The Deputy Ministry of Sport in collaboration with Motorsport Greece, in the framework of EKO Rally Acropolis, organized a Road Safety Event,  in Athens, on 8 September. Highlight of the event, was a simulated collision and rescue of an injured person, supervised by NTUA. Specifically, a passenger car performed a free fall from a height of 10 metres, only to hit the ground at a speed of 50 km/h. During the event, two strong road safety messages were  displayed: “Always wear a seat belt in the car, wherever you sit” and “We always wear a helmet and protectors on the bike”. 

The Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics of Universita Degli Studi di Brescia, organised with great success the 25th Living and Walking in Cities Conference in Brescia, on 9-10 September 2021. The LWC International Conference traditionally deals with the topics of urban mobility and quality of life in urban areas, with a specific focus on vulnerable road users. The main areas and topics of the Conference were transport system and infrastructure, safe mobility for innovative cities and urban planning.  NTUA contributed actively with the following presentation:

•  Transport System & Infrastructure

The Road Safety Institute (RSI) “Panos Mylonas”, organised the 16th Year Anniversary Event of the Institute, under the auspices of H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), on 9 September. The message of the event was: “With a vision, we grow stronger TOGETHER” and it was attended by a number of personalities, representatives of the country’s leadership, politicians, executives from the Public and Private sector and other important social partners who pledged the commitment to improving Road Safety in Greece. 

The  International Road Federation (IRF) released the 58th edition of the IRF World Road Statistics 2021 (WRS2021) which continues to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport, including traffic accidents. This year the WRS 2021 (data 2014-2019) includes up-to-date information for more than 200 countries and 180+ indicators, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. Split into 11 sections, it includes key data on topics such as Road Networks, Multimodal Traffic, Road Expenditures & Revenues, Road Traffic, Vehicles in Use, Energy Consumption, CO2 Emissions and Road Accidents, and much more. 

The Association for European Transport organised with great success the 49th European Transport Conference which was held online, on 13-15 September. The ETC 2021 conference maintains its unique identity of a multidisciplinary, multi-seminar format but in an online environment and it will offer eight simultaneous seminars per day plus plenary sessions. Key conference themes explored this year included COVID-19 and the consequences, the Climate Emergency and Inclusion and Diversity.  

University of Aveiro organised with great success the 24th Working Group on Transportation Meeting (EWGT 2021) which was held online, on 8-10 September 2021. The main goal of the Meeting was to share information and experiences of research activities, to encourage joint research and the development of theoretical methods and applications, to promote the cooperation among different institutions and organisations, leaders at national level in the field of traffic, transportation and logistic systems.

Eva Michelaraki, NTUA PhD Candidate & Researcher, received  the Young Researcher Best Paper on Road Safety Αward 2021 during the  International Congress on Transport Research 2021. The Award is granted jointly by the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE), the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT/CERTH), and the Hellenic Association of Toll Road Network (Hellastron). The award concerned the paper entitled: “Modelling the Safety Tolerance Zone: Recommendations from the i-DREAMS project”, co-authored by Christos Katrakazas, Tom Brijs and George Yannis. 

The Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) and the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT/CERTH) co-organized with great success the “10th International Congress on Transportation Research” (ICTR 2021), which was held on 2-3 September, 2021, in Rhodes. The spotlight theme of the 2021 Congress was: “Future Mobility and Resilient Transport: Transition to innovation“.  NTUA contributed actively with the following 30 scientific papers and presentations:

•   Modelling the Safety Tolerance Zone: Recommendations from the i-DREAMS project (Young Researcher Best Road Safety Paper Award)
•   Impacts of autonomous transit services on urban networks: The case of Athens, Greece
•   Forecasting impacts of Connected and Automated Transport Systems within the Levitate project
•   Key Performance Indicators for safe fluid interactions within automated vehicles
•   Identifying KPIs for the safety assessment of autonomous vehicles through traffic microsimulation
•   Traffic impact assessment of the pilot implementation of Athens Great Walk
•   Traffic Impact Assessment of Innovative Traffic and Parking Measures in the Center of Athens
•   Analysis of traffic and parking characteristics in Athens
•   Lessons Learned from Bicycle Traffic Rules in OECD Countries
•   Investigating the acceptance of environmental parking charging and congestion charging in urban centers in Greece
•   Investigation of speeding and aggressive behavior of professional drivers on highways through an innovative smartphone application
•   Challenges, Opportunities and Constraints of Open Science in Transport Research
•   Clash of cultures in Greek traffic? What happens when a Southern European road safety culture is mixed with a Northern European road safety culture?
•   Fatigue among HGV drivers in Norway and Greece: examining the influence of national road safety culture
•   Development of the Road Safety Strategic Plan in Greece 2021-2030
•   Assessment of the evolution of road safety in Greece
•   A Common Methodology for the Collection of Key Performance Indicators for Road Safety in the EU
•   Action Plan for promoting electromobility in the Region of Attica
•   Techno-Economic Feasibility Analysis for Electromobility in the Region of Attica
•   A four-country comparative overview of the impact of COVID-19 on traffic safety behavior
•   Best practice for safe roads around schools
•   Urban Planning Standards and transportation planning
•   Design Considerations of Compound Alignments Resulting from Visibility Restrictions by Median Jersey Barriers
•   Feasibility study of pedestrian bridge construction in urban arterials in Athens
•   Investigation of factors affecting serious crash injuries in Europe
•   Public opinion on Flying Autonomous Vehicles in Greece: a stated preference approach
•   Public opinion on e-scooters in Athens: a stated preference approach
•   The impact of weather conditions and driver characteristics on road safety
•   What is the area of influence of a vehicle on the road? Theoretical Aspects and Some empirical Findings
•   Comparative Investigation of Road Accident Cost in The European Union
•  Forecasting and backcasting of Connected-Automated Vehicle impacts using multiple methodological inputs

 

The high‑level meeting on improving global road safety, decided by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), was held in New York on 30 June – 1 July 2022, right after the Economic and Social Council’s high-level political forum on sustainable development, under the theme of “The 2030 horizon for road safety : securing a decade of action and delivery”.  The political declaration of the meeting was adopted by the General Assembly. 

A paper titled “Trip characteristics impact on the frequency of harsh events recorded via smartphone sensors” authored by Armira Kontaxi, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis is published online in IATSS Research. Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models were fitted to the trips of car drivers who made frequent trips for two experiment phases in order to model the frequencies of harsh events. Results indicate that maximum speed, the percentage of speeding duration and total trip duration are positively correlated with both harsh acceleration and harsh braking frequencies. On the other hand, the exposure metric of total trip distance was found to be negatively correlated with both harsh event types. A small positive correlation of the percentage of mobile use duration with harsh accelerations was also detected. 

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “Automated Vehicles – Challenges and Opportunities for Road Operators and Road Authorities“.  It is likely that some support from the infrastructure will be needed to reach higher levels of automation. Among others, this Report provides initial insights on digital infrastructure and mentions 11 key challenges to tackle regarding social issues in order to make automation a success. 

A paper titled “Impact of socioeconomic and transport indicators on road safety during the crisis period in Europe“, authored by Dimitris Nikolaou, Katerina Folla and George Yannis is published online in International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion. The results of this research show that the evolution of human development affects the outcomes of road crashes more than suicides and passenger-kilometers travelled. After the end of the crisis, the impact of human development is even higher. Concerning passenger-kilometers travelled, there is an increase in the relative impact on road fatalities after the end of the crisis. 

The project EDWARD (Every Day Without A Road Death) organised a Week of Action under the theme: Fit for the Road, on 13-17 September. A number of Road Trips aimed to showcase great examples of road planning, design and engineering, the safest vehicles, nationwide efforts to deter dangerous behaviour and advances in emergency post-crash care. 

The 33rd ICTCT Conference was held online, on 28-29 October under the theme: Paving the way to safer active urban mobility—challenges and opportunities. Among other topics, the Conference included two special sessions titled: Processing of traffic safety relevant data: data generation, data fusion, data enhancement and Surrogate measures of safety.   

Nneka Henry, Head of the UN Road Safety Fund (UNRSF), together with Namita Shah, Chairwoman of the  TOTALEnergies Foundation, published an article titled: Saving Young Lives, Protecting the Planet, and Growing the Economy: Road Safety for 2030. The article highlights that the global road safety crisis is the leading cause of death among children and youth and that the UNRSF and partners outline ways to make travel safer in developing countries, where 93% of the world’s road traffic deaths occur. 

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Investigation of the effect of pandemic restriction measures on Greek driving behaviour during COVID-19 through deep learning techniques” was recently presented by Aspasia Gonidi. This Diploma Thesis revealed that covid-19 cases’ increase lead to harsh accelerations increase, probably due to psychological pressure but also due to lower traffic volumes on the roads. Furthermore, the different effects of the two covid-19 “waves” on driver behaviour are highlighted.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Investigation of the effect of pandemic restriction measures in European mobility using clustering and machine learning classification” was recently presented by Dimitra Pigadioti. This Diploma Thesis revealed that the population’s behavior towards the pandemic and the consequent deaths, are better reflected and predicted by the characteristics of the population movements and not by the number of COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, the population’s mobility trends during the pandemic can be predicted satisfactorily for most European countries, considering the data of new COVID-19 cases per million population, the implemented vaccination policies and the movement trends to the grocery, pharmacy and parks.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Comparative analysis of road safety factors across generations, in Greece” was recently presented by Reggina Mermiga. From the application of Log-Linear regression models it emerges that the number of road casualties follows a rising trend in the transition from the older to the younger generations, which presumably can be attributed to increased mobility of younger generations. Additionally, most car crash victims between the ages of 26 and 64 belong to Generation X while those involved in a two-wheeled vehicle accident belong to Generation Y, most probably due to the fact that the members of the two generations are connected to different financial periods but also to the tendency of the members of Generation Y to experience delays in their transition to the following stages of their life.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Stated preferences of Athenians towards electric vehicles” was recently presented by John Kyparissis.  This Diploma Thesis reveals that drivers are mostly very positive towards purchasing an electric vehicle, with hybrid vehicles as their second choice. Furthermore, the probability of choosing an electric car depends to a large extent on the vehicle purchase cost, the ease of refueling and the views, habits and demographic characteristics of the respondents.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Correlation of organization and performance of urban transport systems in Europe“, was recently presented by Dimitrios Georgakopoulos. This Diploma Thesis reveals that more bus and tram stops, increase of GDP, higher population density and public operation of PT have a positive impact on PT demand in comparison to car ownership and the increase of PT fares with a negative impact on PT demand. Secondly, population density, bus and tram stops, modal share of active travelling modes (walking, cycling), GDP and tram speed lead to decrease of road fatalities.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Critical impact factors of travel time in Athens” was recently presented by Angelina Makri. The results revealed that the factors affecting travel time in the center of Athens are significantly related to the traffic of passenger cars, taxis, buses and trucks, with eco friendly modes of transport such as walking and cycling as well as road infrastructure which includes the number of traffic lanes and bus lanes. On Panepistimiou street, the cross sectional road increase from three to four lanes that took place in the second phase of the pilot implementation of the Great Walk of Athens, led to travel time increase.  

A paper titled “Post-trip safety interventions: state-of-the-art, challenges and practical implications” authored by Eva Michelaraki,  Christos Katrakazas,  George Yannis, Ashleigh Filtness, Rachel Talbot, Graham Hancox, Fran Pilkington-Cheney, Kris Brijs, Veerle Ross, Hélène Dirix, An Neven, Roeland Paul, Tom Brijs, Petros Fortsakis, Eleni Konstantina Frantzola and Rodrigo Taveira, was published in Journal of Safety Research. The synthesized results revealed that the majority of smartphone applications detected mobile phone use and harsh events and provided individual performance scores, while in-vehicle systems provided delayed visual reports through a web-based platform.  

A paper titled “Investigation of the speeding behavior of motorcyclists through an innovative smartphone application“, authored by Armira Kontaxi, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis is published in Traffic Injury Prevention.  Using risk exposure and riding behavior indicators calculated from smartphone sensor data, Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models are calibrated to correlate the percentage of riding time over the speed limit with other riding behavior indicators. Results indicate that the parameters of trip duration, distance driven during risky hours, morning peak hours and the number of harsh accelerations are all determined as statistically significant and positively correlated with the percentage of speeding time. Additionally, the provision of rider feedback and riding during afternoon peak hours are statistically significant and correlated with decreased percentages of speeding time. 

The Second Meeting of the Road Safety Governmental Committee was held on 27 July at the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The discussed topics were the upgrade and the promotion of the educational platform “e-drive academy”, the digitalization of the fines’ imposition and collection due to Road Traffic Code violations and the collection of good quality data for a uniform and systematic record of road crashes. Participants in the committee were: the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Yannis Kefalogiannis, the Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection Eleftherios Oikonomou, the Alternate Minister of Interior Stelios Petsas, the Deputy Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Zeta Makri, the Deputy Minister of Digital Governance Georgios Georgantas, the coordinator of the Road Safety Executive Committee Amalia Polydoropoulou and NTUA Professor George Yannis.  

A paper titled “Examining the relationship between impaired driving and past crash involvement in Europe: Insights from the ESRA study” authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Athanasios Theofilatos, Alexandra Laiou, Eva Michelaraki, George Yannis and Tova Rosenbloom, is published online in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion.  In this research, binary logistic analysis indicated that components involving overall personal and communal acceptance of impaired driving, overall and past year personal behaviour towards impaired driving and frequency of typical journey checks by traffic police were all quantities positively correlated with past crash involvement. 

Voi Technology recently published the Voi’s Annual Safety Report with the active contribution of NTUA, under the theme Safer streets with shared micro-mobility, intended to increase transparency and foster a dialogue on how shared micro-mobility can make cities safer.  The report covers Voi’s actions to improve road safety, insights on safety risks and opportunities for shared micro-mobility across Europe. Heavy, fast-moving vehicles present the greatest road safety risks, and lack of safe road infrastructure is a significant risk for all lightweight travellers.  

The Faculty of Social Sciences at Bar-Ilan University organised with great success the 29 Annual Conference of the Research Institute of Human Factors Road Safety which was held online, on 8 July 2021. Experts from all over the world discussed the latest experiences and developments in road safety, with emphasis on the pandemic effect on road crashes.  NTUA contributed actively with the following presentations: 

•  Road Safety in Greece A success story?  (key-note presentation)
•  Key factors of COVID-19 impact on mobility and safety

The Association of Young Local Authorities (ENA) in collaboration with the Road Safety Institute “Panos Mylonas” (RSI), organised with great success a Conference titled “Road Safety in Greek islands“, which was held online, on 23 June 2021. The Conference was opened by the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Yannis Kefalogiannis, who referred to the National Action Plan on Road Safety and pointed out the important distinctions of Greece in this field. In addition, Mr. Panagiotis Papantoniou (President of the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers), Mrs. Amalia Polydoropoulou (Professor of the University of the Aegean), Mr. Vangelis Makris (Collaborator of the IOAS “Panos Mylonas”), Mr. Giannis Themelaros (Deputy Regional Minister of Transport and Communications of Dodecanese) and Mr. George Karamanolis (CTO / CIO Co-Founder of Crowdpolic), participated in the event. The Conference focused on the effort to reduce road accidents for the safety of inhabitants and tourists of the greek islands.       

The Loughborough University hosted with great success the 53rd Annual UTSG Conference, which was held online, on 5-6 July. It was an annual conference for staff, research students and other relative newcomers to transport research of member institutions and overseas universities, which was designed to discuss research needs, research in progress, and to give research students the opportunity to present papers on their work.  

The sixth Newsletter of the Horizon 2020 project BeOpen (European forum and observatory for open science in transport) was recently released with all the latest developments and the deliverables of the project.  This Newsletter focused on the BeOpen final event, which took place online on June 9, 2021, with presentations and discussions helpful for a better understanding of open science and how the BE OPEN project helped to move the concept forward in the transport domain.