A decade ago, Denver became one of many U.S. cities to adopt a bold, new model of traffic safety — one that envisioned an end to the hundreds of serious injuries and dozens of fatalities that plague the streets each year.
Fast forward to today, and Denver streets and intersections show a widening array of bollards, speed humps, and bright green hashmarks that are working to achieve “Vision Zero,” a Swedish-designed program that aims to bring an end to road deaths and severe injuries.
When Sweden adopted Vision Zero in 1997, it led to a dramatic drop in serious accidents, by some reports cutting fatalities by as much as 50% over the following three decades. Other European countries began posting their own successes, and when the World Health Organization echoed the message, American cities started signing on…