Sustainable Safety is one of the road safety visions which are internationally known as a proactive system approach, or a ‘safe system approach’ [30] [31]. The Swedish Vision Zero is another well-known example of a ‘safe system approach’ (see the question How does Sustainable Safety relate to Vision Zero? ). Apart from the Netherlands and Sweden, a 'safe system approach' has also been chosen as the preferred road safety policy by, for example, Australia en New Zealand. Only in the Netherlands and Sweden does this approach come under a specific name (Sustainable Safety and Vision Zero respectively).
According to OECD/ITF [30] a ‘safe system approach’ is characterized by the concept that risks are inherent in traffic and that they require a comprehensive approach of the different elements in the traffic system. This approach takes the fullest possible account of human vulnerability and fallibility, and calls for commitment of all relevant stakeholders, such as road authorities, police, the judiciary, and commercial parties. Road users are required to abide by the rules, but when and where they do not, the system is corrective (informative and enforcing) and forgiving (no serious consequences of unsafe behaviour). A ‘safe system approach’ also involves growing social awareness of a lack of road safety. This is needed since, first of all, people are only partially aware of inherent traffic risks and, secondly, since road users only notice a limited number of individual crashes and have no overview of how these crashes form a collective and substantial problem. Both Sustainable Safety and Vision Zero are held up as examples of 'safe system' approaches by the OECD and UN alike.
