Parachute is excited to be asked to contribute the Canadian chapter to this handbook, set to be published in spring 2020.

Who is leading this project?

Matts-Åke Belin, a leader of Vision Zero in Sweden since the early 1990s, and Belin’s Swedish colleagues, are the editors. Their purpose is to “gather our international experience we now have of Vision Zero as a policy innovation and who is it spreading it over the world to other regions.”

What information will be covered?

  • There will be a section on Ideas and Principles, which Belin describes as “theoretical contributions that analyze the “philosophy” or way of thinking behind Vision Zero” 
  • The second section will focus on how Vision Zero ideas have been received and implemented in various countries or regions. 
  • The third section focuses on how Vision Zero has been implemented in public and private sector traffic safety work. 
  • The fourth section will examine “tools and technologies” for Vision Zero 
  • The final section will focus on how Vision Zero has been implemented in other transportation realms (such as air traffic) and injury prevention areas such as drowning prevention and suicide prevention.

How many countries are participating?

There will chapters from at least 15 countries, with Parachute leading the Canadian chapter. There will also be contributions from the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

What will Parachute’s contribution cover?

We will provide an overview of Canada – geography, land mass, population, as well as jurisdiction; in other words, who makes the rules of the road. In Canada, road rules and road building are governed municipally and provincially, which means how we implement Vision Zero will be different than in a place such as Sweden with national roads jurisdiction. 

We are reaching out to the following partners to contribute content: The Canadian Association of Road Safety professionals; the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators; Transport Canada; and municipalities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto who have municipal Vision Zero frameworks. 

We will conclude our chapter with a look toward the future – what do we see happening in the next decade, and how will changing technology enhance our ability to make our

 Who is Matts-Åke Belin?

He has worked for the Swedish government since 1990 on road safety issues. His primary focus has been on road safety policies and strategies. Belin has a BA in political sciences from the University of Uppsala, Sweden and received his PhD at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, where his dissertation was on road safety policies and strategies. Belin joined the World Health Organization in early 2007, and works as a scientist for the Unintentional Injury Prevention Team (UIP). The Swedish embassy brought Belin to Toronto in 2016 to talk to Toronto city staff and politicians about Vision Zero and Parachute created a townhall video of his talk.

In what formats will the book be available? 

The book, to be published by Springer, will be available online first as an ebook, with a hardcopy publication to follow. As well, there will be a live reference book version that will allow for updating. 

Top