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Global Crises, Local Impacts: How Cities Can Prevent, Prepare for and Recover from Violent Vehicle Rammings

Publication Date:

09/07/2025

Content Type:

Event Reports

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City-Led Preventioncity-led responseGlobal Crises Local ImpactsVehicle Rammings

— 9 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during the webinar and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Summary

On 9 July 2025, the Strong Cities Network hosted a webinar under its Global Crises, Local Impacts series, focusing on How Cities Can Prevent, Prepare for and Recover from Violent Vehicle Rammings in Public Spaces. Vehicle rammings, a growing method of targeted violence, are often carried out with little technical sophistication but have a high impact. Such attacks have increased in frequency and lethality in recent years. 

Moderated by Eric Rosand, Executive Director of the Strong Cities Network, the session featured remarks by Cody Zoschak, Senior Manager for Threat Detection and Prevention at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD); Jason Huerta, Deputy Chief for Counterterrorism Operations at the New York City Police Department (NYPD), New York City (United States); Dawn Morris, Consultant with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, London (United Kingdom); and Michael Fetz, Counter Terrorism Coordinator, and Per Edquist, Police Inspector, both with the Stockholm Police Authority, Stockholm (Sweden). 

The webinar explored the causes and tactics behind vehicle rammings, as well as their social impacts, the efficacy of mitigation strategies and how cities can balance security with openness in urban design. It also examined challenges posed by emerging technologies and highlighted the importance of community engagement in response and recovery. 

Key Takeaways

1. Vehicle ramming attacks are a persistent, cross-ideological threat targeting crowded urban spaces. Used by ideological extremists and individuals driven by personal grievance or mental illness alike, ramming attacks often target public spaces like markets, festivals and pedestrian zones due to their accessibility and symbolic visibility. 
2. Cities are adapting with physical and operational deterrents. From bollards and barriers to crowd control protocols and municipal partnerships, cities are advancing layered protection strategies. 
3. Social cohesion must be actively rebuilt in the wake of attacks. Cities experiencing vehicle rammings (as well as other acts of mass violence) typically report a rise in hate incidents following such attacks; consistent community outreach and trust-building efforts by the local government – both before and after such attacks – are essential for mitigating the likelihood and impact of such post-attack incidents. 
4. Public safety must be balanced with the accessibility and beauty of public space. Urban design that integrates safety and openness is essential to protecting public life without creating fortress cities. 
5. Emerging technologies such as electric vehicles, autonomous systems and drones present new public challenges for cities. The speed and weight of electric vehicles increase their lethality when used as weapons, while the uncertain future of autonomous vehicle control raises concerns about potential misuse. At the same time, drones are becoming an increasingly accessible and under-regulated threat, with many cities lacking the legal authority or technical capacity to intercept them. 

Key Themes

An attack that is simple to execute and hard to predict 

ISD’s Cody Zoschak shared how vehicle ramming attacks have emerged as a tactic used by a wide range of perpetrators, including ISIS sympathisers, far-right extremists and individuals motivated by personal grievance or mental illness. Their appeal lies in their simplicity: no specialised training or equipment is required, yet the potential for harm is immense. These attacks often target crowded, symbolically significant spaces such as markets, festivals and pedestrian zones. Their unpredictability and ease of execution make them especially difficult to prevent and profoundly disruptive to civic life. 

Cities are layering protection into everyday life 

In response to the 2017 Halloween vehicle ramming attack in New York City (which killed eight people and injured many more along a popular bike path), NYPD’s Jason Huerta said that the city installed more than 1,500 permanent bollards at high-risk pedestrian areas. It also began regularly deploying sanitation and sand trucks as temporary barriers at major events. 

Dawn Morris said that London’s approach reflects lessons learned from a series of devastating attacks in 2017, including vehicle-based assaults at the Westminster Bridge, London Bridge and Finsbury Park Mosque. In the aftermath, the city adopted a layered protective security model that combines physical infrastructure, such as bollards, reinforced street furniture and temporary barriers, with strong operational planning and multi-agency coordination. She said London also invests in public education and awareness campaigns, including the widely promoted Run, Hide, Tell messaging to prepare residents for crises. 

Both Michal Fertz and Per Edquist shared how Stockholm’s experience demonstrates how cities with historically open designs are adapting to new threats. Before the 2017 Drottninggatan attack, where a stolen delivery truck drove into pedestrians on a central shopping street, killing five and injuring many more, Stockholm had done little to integrate protective security into its public spaces. The attack prompted a shift in approach. City authorities began by identifying a handful of high-risk areas; today, that list has grown to over 400 locations. Stockholm officials now work closely with the municipality and other key stakeholders to develop targeted interventions. ISD’s Cody Zoschak emphasised that it is vital to “understand the unique geography, both human and physical, of your city and to understand where targets may be”.  

Officials from the three cities emphasised that support for protective measures can fade over time, particularly when there has not been a recent incident. Even when public resistance is limited, they said, pushback may come from developers or project managers concerned about the cost, aesthetics, or perceived inconvenience of integrating security features into public realm projects. Sustaining political and financial commitment in the absence of an immediate threat remains a key challenge, even as risk levels persist. 

The social aftermath of attacks demands long-term attention 

While the physical impact of vehicle ramming attacks is immediate, their social consequences can unfold over time and deepen existing divisions. In London, Dawn Morris described how backlash following the Westminster and London Bridge attacks in 2017 took on an explicitly Islamophobic character. This culminated in a retaliatory vehicle ramming at Finsbury Park Mosque, targeting Muslim worshippers during Ramadan. She said that the city responded with proactive community engagement, including increased outreach to Muslim communities and visible displays of solidarity from political and civic leaders. 

Officials across the three cities emphasised the importance of early intervention, clear communication, and trust-building to help prevent cycles of retaliatory violence and reduce fear within targeted communities. As Dawn Morris noted, “The impact isn’t just the event and the shock, [but also] the shock of the community, it’s the ripple effect … there was a lot of work that had to be done around safety and reassurance and getting the community cohesion back”. 

More broadly, speakers highlighted the psychological toll such attacks can have, not only on survivors and first responders, but also on affected communities as a whole. They pointed to the need for thoughtful outreach, inclusive messaging and sustained community engagement as key components of the broader recovery process. 

Coordinated response requires strong city-police collaboration 

Speakers emphasised that effective recovery depends not just on security infrastructure, but on collaboration across multiple layers of city government. From social workers to public health officials, and from police departments to mayoral offices, coordinated action is essential in managing both the immediate and long-term impacts of vehicle attacks. 

NYPD’s Jason Huerta reflected on the challenges of interagency coordination in the wake of the 2017 Halloween attack. In the immediate aftermath, responsibilities were unclear and overlapping “There was some redundancy of effort”, he said, and agencies often found themselves working at cross-purposes. But once the NYPD and other key stakeholders came together, communication improved and coordination became easier. 

Designing for both safety and openness

Speakers highlighted that one of the core challenges cities face in preventing future vehicle ramming attacks is how to secure public spaces without compromising their openness, accessibility or character. They emphasised the importance of integrating safety measures in ways that support the natural flow and aesthetics of urban life, rather than detracting from it. 

This balance is particularly critical in cities like Stockholm, which prides itself on its open, bike-friendly infrastructure. Yet officials noted that features such as wide cycling lanes or pedestrian plazas can inadvertently create unobstructed access points for would-be attackers during crowded events. As Stockholm police’s Per Edquist put it, “There’s always a political struggle between those who think that green areas and open areas are more important than protecting the people who are roaming around on public spaces”. Navigating this tension between mobility and security requires creative, context-specific solutions, especially in spaces not originally designed with protective measures in mind. 

Speakers also pointed to a broader political and cultural debate over public realm design, where resistance to visible security infrastructure may come not from the public, but from developers and project leads concerned about cost, appearance or usability. In this context, they suggested that embedding safety into “multi-functional street furniture or landscaping, rather than relying on overt fortification”, is a way to meet both security needs and public expectations. 

New technologies are reshaping the threat landscape

As cities adapt to current threats, they must also look ahead to emerging risks posed by rapidly evolving technologies. Speakers noted that electric vehicles, with their heavier weight and faster acceleration, could increase the lethality of ramming attacks. Michael Fetz said that electric vehicles are significantly quieter than traditional vehicles, making them harder to detect in crowded urban environments. The future introduction of autonomous vehicles adds further complexity, raising questions about how these systems could be exploited or manipulated for harm. 

Drones were also identified as a growing area of concern. While not central to past vehicle attacks, they are becoming increasingly accessible and difficult to regulate at the local level. Several speakers highlighted the lack of legal authority or technical capacity within cities to intercept drones, despite their potential to disrupt public events or bypass traditional security barriers. 

These trends point to a shifting security environment in which cities must develop new tools, partnerships, and policies to stay ahead of evolving threats. Ongoing dialogue between local authorities, national governments, and private sector innovators will be critical in addressing these challenges before they are exploited. 

Next Steps

This webinar was the latest in a monthly webinar series for mayors, city representatives and research organisations for timely discussion and exchanges of approaches around Global Crises, Local Impacts. The next session, scheduled for September 2025, will focus on collaboration between local governments and universities in managing the impact of public protests on campuses linked to global or other crises. 

Additional Resources

• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network (updated March 2025)  
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation (see Navigating Difficult Issues), Strong Cities Network (updated March 2025)  
• A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network (updated February 2025) 
• A look at vehicle ramming attacks across the globe, Associated Press News (April 2025)  
• 2025 New Orleans Truck Attack: The Role of Electric Vehicles and Peer-to-Peer Platforms, International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) (January 2025)  
• Vehicle Ramming Attacks: A Whole Government Approach to Risk Mitigation, MELA Safety Institute (January 2025)  
• Vehicle Ramming Mitigation & Vehicle Ramming Action, Guide Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) (December 2024) 
• Hostile Vehicle Guidelines for Crowded Places, Australian-New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee (2017) 
• First Responder’s Toolkit: Vehicle-Borne Attacks: Tactics and Mitigation, National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) (December 2020) 
  

Contact Information 

For more information on this event, the webinar series, or the Global Crises, Local Impacts initiative, please contact our team at [email protected]. 

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