Road Harm Reduction Strategy
In March 2025, Birmingham City Council adopted its new Road Harm Reduction Strategy and Action Plan.
Read the Birmingham Road Harm Reduction Strategy - March 2025
Joining major cities around the world, this strategy reaffirms the council’s promise to deliver Vision Zero in Birmingham, following the Safe System approach.
Vision Zero is a commitment to work towards a road network in Birmingham where no one is killed or seriously injured.
It is not inevitable nor acceptable that anyone should be killed or seriously injured when travelling around Birmingham. We should all be able to travel safely and confidently to get to where we need to go.
The Safe System approach is based on four principles:
- People make mistakes and misbehave. This can lead to collisions.
- The human body has a limited physical ability to tolerate collision forces before harm occurs.
- Responsibility for safety on our roads is shared. Those who design, build, manage and use roads and vehicles and those who provide post-crash care all have a part to play.
- All parts of the system must be strengthened so that if one part of the system fails, all road users are still protected.
Whilst Vision Zero focuses on deaths and serious injuries, measures to deliver a Safe System will, over time, have a positive impact on collisions where people receive minor injuries, or where there is damage to property only.
The Road Harm Reduction strategy sets out how we plan to work together with our partners, including the Emergency Services, to deliver a Safe System in Birmingham and to support our journey towards Vision Zero.
Healthy Streets Approach
The strategy also formally adopts the Healthy Streets Approach to proactively tackle road harm risk. This makes health and personal experience the priority.
The Healthy Streets Approach will be applied to the whole transport system to help improve the quality of life for everyone in Birmingham.
Page last updated: 26 March 2025
