More than 50 invited delegates attended the launch of the Leeds Vision Zero 2050 Strategy and Action Plan in Leeds as part of a week-long Project EDWARD (Every Day Without a Road Death) campaign.

See the Leeds Vision Zero 2040 Strategy and Leeds Vision Zero Action Plan

Industry experts, politicians, campaigners and representatives from local authorities across the region came together at the Carriageworks on Thursday 20 October 2022 to hear a number of presentations from professionals in a range of topics relevant to road safety.

Cllr Helen Hayden, Leeds City Council executive member for Infrastructure and Climate, opened the event, setting the scene about how Vision Zero will not only eliminate catastrophic road crashes, but also support ambitions around sustainable travel, air quality and climate, and played a short clip about the importance of Vision Zero.

Watch the clip ‘There’s no one someone won’t miss – Man on the Street’

Wrapping up at the end of the morning, Gary Bartlett, Chief Officer for Highways and Transportation in Leeds City Council, said that, in all his career working in transport, Vision Zero is “the most important thing I have ever been involved in”.  Alison Lowe, West Yorkshire Combined Authority Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, called on individuals, organisations and leaders to come together to eliminate fatal and serious injuries from the roads.

Event details

Gillian Macleod from Leeds City Council introduced the topics, which focused on technology and innovation. They included:

• Introduction to Vision Zero (Lynsey McGarvey, Leeds City Council)
• eCall (Mike Geaney, Bosch) – an in-vehicle system that instantly captures and conveys crash information to expedite support, including emergency services if required
• Heads-Up technology (Tom Day, Acusensus, who joined remotely from Australia) – technology to detect dangerous driving such as using mobile phones
• Bus safety (Rachel Birrell, Transport for London, joined online) Intelligent Speed Assistance
• Behaviour (Prof Fiona Fylan, Leeds Beckett University) – what works, what doesn’t
• Impact on families (Ian Greenwood, personal testimony)
• Operation SNAP (Paul Jeffrey, West Yorkshire Police) – how public can send footage of dangerous driving
• Suicide prevention (National Highways, Sarah Watson-Quirk and Nicky Tweedie)
• Tyre safety (Stuart Lovatt, National Highways/TyreSafe, and Sarah Watson-Quirk, National Highways) – tyres as technology
• Virtuocity (Peter Woodthorpe, University of Leeds) – introduction to facilities.