The Rationality and Moral Acceptability of Vision Zero Goal and Interventions Promoted to Achieve It.

Abstract
This licentiate thesis discusses moral issues associated with road safety work, with a
particular emphasis on the Vision Zero (VZ) goal and its interventions. The licentiate thesis
contains three articles and an introduction that briefly discusses issues and arguments
presented in the articles.

The first article, identifies, systematically categorizes and evaluates arguments against VZ.
Moral, operational, and rationality related criticisms against the adoption and
implementation of VZ are identified and discussed.

The second article in this thesis seeks to reconcile the methods of Cost Benefit Analysis
(CBA) and VZ in road safety decision making. CBA has been and still is a major decision
making tool in road transport and traffic safety work. However, proponents of VZ question
the use of CBA in road safety and transport decision making on methodological and ethical
grounds. In this paper, we locate the philosophical roots of the conflicting views promoted
by proponents of CBA and VZ. Then we try to identify ways through which the two
methods can be made compatible.

The third and final paper uses VZ as a normative framework to explore and analyse the
Addis Ababa road safety work. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, the paper seeks to
examine how road safety problems are actually understood by those responsible for road
safety at the local level. To this end, government policy documents, reports and other
relevant sources where consulted to identify how road safety problems are framed, who is
assigned responsibility for addressing road safety problems and through what
interventions. Second, the paper aims to examine road safety work in the city from a
normative point of view, i.e., what is the best, or most adequate, way of framing the
problem, and who should be given the responsibility for addressing the problem and by
what measures. It is argued that enhancing road safety in the city requires adopting a
broader view of causes of road safety problems, and emphasizing the responsibility of
actors that shape the design and operation of the road traffic system and the safety of its
components.

Key words: Ethics, Road Safety, Vision Zero, Responsibility, Goal setting