Author: agouma
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to support a EUR 470 million nationwide Scheme to reduce death and injury caused by traffic accidents across Greece. NTUA had contributed to the economic analysis of this major road safety scheme. Over the next three years, national road operator Egnatia Odos will improve road safety at 7,000+ of the most dangerous sites, located across 11 Regions of Greece. The small scale safety schemes will include installation of traffic barriers, provision of anti-skid surfaces and improved warning signs and markings on roads identified as high-risk.
Greek Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Kostas Karamanlis, stated that “improving road safety across Greece is a national priority and the EIB support will reduce significantly the risk of accidents at the Greek interurban road network”. 
The European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) organized with great success the TG Safety & Security Meeting, which was held online on 30 November 2020. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organising with great success an online PIN Talk titled “How to improve the safety of goods vehicles in the EU?“, which was held on 14 December. The event focused on the safety of goods vehicles in the EU, looking at goods vehicle safety but also the safety of goods vehicle drivers and all other road users. 
The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) organised with great success the 1st Ideathon, which was held online on 15 January 2021. Amongst others, the participants had the chance to contribute to the development of automated urban mobility solutions that address end-users’ real needs and get access to advanced knowledge on automated mobility and gain insights in the needs of different user groups.
A paper titled “Economic Assessment of Road Infrastructure Safety Schemes in Greece Using Crash Prediction Methodology”, authored by G. Yannis, A. Dragomanovits, J. Roussou, D. Nikolaou, was presented at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 99th Annual Meeting, on January 2020. This research presents a case study for the economic assessment of road safety schemes in crash prone locations in selected rural highways in Greece, using crash prediction models from the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual. The analysis results demonstrate the high impact of this large Road Safety Scheme. 
The Horizon 2020 project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) organised the 1st Concertation Workshop, which was held online on 16 December 2020. The workshop focused on discussions about the planning of demonstrations for fleets of Automated Vehicles around Europe, concerning mainly road transport for both passengers and goods.
World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe has announced the first session in a series of webinars on Road Policing for Road Safety, titled: “Traffic Management vs Road Policing“. The session was held on 1 December 2020. As part of a wider series of topics on road policing and enforcement for road safety, Detective Chief Superintendent Andrew Cox, will present on the transition in operational thinking from traffic management to road policing.
NTUA Professor George Yannis gave a Web-Lecture titled: “Road Safety Challenges in the Digital Era – Is Digitalisation Boosting Road Safety?” at the National Institute of Technology Warangal (NIT), India. The Web-Lecture took place with great success on 27 November 2020 and it focused on the new great potential of data from several digital sources to efficiently support both safe driver behaviour and road safety decision making at all levels (2020-2030).
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) together with the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport under the auspices of the European Commission – DG Move, organised with great success the online EU Road Safety Exchange National Workshop for Greece on 24 November 2020. ‘EU Road Safety Exchange’ is a three-year twinning project (2019-2021) that supports improved institutional capacity and exchange of knowledge and best practice on road safety topics between EU Member States. Speeding and Powered Two Wheelers’ safety have been selected as priority road safety topics for Greece and best practices from France and Spain respectively on these topics were kindly presented by national experts, followed by thorough discussion.
Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Ioannis Kefalogiannis stated that: “Serious effort and international cooperation on key road safety problems can bring important reduction of road casualties in Greece”. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Ioannis Kefalogiannis stated that: “Serious effort and international cooperation on key road safety problems can bring important reduction of road casualties in Greece”. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
A paper titled “Vulnerable road users: Cross-cultural perspectives on performance and attitudes“, authored by George Yannis, Dimitris Nikolaou, Alexandra Laiou, Yvonne Achermann Stürmer, Ilona Buttler, Dagmara Jankowska-Karpa is now published in the Journal of IATSS. The results of this paper indicate that crossing the road at places other than nearby pedestrian crossings, reading a text message or checking social media while walking on the streets, cycling and riding without wearing a helmet, and speeding on powered two-wheelers outside built-up areas but not on motorways/freeways were the most frequently reported self-declared behaviours in 32 countries. 
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) organised with great success the 100th Annual Meeting, which was held online throughout January 2021. The meeting program covered all transportation modes, addressing topics of interest to policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. A number of sessions and workshops focused on the spotlight theme for the 2021 meeting: Launching a New Century of Mobility and Quality of Life. This year’s meeting also featured dozens of sessions on how COVID-19 has impacted transportation and how transportation professionals and researchers are responding.
The Laboratory of Health and Road Safety (LaHeRS) organised with great success an online Conference titled: “Road Safety Culture, Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow” on 20-21 November. The Conference was addressed to teachers and all kinds of specialists who aim at promoting safe transportations. New developments in the field of road safety culture were discussed followed by a fruitful discussion on innovative methods, modern tools and good practices in the education field. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “Monitoring Progress in Urban Road Safety Report”, tracking progress in reducing the number of road traffic fatalities and serious injuries in cities since 2010. It presents traffic safety data collected in 48 cities participating in the ITF Safer City Streets network and compares urban with national road safety trends. It provides indicators for the risk of traffic death for different road user groups, thereby enhancing the evaluation, monitoring and benchmarking of road safety outcomes.
The European Federation of Road Victims (FEVR) together with the WHO Regional Office for Europe and UNRSC members commemorated the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (#WDoR2020) on 15 November 2020, as an “appropriate acknowledgement for victims of road traffic crashes and their families”. Some of the objectives of WDoR 2020 are to provide a platform for road traffic victims and their families to remember all people killed and seriously injured on the roads, to acknowledge the crucial work of the emergency services and to draw attention to the generally trivial legal response to culpable road deaths and injuries.
In Greece, EFTHITA Rhodes is organising a special event on 15 November 2020, by presenting a poster on the west side of the building of the Greek Parliament, passing the message “Remember-Support-Act”
In Greece, EFTHITA Rhodes is organising a special event on 15 November 2020, by presenting a poster on the west side of the building of the Greek Parliament, passing the message “Remember-Support-Act” 
An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Critical factors for the identification of traffic safety events in urban areas” was recently presented by Foteini Bardi. According to the results, the random forest model proved to produce more reliable results predicting traffic safety events with a lower false alarm rate, when compared to binomial logistic regression. Moreover, factor analysis demonstrated that data representing one minute before the event can be described by speed, the deviation of the vehicle from the middle of the road and the distance from the right boundary line. Similarly, data during the event can be better described through speed and longitudinal and lateral acceleration.
An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Critical factors of the influence of mobile phone use on driving behavior, based on smartphones’ data” was recently presented by Sofia Akritidou. Data from a six-months 200-drivers naturalistic driving experiment, collected through the OSeven smartphone application, were analyzed and four statistical regression models were developed, forecasting the percentage of mobile phone use while driving. The results revealed that the parameters affecting the use of mobile phone while driving are four: the percentage of driving duration with speed above the speed limit, distance driving, average deceleration, and average speed. For the general, urban and rural models, the average deceleration had the most significant impact, whereas for the highway model, distance was the most significant parameter.
An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Critical driving parameters affecting speeding using data from smartphones” was recently presented by Dimosthenis-Marios Tzoutzoulis. Data were collected from the OSeven smartphone application of 200 drivers in naturalistic driving and four log-linear regression models were developed correlating speeding with driving characteristics and with answers to dedicated questionnaire. The results demonstrate that the number of harsh accelerations, the percentage of mobile use and the distance of the trip affect the speeding percentage and are correlated with the aggressive behavior of the drivers. Furthermore, increased average acceleration does not always lead to breaking speed limits. Finally, male drivers tend to drive faster in comparison with women.
The Pioneer Alliance organised successfully an open session for Viewpoints on Sustainable Cities, within the Internet of Things for Smart Cities School. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Guide, which gives a precise assessment on the magnitude and complexity of road safety challenges faced by Low and Middle Income Countries and assists policy makers understand the road safety framework in context of their own country systems and performance. This valuable Guide responds to the critical need for collecting and documenting accurate road safety performance data.
The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Guide in order to assist a jurisdiction to determine the level of readiness to move to automated enforcement and -among others- aims in identifying the powerful practical value of Automated Enforcement in saving lives and reducing injuries and to identify also issues and criteria to be considered before commencing automated enforcement.
The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Report, highlighting examples of GRSF’s effective delivery of global road safety solutions for the period of 2017-2019, such as the Green Transport in Vietnam, the BIRGS in Colombia and the Road Safety Barrier in Nepal. Since the first volume of this publication, GRSF work has come to fruition in these years and has pushed significantly forward the road safety agenda.
The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF) organised online the 31st Meeting on 22 October 2020, in which the latest international road safety developments were discussed.
NTUA contributed actively with the following presentation: Impact of COVID-19 on traffic safety behavior in Greece and worldwide
Impact of COVID-19 on traffic safety behavior in Greece and worldwide
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and DVR with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, organised an online PIN Talk, which was held on 19 November. National experts from Germany shared their experience with international and private sector experts on how to involve stakeholders in road safety programmes.
The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published the Road Safety Annual Report 2020, which provides an overview of road safety performance for 42 IRTAD countries. Based on the latest data, the report describes recent road safety developments in these countries and compares their performance against the main road safety indicators. This year, a highly interesting special section on the impact of covid-19 pandemic on road accidents is added. NTUA has contributed to the detailed report for Greece.
The European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC), the European Green Vehicles Initiative Association (EGVIA) and the European Commission organised the 4th European-wide Conference dedicated to the presentation of results from road transport research in H2020 funded projects (H2020RTR), which was held on 30 November & 1 December 2020. The Conference aimed at presenting what the projects have discovered, how they overcame the hurdles and challenges and resolved them, and what were the next research steps in the fields covered by their research.
The FIA Foundation recently published the “These are our streets: 2030 Manifesto” to coincide with the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. The Manifesto calls for a transformation of urban streets by 2030 into safe, low speed and accessible space that puts people first, encouraging zero carbon walking and cycling, by deploying the “Speed Vaccine“: safe footpaths and crossings, protected cycleways and maximum 30 km/h speed limits anywhere children and traffic mix. The Manifesto also calls for a first ever Global Summit for Adolescents to galvanise political action and funding for a range of issues affecting Generation Z.
The Transport Research Arena 2018 (TRA 2018) took place with great success in Vienna, Austria from 16 to 19 April 2018. More than 3.500 participants actively contributed to this major European Conference on Transport Research, which under the motto ‘A digital era for transport‘ explored new promising and innovative opportunities that the era of digitalization and of the internet of everything offers for transport. 
NTUA actively contributed with 16 innovative presentations:
- Analysis of Driving Behaviour Characteristics on the basis of Smartphone Data
- SafetyCube – the European Road Safety Decision Support System
- Safety effects of infrastructure road safety measures
- Can light engineering measures make a difference? An overview of the effect of delineation and signage on road safety
- Developing the African Road Safety Observatory
- Safety culture in maritime cargo transport in Norway and Greece: which factors predict unsafe maritime behaviours?
- Characteristics of single vehicle accidents in Europe
- Investigating which factors affect lateral position variability through a driving simulator experiment
- Compensatory driving behaviour of older drivers with Parkinson’s disease. Is it sufficient to counterbalance their driving difficulties?
- The impact of roadside advertising on safe driving behaviour in cities: A driving simulator approach
- Impact of mobile phone use on driving performance: findings from a simulator study
- Accident prediction In European countries – Development of a practical evaluation tool
- Demographic, behavioural, cultural and socioeconomic factors on transport sector workforce in Europe
- Innovative usage-based motor insurance for significant road safety improvement
- European Road Safety Policy: Towards Evidence-Based Decision Making, Especially for Vulnerable Road Users
- SafetyCube – Gathering and Presenting Evidence for Road Safety Decisions in a Decision Support System (DSS)
The Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2017 (RSS2017) organised by the Delft University of Technology in co-operation with the Dutch Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) took place with great success on 17-19 October 2017, in Hague, Netherlands. The conference theme focuses on advancing the safety of all road users with special attention for vulnerable road users, especially in the upcoming era of advanced technologies and vehicle automation with new safety challenges emerging.
- SafetyCube: Building a Decision Support System on Risks and Measures
- Comparative assessment and ranking of infrastructure related crash risk factors
- Driver distraction without presence of secondary tasks – an overview
- An overview of serious road injuries in EU countries
- Road Users’ Safety Attitudes towards Speeding
- Assessment of Speeding Profiles and Safety Margins from Tangent to Curve
- Safety culture in professional road transport in Norway and Greece
- Safety Assessment of Control Design Parameters – Vehicle Dynamics Model
New Infographics with key traffic safety facts and figures were recently published at the European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO) of the DG Move Road Safety Unit of the European Commission, with the active contribution of NTUA, KFV and ERF. These Infographics are based on the respective Basic Traffic Safety Facts 2016 published at the ERSO, containing a comprehensive series of statistical tables with the latest available data from the CARE database of the European Commission. These Infographics concern the following key traffic safety topics in relation to the Road Users: [Children, Young people (18-24), Youngsters (15-17), Elderly (aged >64), Gender Pedestrians, Cyclists, Motorcycles and Mopeds, Car occupants, Heavy Goods Vehicles and Buses], the Road Infrastructure (Motorways, Junctions, Urban areas, Roads outside urban areas) and the Accident Circumstances (Seasonality, Single vehicle accidents).
The UN Road Safety Collaboration is organising the global campaign for the Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week, 8-14 May 2017. The Week will focus on speed and what can be done to address this key risk factor for road traffic deaths and injuries. Speed contributes to around one-third of all fatal road traffic crashes in high-income countries, and up to half in low- and middle-income countries. The Global Road Safety Week seeks to increase understanding of the dangers of speed and generate action on measures to address speed, thereby saving lives on the roads. Several events are also organised in Greece:
- NTUA – The Future of Road Safety Research Workshop, Athens
- IOAS – Road Safety Educational & Awareness Activities, Athens
- EFTHITA – Several Road Safety Events, Rhodes
- SOSTE – Slow Down, Several Greek Cities
- Making streets liveable, Road Safety Information Activities, Megara
