This year, the City of London has taken a huge step towards making our streets safer by participating in the Vision Zero initiative as part of Canada’s Road Safety Strategy 2025.
A highly successful road safety project that began in Sweden in the mid-90’s, Vision Zero has now grown into a global effort with the goal of having a 100% reduction in traffic related deaths and serious injuries. Many communities across Canada, including Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto have incorporated Vision Zero into their local safety strategies.
adHOME is proud to have led the development of the City of London’s Vision Zero brand identity and subsequent safety campaigns to bring awareness of Vision Zero initiatives to the public. The logo incorporates a strong modern font and an exaggerated letter O with a roadway passing through it to convey a sense of community driving towards a common goal. The word zero in bold red brings attention to the overall objective – zero injuries or fatalities on the roadway.
While the statistics related to traffic deaths and injuries can be sobering, we wanted to convey this serious messaging without using scare tactics. Choosing instead to take a proactive approach by shedding light on how drivers can change their behaviours to avoid these preventable consequences.
Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians have a responsibility to make our roads safer, so we chose to empower the public through education to improve their behaviour. By using familiar road safety images paired with simple, straightforward messaging, we appealed to drivers to consider their role in the bigger picture and take ownership for their actions.
This was achieved by weaving human emotions through our messaging – love, sharing, mindfulness, and respect. We tied it all together with one common element – the heart – along with the tagline “show it some love”. It’s a reminder to drivers that traffic rules are not in place to make life difficult, they are in fact, what helps keep you safe.
The initiative kicked off with four focused campaigns, Red Light Cameras “Embrace the Red” – Zipper Merge Behaviour “Share the Merge” – Bike Lane Safety “Mind the Green” – Speed Reduction in Neighbourhoods “Respect the Limit”.
While this campaign is just beginning to roll out, we are thrilled to see that it has already received positive feedback in the media, and has sparked important discussions among City of London residents across social media channels.