Bill De Blasio

Recently elected New York City mayor Bill de Blasio inaugurated his "Vision Zero" plan last year to reduce traffic deaths in The Big Apple to zero by 2024. The numbers for 2014 show the initiative is headed in the right direction: pedestrian deaths dropped to an all-time low of 132, down from 179 in 2013.

The streets of New York City are getting a Scandinavian makeover to be safer for pedestrians. Mayor Bill De Blasio has taken inspiration from Sweden's Vision Zero law, which has as it's goal the eradication of roadway deaths. He is bringing many of its concepts to the Big Apple.

For the past two weeks, New Yorkers have marveled at the sights of the latest concept cars and production vehicles at the annual New York Auto Show. As the show winds into its final weekend, they're turning their attention back toward the darker side of driving.

A world without traffic fatalities sounds like a pretty nice future. New York's newly inaugurated mayor, Bill de Blasio, is aiming to make the Big Apple just such a place, following through on his ambitious "Vision Zero" plan to eliminate all fatalities to drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians on the city's streets within 10 years.

In his dozen years in office, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg did his best to cut down on traffic congestion and spearheaded the conversion of the city's taxi fleet to hybrids. But his successor is out to eliminate another kind of vehicle – the horse-drawn carriage – from the streets of Manhattan.

Right of Way, an advocacy group in New York City, is holding new mayor Bill de Blasio to his promise of eliminating all traffic fatalities in the city by 2024. The group is tracking every single death that occurs on city roads in the coming year. The organization calls the effort the "Vision Zero Clock."