael, says such a move in the U.S. would require a shift in priorities and funding.

The United States' motor vehicle fatalities continue to rise. Preliminary data from the National Safety Council found an 8% increase in traffic-related deaths in 2020 with a total of 42,060, the highest since 2007. That’s despite a 13% drop in vehicle miles traveled related to COVID-19 lockdowns.

A projection from the Governors Highway Safety Association estimates pedestrian deaths will prove to have reached 2,957 pedestrian deaths from motor vehicles in the first six months of the year even with the drop in vehicle traffic. 

States and cities have responded to the consistently high numbers with Vision Zero programs, setting goals to eliminate all traffic deaths. Michael said those campaigns are rooted in the same principles as the Safe System approach, which got its start in Scandinavia.

For example, Michael said, conventional four-way stops have been designed with stop signs and traffic lights, which rely on drivers to stop properly and pay attention and for pedestrians to be wary of drivers. The Safe System approach, however, would replace that setup with a roundabout, which has the advantage of slowing traffic and averting side impact crashes, which are more dangerous. 

"The conventional road system has evolved over 100 years to become a very complicated system to negotiate, and because it’s so complicated, there’s an intricate set of rules that drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists have to follow to get from place to place," Michael said. "What we’re recommending is a focus where the system itself guides behavior."

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