A package of initiatives aimed at eliminating deaths and serious injuries on Oxfordshire’s roads by 2050 has been approved.
Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet today [Tuesday 23 April] approved the strategy and action plan entitled Oxfordshire – Safe Roads through Vision Zero to 2030.
The document builds on the council’s adoption of Vision Zero in 2022, a concept that originated in Sweden in the 1990s as a road safety approach. The ambition is to reduce deaths and serious injuries on Oxfordshire’s roads to zero by 2050, with targets of a 25 per cent reduction by 2026 and 50 per cent by 2030.
It also follows a public consultation on the proposed strategy, which received more than 1,300 responses.
Paul Fermer, Oxfordshire County Council’s Director of Highways and Operations, said: “The case for Vision Zero is clear. Between 2017 and 2021, a total of 128 people were killed on Oxfordshire roads, and a further 1,130 were seriously injured. This has a devastating impact on individuals and families, and on our communities in general.
“Vision Zero starts with a simple premise, that no human being should be killed or seriously injured as the result of a road collision, whatever mode of transport they are using.
“Although there has been a long-term downward trend in reported road collisions and injuries in Oxfordshire, recent figures show they are now on the increase. We need to take a zero tolerance attitude to having anyone else killed or seriously injured on our roads.”
Each year, on Oxfordshire’s roads, there are:
- an estimated 30,000 collisions of all types;
- approximately 1,250 reported injury collisions;
- approximately 30 deaths, 245 serious injuries and nearly 1,250 slight injuries reported.
The Vision Zero programme aims to ensure the highway network is safely designed, implemented and maintained with Vision Zero at the heart of all decision making. The programme has a £4 million capital budget for measures delivered by 2026, plus £250,000 of revenue funding.
(PIc – Oxfordshire County Council)
