Eliminating traffic deaths and injuries has been a pipe dream of cities since the inception of the automobile. For Bellevue, a busy car-centric city with two Interstates running through it, that concern remains a constant one.

That’s why the Bellevue City Council has adopted “Vision Zero,” a transportation plan which hopes to use best end traffic fatalities and serious injuries by correcting bad driving behaviors and improving road designs. The resolution hopes to completely eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on Bellevue streets by 2030.

Dave Berg, Bellevue’s director of transportation, said Bellevue already did a good job in limiting collisions, but saw room for improvement.

“We are a pretty safe city here,” he said. “But even still we do have some fatalities and serious injuries on our streets, in our transportation network.”

In the last decade, Bellevue motorists have been involved in 450 collisions involving pedestrians and 15 people have died in the city as a result of collisions in that time period. Bellevue has embraced traffic safety ideas as part of its 2015 comprehensive plan.

Mayor Claudia Balducci said Vision Zero would be a good fit within existing plans for the city. Councilmember Conrad Lee agreed.

“I think this is a great thing,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do, and I think we are pretty much there.”

Vision Zero is a Swedish plan which originated in the 1990s. Sweden adopted the policy on a national level and the plan has since gained traction overseas, including in the United States. The State of Washington and the cities of Seattle and Kenmore have already adopted the approach.

The core of Vision Zero states that traffic collisions are preventable, and the majority are not accidents. Collisions “are often the result of poor behaviors and unforgiving roadway designs, so the problem must be approached from multiple angles,” transportation officials said in a proposal to city council. These angles include street designs which emphasize safety, predictability and the potential for human error. In essence, Vision Zero wants drivers, police officers, and public officials to believe that traffic fatalities are not inevitable.

The policy would seek to make the streets safe for all users, motorists, transit users, cyclists and pedestrians. To achieve this, the plan might sacrifice speed for safety.

According to the plan’s goals, “human error is inevitable and unpredictable,” so any sort of traffic plan needs to take that into consideration and try to build error-proof options for transit. This might include separated pedestrian paths, education for drivers and slower speed limits.

For the plan to be successful, the transportation department said continuing support from law enforcement agencies and a new sense of engagement from community members and motorists.

But as Berg noted in the plan proposal, simply adopting Vision Zero doesn’t accomplish much.

“Vision Zero adoption does not represent a means to an end; Vision Zero itself does not elimite all traffic deaths or injuries. Rather, it helps to align other policies and programs and focus conversation—both to residents and staff—to help the city achieve a singular goal of reducing death and serious injuries on our roads.”