In 2024, U.S. drivers hit and killed 7,148 pedestrians. That’s thousands of mourning families and children growing up without parents. That number is up 20% since 2016. In Washington, D.C., pedestrian deaths climbed yet again, breaking 100 in a single year. Meanwhile, Helsinki, the capital of Finland, lost zero pedestrians in the past 12 months — and it joins a growing list of European cities adopting the philosophy that no pedestrian deaths are acceptable.

Helsinki is a major city with 1.5 million residents. Yet the last time it had a traffic-related death was July 2024. Last year alone, the number of severe accidents in Helsinki plummeted by 75%.

Roni Utriainen, a traffic engineer with the city’s Urban Environment Division, says this seismic shift in safety didn’t happen overnight. He calls this victory “not a statistical anomaly or a ‘fluke’ but the direct result of long-term planning and the cumulative impact of policies implemented over several decades.”

Things had to get worse before they got better. “In the 1980s, there were around 1,000 injury-causing accidents. Traffic fatalities were around 30 per year (comparable to U.S. cities of similar size).” But Helsinki adopted the “Vision Zero” philosophy, which states, “It can never be ethically acceptable that people are killed or seriously injured when moving within the road transport system.”

Vision Zero means no traffic deaths are acceptable

The city discovered that of all factors in pedestrian deaths, “speed limits are one of the most important.” So the city began reducing speed limits. Fifty years ago, half the streets were still over 30 mph. Now, more than half are below 20 mph.

At the same time, Helsinki built up public transit, biking, and pedestrian infrastructure to offer drivers an alternative.

Stockholm, Sweden, invented the “Vision Zero” philosophy in 1997. “The city led a campaign to identify and fix small but critical gaps in the pedestrian network, such as muddy paths or missing connections, often based on direct input from citizens.”

Oslo, Norway, also adopted the philosophy. “Oslo achieved the remarkable milestone of zero pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in 2019.”

Washington, D.C., has announced its own Vision Zero initiative. But it will likely need more buy-in from the public and decision-makers before it can catch up with Europe.