On 15 September, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled Vision Zero Reimagined, a 10-year blueprint for street safety with more than 100 policy commitments. The plan includes the city’s first pedestrian-only and pedestrian-priority districts and is a renewal of the 2014 Vision Zero plan that brought down traffic deaths by 30% since before its launch.
Though it is receiving a lot of attention, New York’s plan is the latest chapter in a much older story. Vision Zero plans have been around in some iteration since 1997, when Sweden adopted the Safe System approach, which recognises that people make mistakes, so protections are set up to avoid fatal accidents. The Dutch “Sustainable Safety” approach was adopted across all levels of government the same year, and now almost 30 years later, thousands of regions have some version of a Vision Zero programme.
Europe sets the pace
In 2018 the European Commission set a target of cutting road deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030, with zero fatalities by 2050, making the concept a continental commitment. Its mid-point review of the 2021-2030 framework found that progress has been made, but the current pace is insufficient.
The latest numbers show both progress and a gap. Preliminary figures put 2025 road deaths at around 19,400, and most Member States are not yet on track for the 2030 goal. Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Poland and Romania are on pace, while Sweden and Denmark have the safest roads. Cities have a unique challenge: 70% of urban road deaths are vulnerable users (pedestrians, cyclists and users of powered two-wheelers and personal mobility devices).
What cities have learned
The strongest evidence in support of Vision Zero plans so far comes from traffic calming measures. Helsinki, Finland and Oslo, Norway both recorded zero pedestrian deaths in 2019, after cutting speed limits to 30 kilometres per hour in key areas and redesigning streets around pedestrians. Bilbao, Spain was the first major European city to adopt a city-wide 30 kilometre per hour limit in 2018, with Brussels and Paris following shortly behind. Bilbao won the first EU Road Safety Award for the speed limit implementation and in Brussels’ first year under the new limit, deaths declined by 45%.
A 2026 Eurocities survey suggests these shifts to be significant and connected. About 75% of European cities with targeted 30 kilometre per hour limits report fewer road deaths and injuries, with no overall negative effect on congestion or journey times.
Innovation for safer roads: EIT Urban Mobility
Many innovations have emerged from Vision Zero plans, helping cities move from reacting to crashes to proactively identifying and addressing risks before they become serious incidents. This shift towards more predictive, data-driven road safety is also opening the door to new technologies and business models that can help cities turn Vision Zero ambitions into action.
ROADSCOR+
The EIT Urban Mobility-supported project starts from a stark observation. In terms of financial impact alone, road crashes cost European society around €280 billion a year, yet progress towards Vision Zero has stalled as road safety analysis continues to rely largely on historical accident data. ROADSCOR+ builds on the success of the original ROADSCOR project, but takes the approach a step further. Using digital twins of real intersections to simulate all possible road-user movements and quantify the severity and economic cost of conflicts before they happen, the project targets unsignalised intersections, which make up 80–90% of intersections worldwide. After pilots in Rome, Italy and Hasselt, Belgium further testing is taking place in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, and Helmond, the Netherlands.
The original ROADSCOR project, completed last year with partners Aimsun, Haskoning and Siemens Digital Industries Software with support from EIT Urban Mobility, showed how traffic models could be turned into actionable risk metrics. Its results have now provided the foundation for ROADSCOR+, while the approach is also attracting international attention. The FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile), supported by Roadscor, has been nominated for the World Smart City Awards in the Projects – Mobility category.
TRACE
Tram safety presents a particular challenge for cities, where trams share streets with other road users and account for over 40% of rail accidents in Europe. The EIT Urban Mobility-supported TRACE project builds on the success of ARISE, which demonstrated how OTIV.TWO could improve tram safety and efficiency. TRACE takes the system further with side collision avoidance, predictive collision detection, digital mapping and overspeed protection. Pilots in Ghent, Karlsruhe and Rotterdam will install the enhanced system in 16 trams and collect more than 400,000 kilometres of operational data, targeting a 20% reduction in collisions.
PANTOTECH
Safety also depends on what happens above the street. Tram and metro operators often rely on fixed, time-based inspections of overhead catenary systems, which can mean maintenance is carried out too early, wasting resources, or too late, increasing the risk of failures and service disruptions. PANTOTECH takes a predictive approach, using sensors and data analysis to continuously monitor infrastructure, detect early signs of wear and identify when maintenance is needed. Coordinated by TU Berlin, the project is being tested in Istanbul, Konya, Prague and Debrecen, with technical partner PANTOhealth also part of the EIT Urban Mobility startup portfolio.
Compass IoT and RILM
Connected vehicle data offers another way for cities to move from reactive to predictive road safety. Vehicles increasingly generate data on speed, braking, acceleration and movement, creating a real-time picture of how roads are being used and where risky behaviour is occurring. Unlike traditional crash data, which only shows where accidents have already happened, anonymised telemetry can reveal near-misses and other early warning signs before a collision occurs.
London provides a practical example. In the EIT Urban Mobility-co-funded Road Intelligence for London Mobility project, Compass IoT is piloting a Road Intelligence platform with Transport for London. The context is sobering: 3,707 people were seriously injured or killed on London’s roads in 2024, with most incidents occurring at junctions. By combining connected-vehicle data with collision records, the pilot has identified 22,748 collision clusters and 14,170 near-miss clusters, without requiring any new roadside hardware. The approach gives cities a more dynamic picture of road risk, helping them identify where interventions are needed before serious crashes occur and bringing the predictive principle of Vision Zero closer to reality.
ASIMOB
Road safety can also start with the condition of the infrastructure itself. EIT Urban Mobility portfolio startup ASIMOB uses computer vision and data analytics to automatically monitor traffic signs, road markings, safety barriers, pavement and other street infrastructure. Its Autonomous Road Inspector uses lightweight devices installed on existing fleet vehicles to collect data as they move through the city, identifying problems such as missing signs, damaged markings, cracks and potholes without requiring dedicated inspection vehicles. By giving maintenance teams an automated, continuously updated view of road conditions, ASIMOB helps cities detect hazards earlier and keep infrastructure in a safer condition.
Luna Systems
For cyclists and other two-wheel users, safety increasingly depends on technology that can anticipate risks in real time. Luna Systems uses computer vision and edge AI to provide rider-assistance systems for bicycles and powered two-wheelers, with features including forward collision warnings, pedestrian detection, headway monitoring, rear-proximity and blind-spot awareness. The technology can also turn data collected during journeys into post-ride safety insights, helping riders identify incidents and risk hotspots. The EIT Urban Mobility-supported startup brings driver-assistance technologies traditionally developed for cars to more vulnerable road users.
Meeting the 2030 target
New York’s refreshed plan shows that Vision Zero is a living strategy that cities can renew as evidence accumulates. Europe’s experience adds two lessons. Proven basics such as lower speeds and safer street design deliver results quickly. Newer tools, from simulation to connected-vehicle data to driver assistance, can find danger before a crash happens. With EU road deaths still far from the 2030 target, the path to zero will require both approaches, alongside the political will to keep turning evidence into action.