Action Needed to Match Vision Zero Ambition in Philadelphia

Philadelphia's succeeded at reducing traffic fatalities in the first years after adopting a Vision Zero goal. That success didn't last, and one writer is calling for the city to back up its ambitious talk with actions.

2 minute read

January 23, 2020, 7:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Market Street, Center City

Justin Wolfe / Flickr

Claire Sasko checks in with Philadelphia's Vision Zero goal, which started off strong but has recently been heading in the wrong direction:

In 2017, the city’s first year under Vision Zero, a decrease in crash fatalities made the impossible look … possible. But during 2018, the program’s second year, traffic deaths actually jumped by 17 percent, for an increase from 78 to 91, continuing a general upward trend in people killed by vehicles on Philly streets.

The Vision Goal is ambitious, writes but Sasko, but the actions of the city have not matched that ambition when it mattered.

The city has failed to follow through with the kinds of game-changing infrastructure projects that can permanently alter a city’s street-safety culture. One example? Bike lanes. In 2015, New York’s second year of Vision Zero, that city added 12.4 miles of protected bike lanes — more than double Philly’s total protected bike-lane network.

While Sasko's focus is trained squarely on Philadelphia's ambitions for traffic safety, the same story can be found in every city talking Vision Zero talk but not walking Vision Zero walk. The stories picked up by Planetizen on this same theme are numerous:

The question remains whether it's better to live in a city that has made a Vision Zero promise it had no idea how to keep, like the cities above, or to live in a city that can't muster the political will to make the promise in the first place, like Cincinnati and Phoenix.

Saturday, January 18, 2020 in Philadelphia

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Redlining map of Oakland and Berkeley.

Rethinking Redlining

For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

May 15, 2025 - Alan Mallach

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 21, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Rendering of California High-Speed Rail station with bullet train.

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself

The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

May 19, 2025 - Benjamin Schneider

Two Rivian trucks charging at Rivian branded charging ports.

US Senate Reverses California EV Mandate

The state planned to phase out the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035, a goal some carmakers deemed impossible to meet.

May 22 - CALmatters

Metal U.S. Geodetic Survey marker in stone in Arizona.

Trump Cuts Decimate Mapping Agency

The National Geodetic Survey maintains and updates critical spatial reference systems used extensively in both the public and private sectors.

May 22 - Wired

Close-up of 10 mph speed limit sign.

Washington Passes First US ‘Shared Streets’ Law

Cities will be allowed to lower speed limits to 10 miles per hour and prioritize pedestrians on certain streets.

May 22 - The Urbanist