The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organized with great success its bi-annual Main Council Meeting which was held in Krakow, Poland on April 3-4, 2025, where all the latest road safety developments and policies in Europe were discussed. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) is organizing the 17th World Conference on Transport Research which will be held in Toulouse, France, on 6-10 July 2026. For the last 40 years, WCTR has been organized every three years by the WCTR Society, uniting specialists from the transportation sector worldwide. Topics for discussion at the World Conference on Transport Research are grouped into 9 distinct themes which include maritime and air transport logistics, infrastructure design, traffic management in urban environments or the emergence of transport in developing countries. Researchers can submit their papers until 1 September 2025. 
BMW in cooperation with Chip Design Germany are organizing the 2025 BMW Summer School which will take place in Saint-Raphaël, France on 29 June – 4 July 2025. This year’s event will focus on the topic of trust and safety in artificial intelligence, a broad field of discussion and growing relevance at the crossroads of technology, psychology, product safety, law, economics, and ethics. Submission deadline is extended to April 7, 2025.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 48th PIN Flash Report titled “Reducing Serious Injuries on European Roads“. This Report examines the underreporting of serious injuries in European roads. According to official sources, approximately 1,291,000 people are reported injured annually in the European Union, with 141,000 of these injuries being serious. While most serious injuries are suffered as a result of collisions involving motor vehicles and are much more likely to be reported by police, many involving pedestrians and cyclists where no motor vehicle was involved go unreported. The current performance in the European Union is not on track for reaching the target to reduce serious road traffic injuries by 50% between 2020 and 2030 and further action targeting serious injuries reduction is needed. 
The European Commission with the active contribution of NTUA, SWOV and KFV has published at the European Road Safety Observatory, the Annual Statistical Report on Road Safety, April 2025 in the EU, which provides an overview of crash data for 2013 to 2023 from 27 EU Member States and the four EFTA countries. According to this Report, 53% of road traffic fatalities occurred on rural roads, versus 38% in urban areas and 9% on motorways. It was also revealed that car occupants (drivers and passengers) represented 44% of all fatalities, while pedestrians accounted for 18%, users of powered two-wheelers (motorbikes and mopeds) 17%, and cyclists 10%.
NTUA within the framework of the 8th UN Global Road Safety Week is organizing a Scientific Workshop titled “Artificial Intelligence for Road Safety and Mobility” which will take place in Athens (and online) on May 15th, 2025. The objective of this Workshop is to highlight through an intensive flow of presentations the main findings and challenges of key road safety and mobility research projects carried out within the NTUA Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering and to open up the discussion in a round table with high-level experts on key innovations in road safety and mobility research in Greece, in Europe and worldwide.
- Participation is free upon registration
- Connect to Workshop
- Programme can be found here
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) together with the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and European Commision organized with great success the EURSE Workshop of Road Safety: Urban Safety and Safety of PTW, which took place in Athens, on 31 March – 1 April 2025. The main focuses of this event included information on the new regulations, as well as good practices to enhance road safety. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
City-wide 30km/h speed limits – Challenges and perspectives
City-wide 30km/h speed limits – Challenges and perspectives
A paper titled Identifying driving profiles after take over request in automated vehicles at SAE levels 2 and 3 authored by Marios Sekadakis, Sandra Trösterer, Peter Moertl and George Yannis has been published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. The analysis included clustering to develop distinct driving profiles based on key measurements collected through a driving simulator experiment, such as acceleration, deceleration, and speed, offering a deep understanding of driver behavior in responses to take over requests. Findings suggest that the nervous driving profile, although less frequent, poses significant safety implications due to higher deceleration rates and variability in speed and deceleration. The study also highlights that non-driving related tasks increase the need for longer take over time with greater variability observed at higher automation levels. These insights can inform the design of more adaptive HMI systems, enhance real-time feedback mechanisms, and improve driver training programs to ensure safer transitions during take over requests. 
A paper titled Evaluating the Environmental and Safety Impacts of Eco-Driving in Urban and Highway Environments authored by Marios Sekadakis, Maria Ioanna Sousouni, Thodoris Garefalakis, Maria Oikonomou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis has been published in Sustainability. Within a group of 39 participants aged 18–30, multiple driving scenarios were conducted, both without and with eco-driving guides, to assess the impact of eco-driving behavior on environmental sustainability and safety outcomes. Data on pollutant emissions, as well as crash probability were utilized using linear regression models, while binary logistic regression models were employed to assess crash probability. The analysis revealed thateco-driving led to a significant reduction in pollutant emissions, with CO2 emissions decreasing by 1.42%, CO by 98.2%, and NOx by 20.7% across both urban and highway environments, with a more substantial impact in urban settings due to lower average speeds and smoother driving patterns. These findings support the integration of eco-driving techniques into transportation policies and driver education programs to foster sustainable and safer driving practices.
A paper titled Examining the effects of texting, web surfing, and navigating apps on urban driving behavior and crash risk authored by Maria Oikonomou, Foteini Orfanou, Marios Sekadakis, Dimosthenis Pavlou and George Yannis has been published in Traffic Safety Research. This study collects driving data from 36 young adult drivers through a driving simulator experiment, supplemented by a survey to gather participant characteristics and driving profiles. Data analysis utilized linear and binary logistic mixed models to explore the effects of texting and web surfing on speed and its deviation, headway distance and its deviation, and crash risk. Results indicate that using texting, web surfing and navigating applications while driving elevate crash risk by 10% and decrease speed, speed deviation, headway, and headway deviation by 9%, 23%, 6%, and 18%, respectively. These findings underscore the crucial role of specific smartphone applications in shaping driving behavior and emphasize the need for targeted interventions to mitigate the associated risks in urban driving scenarios.
A NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “The impact of alcohol consumption on driving in rural roads using a driving simulator” was recently presented by Giorgos Papadakis. For this purpose, a driving simulation experiment was conducted with 35 drivers of different characteristics, who were required to drive under varying blood alcohol concentration levels. Additionally, data were collected through questionnaires, including demographic characteristics, driving habits, and perceptions regarding alcohol-impaired driving. Data analysis was performed using statistical and mathematical models, such as linear regression and binary logistic regression, revealing that increased BAC leads to a longer reaction time, higher accident probability, and reduced ability to maintain a safe distance from the preceding vehicle. The results confirm the significant impact of alcohol consumption on driving safety and emphasize the necessity of additional preventive measures.
A NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Predicting driver behaviour in a cross-country naturalistic driving study using machine learning techniques” was recently presented by Giannis Roukos. For this reason, valuable data on driver behavior were collected through a driving experiment conducted under real-world conditions in Belgium and the United Kingdom. In the initial analysis, the importance of the variables was calculated using the “Random Forest” algorithm, based on which nine input variables were selected for further analysis. Findings suggest that the average speed of the vehicle was identified was the most significant variable, while sudden driving events, including both harsh acceleration and harsh braking, were found to significantly influence the classification of driving behavior as dangerous.
A NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Cost-benefit analysis of reducing speed limits on Greek highways” was recently presented by Michalis Nikolaou. For this reason, participants evaluated choices based on travel time, fuel consumption, and accident risk. Three scenarios were analyzed: (I) reducing the speed limit from 130 to 120 km/h, (II) reducing it to 110 km/h, and (III) no change, using binary and multinomial logistic regression models. To assess economic viability, a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) was conducted for the period 2023-2033. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders, offering an in-depth understanding of public perception and acceptance of lower speed limits, which is crucial for developing effective and widely accepted road safety interventions in Greece.
The Horizon Europe research project IMPROVA has recently released its 2nd Newsletter, focusing on enhancing road safety by addressing the complexities of long-term consequences (LTC) caused by road traffic crashes. This newsletter announces the 2nd Knowledgebase Forum (KBF) which will focus on the advancements in the topic of Long-term con sequences: Scales, Virtual Testing and Human Body Models, which will take place in Vilnius Lithuania, on September 8 2025. Consortium members participated in a Data Protection Impact Assessment training by NTUA, gaining valuable insights.
According to the European Commission preliminary statistics, fewer people died on European roads in 2024, a slight 3% drop compared to 2023, which is the equivalent to 600 fewer lives lost. In 2024, around 19,800 people were killed in road crashes in the EU. Over the past five years, Greece, Spain, France, and Italy have seen only modest declines in road deaths; in contrast, Bulgaria, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovenia are making strong progress toward the 50% reduction target. Even if road fatalities decreased more significantly in 2024 than they did in 2023, the overall pace of improvement remains too slow, and most Member States are not on track to meet the EU’s goal of halving road deaths by 2030.
Road fatalities in Greece in 2024 presented a slight increase (3%) compared to 2023 figures, according to the provisional ELSTAT data, bringing Greece at the 25th position out of 27 EU countries (better only than Bulgaria and Romania). These results demonstrate that Greece is well out of track to achieve the targets set neither for 2025 (-25%) nor for 2030 (-50%) and highlight that there is an urgent need for extra effort to further improve road safety in the Greek roads, with systematic actions from the Authorities and serious engagement from the society. 
Eurocities organized with great success the Impacts and Evidence Webinar: “How to move from regulation to effectiveness of speed reduction strategies” within the task force on 30 km/h and speed reduction in cities, which was held online, on 14 March 2025. As part of the activities of the Eurocities Task Force, 20 cities actively involved to organize this Webinar on impacts of city-wide 30 km/h speed limit in which 200+ cities participated. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS Hellas) in cooperation with the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT/CERTH) and the I-Sense Group of the Institute of Communications & Computer Systems (ICCS), are organizing the 10th ITS Hellas Conference, which will take place in Athens, on 7-8 May 2026. The theme of the Conference will be “Competitiveness, Accessibility, Resilience in Transports & Logistics”, focusing on the developments in the field of Intelligent Transport Systems in Greece. The conference will also include a parallel exhibition of cutting-edge technologies as developed by local initiatives, innovative actions, pilot research projects and companies active in the field.
Chemnitz University of Technology is organizing the HUMANIST Conference 2025 which will take place in Chemnitz, Germany on 27-29 August 2025. The focus of this event will be on innovative and intelligent mobility solutions and applications for diverse user groups. The Conference will bring together researchers, experts and stakeholders from several multidisciplinary communities that are active in the field of Human Factors in Transport. It is going to be a unique and attractive forum to present current and planned activities as well as to share ideas and experiences. Researchers can submit their abstracts until 30 March 2025.
A paper titled Using computer vision and street-level videos for pedestrian-vehicle tracking and behaviour analysis, authored by Roberto Ventura, Stella Roussou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Benedetto Barabino and George Yannis has been published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Using advanced computer vision object detection and feature extraction models, this framework integrates Kalman filtering, homography transformations, and object re-identification to achieve high accuracy. This study utilizes data from roadside video recordings from Athens, Greece. The findings show accuracy rates of 50%-70% in detecting traffic light statuses and identified a 23% discrepancy on average between manual and automated counts of illegal crossings. This paper underscores the potential of computer vision detection systems to provide reliable, real-time data that takes the road network conditions into account, ultimately contributing to safer urban traffic management and informed policy decisions.
