In Oslo, Norway, there were zero pedestrian deaths in 2019. There were also zero cyclist deaths. Only one person died in a car crash, a driver who ran into a fence. The city is smaller than San Francisco and New York but roughly the same size as Portland, Oregon—another city that wants to eliminate traffic deaths—where 49 people were killed in car crashes last year.
What’s the difference? At a national level, Norway has more political support for ending “accidents” that can be avoided through better infrastructure design, more traffic enforcement, and other changes in policy. “The most important [factor] might be that road safety has been a priority for many years and has given us a reduction of road deaths, from 560 people yearly in the 1970s to 110 deaths in 2019
