58 Beyond the safe system approach: time for another paradigm shift?

<h3>Background</h3> The Safe System/Vision Zero approach (SSA) has a well-developed set of concepts, practices and methods like human tolerance, humans make mistakes, unacceptability of road traffic deaths and serious injuries, shared responsibility, and a strong focus on system-oriented improvements. These elements confer on SSA the status of a paradigm (Kuhn 1970, Belin et al. 2012). Though SSA represents a significant departure from the traditional paradigm blaming the victim model, it is inadequate in addressing the growing and emerging concerns about integrating road safety into a broader mobility, health, environment, and development framework. <h3>Objective</h3> To discuss an emerging road safety-development-environment integration framework as a basis to explore whether we are moving into a new road safety paradigm. <h3>Policy Analysis</h3> Evolutionary analysis of road safety paradigms, culture, and policy change in relation to emerging conceptual and policy developments in mobility, health, development, and environment. <h3>Policy Implications</h3> We have entered a stage that requires a new road safety paradigm which could have significant consequences for the way that we look at road safety. The building block of this paradigm is integration of road safety into development, health and environment frameworks. The first policy implication of this emerging paradigm is that the road safety community needs to broaden the way it deeply links road safety other SDG goals conceptually and practically, how to solve road safety problems through meaningfully leveraging other partners or stakeholders, and new planning tools and strategies to advance. The second policy implication is that paradigm shifts are challenging but necessary, requiring courage and exploration to go beyond the conventional focus on SSA. <h3>Conclusion</h3> We have entered an era of a new road safety paradigm that goes beyond the SSA. A systematic and engaged exploration and elaboration of the elements of this emerging paradigm is critical at this stage.