Vision Zero in Poland

Abstract

AbstractPoland’s experience of road safety work is relatively short. In the early 1990s road deaths soared to a staggering 8000 a year. A diagnosis found that Poland’s lack of systemic road safety action was to blame for those figures. In response, the state set up road safety bodies and commissioned road safety programs. In 2005, Poland followed the example of Sweden and adopted Vision Zero as a far-reaching concept of changes in road safety. The work that followed helped to improve the situation and reach less than 3000 fatalities in 2015. Despite that, for years Poland has been notorious for its road accident deaths, which are some of the highest in the EU. Poland has had its share of both successes and failures. The results of road safety policies are still below the expectations and many problems have not been solved. Road accidents are not considered a major problem. As a consequence, they are low on political agendas and the institutions remain ineffective due to a sense of collective responsibility for road safety problems. Achieving Vision Zero will require many changes, learning from past mistakes, taking advantage of the experience of the best performing countries, and, above all, taking effective and efficient actions with their systematic monitoring.This chapter is a summary of the last 30 years of road safety work in Poland. It presents a diagnosis of Poland’s problems, an assessment of the policies so far, and the likelihood of achieving the assumptions of Vision Zero in the future. Building on this, recommendations are given on the next steps Poland should take to improve its road safety.