Vision Zero

The Vision Zero Safety Action Plan

The Vision Zero Safety Action Plan is now available!

In June 2025, City Manager Eric D. Batista issued an executive order to formally adopt and implement the City of Worcester Vision Zero Safety Action Plan. This order commits the municipality to ending traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways by 2035 and establishes policies to ensure we make Worcester's streets safer for everybody. You can read the Executive Order to learn more.

Vision Zero Safety Action Plan

Vision Zero Safety Action Plan Appendices

Worcester's Vision Zero Efforts

Worcester released the Priority Injury Network that identifies those roadways where the majority of serious injuries and fatalities from crashes occur. The Worcester Vision Zero: Priority Network Story Map provides the details about the analysis, public input and next steps.

Learn More About Vision Zero - StoryMap

To kick off the Vision Zero effort, on February 29, 2024, City leadership was joined by author and urban planner Jeff Speck for the inspiring and informative State of Our Streets Forum. This event served as a kick-off to the City's Vision Zero efforts. If you weren't able to make the event, please view the State of Our Streets Forum Video Presentation. You may also read the poem written and performed by Serenity Jackson, City of Worcester Youth Poet Laureate, titled, "Vision Zero... Safer Streets".

What is Vision Zero?

Vision Zero is an international street safety movement dedicated to eliminating fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways. Vision Zero is based on the belief that:

1. Traffic deaths and severe injuries are preventable and unacceptable.
2. Humans make mistakes. Our transportation system should be designed so those human errors do not result in death or severe injury.
3. Humans are vulnerable. It is critical to design and operate a transportation system that is human-centric and recognizes those vulnerabilities.
4. Responsibility is shared. Everyone has a role to play in ensuring that crashes don't lead to serious injuries or death.
5. Safety is Proactive. Rather than waiting for a crash to happen and reacting afterwards, we should use all tools available to identify and mitigate the risks of crashes before they happen.
6. Redundancy is Crucial. All elements of transportation safety should be strengthened so that if one part fails, the others still protect people.

Vision Zero shifts how we approach transportation safety using the "Safe System" approach. This approach makes safety the highest priority and is driven by the belief that even one fatality on our roads is too many.

How Do We Get to Zero?

Through a Safe Streets for All (SS4A) grant received from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the City conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the existing road network and developed a strategic, effective and actionable safety action plan that provides the tools to achieve Vision Zero.

This Plan is crucial to acting on the City's commitment to the elimination of fatalities and serious injuries from across the transportation system to create safe, equitable and sustainable mobility for all. Ultimately, this plan will help the City identify projects, policies, programs and strategies to make Vision Zero a routine part of City operations across all departments.