The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) organised with great success the Road Safety on Five Continents (RS5C) Conference, which was held in Grapevine, Texas, on 10-12 October 2022. The Conference aimed to be a leading source of research results and interaction in the transport area with focus on safety and health associated with road transport. Based on this theme, participants from about 20 countries joined and about 70 presentations were held, about hot topics and the latest research in the road transport area. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation :

•  The Baseline project: Key Performance Indicators for Road Safety in EU countries, based on a common methodology for data collection and analysis

NTUA Professor George Yannis has received the prestigious EU TRAVisions 2022 Senior Researcher Award during the European Commission Transport Research Arena Conference (TRA 2022), held on 14-17 November 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal. Professor George Yannis won the competition of EU Senior Researcher for Road Transport Research based on his exceptional and long-standing research contribution on Open Road Safety Decision Support Systems (ERSO, SafetyCube, SafeFITS, PRACT, Levitate).  

The European Commission and the Agência Nacional de Inovação (ANI)  together with the European Transport Research Platforms ACARE, ALICE, CEDR, ECTP, ERRAC, ERTRAC, ETRA and Waterborne, organised with great success the Transport Research Arena Conference (TRA2022) which took place in Lisbon, on 14-17 November 2022. The pillars of the Conference were the scientific excellence, research and innovation challenges, the latest technological and industrial developments and innovative policies regarding the European Transport Research and Innovation and the cooperation of Europe with other continents.    NTUA actively contributed with 33 innovative presentations:

•   Development of the road safety strategic plan in Greece, 2021-2030
•   Effective road safety measures in Greece
•   EU countries’ ranking in different road crash types
•   Harmonization of National Access Points to Intelligent Transport Systems data: A data content and added value perspective
•   Potential safety outcomes of communication difficulties in mixed nationality crews: A study of Greek and Norwegian vessels
•   The Baseline project: Key Performance Indicators for Road Safety in EU countries, based on a common methodology for data collection and analysis
•   Assessing Driver Safety Behaviour in Greece
•   Establishing the relationship between crashes and unsafe driver behaviors in motorway segments
•   A methodology for the network-wide, in-built safety assessment of roads
•   Simulation platform from data collection to impact assessment of autonomous vehicles
•   Identifying the automated vehicle driving policy in the vicinity of pedestrian
•   The LEVITATE Policy Support Tool of Connected and Automated Transport Systems
•   The impacts of automated urban delivery and consolidation
•   How to Define a Safety Tolerance Zone for Speed?
•   Investigation of the time spent in dangerous driving conditions: Findings from the i-DREAMS project
•   Framework for behaviour change implemented in real-time and post-trip interventions of the H2020 i-DREAMS naturalistic driving project
•   Effectiveness of real-time and post-trip interventions from the H2020 i-DREAMS naturalistic driving project: a sneak preview
•   Safety impact assessment for seamless interactions through Human-Machine Interfaces: Indicators, requirements, and practical considerations
•   Traffic & Environmental Impact Assessment Under Distinct Operational Speeds For Automated Shuttle Bus Services
•   Was average speed affected by the COVID-19 response measures? Findings from Athens, Greece
•   A critical assessment of Athens Traffic Restrictions using multiple data sources
•   Traffic Impacts of Innovative Traffic and Parking Arrangements in Athens, Greece
•   The impact of cognitive disorders and other risk factors on reaction time of drivers: a Structural Equation Model approach
•   A socioeconomic analysis for a green traffic restrictions scheme in Athens
•   The impact of mobility characteristics on public transport and road safety performance in selected European cities
•   Critical impact factors of pedestrians traffic combining multiple data sources in Athens
•   Free Public Transport in Athens: a stated preference approach
•   Electric or not? Factors affecting Greek Drivers’ Preference when Purchasing a New Vehicle
•   Critical Factors Affecting Mobile Phone Use While Driving Through the Exploitation of Data from Smartphone Sensors
•   Critical travel time impact factors at the implementation of the Athens Great Walk
•   The Comparative Evaluation of Road Safety Developments in Greek Regions
•   Association Rule Mining for Island and Mainland Road Crash Injuries in Greece
•   The impact of weather conditions and driver characteristics on road safety on rural roads

An NTUA Diploma Thesis called “Impact analysis of gasoline price on traffic conditions in Athens” was recently presented by Stylianos Peithis. For the purpose of this Diploma Thesis, data concerning traffic conditions, gasoline prices and a wide variety of traffic shaping factors such as weather data was collected. In order to accomplish this thesis’ objective Linear Mixed Effects models with random effect intercept were deployed using as independent variables various metrics with explanative power about traffic volume’s fluctuations. The results showed that the rise of gasoline prices has a negative impact on traffic volume while the impact of other factors such as weather conditions like temperature and rainfall are also substantial. Schools’ vacations, weekends and public holidays also have a decreasing impact in traffic conditions.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Imbalanced learning analysis for driving behaviour prediction using naturalistic driving data” was recently presented by Antonis Kostopoulos. For the purpose of this Diploma Thesis data was collected through the telematics company OSeven, in order to classify and predict driving behaviour in terms of harsh accelerations and brakings occurences. More precisely this thesis intends to determine the most crucial predictors for the occurrence of harsh events, through a feature selection process and to identify two safety levels for harsh accelerations and brakings using Machine Learning techniques. The imbalanced classification results showcased that the total driving distance was the more impactful variable to harsh events occurence, whilst the best techniques for this particular imbalanced learning process, were achieved by Gradient Boosting and Multilayered Perceptrons algorithms.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Analysis of distraction characteristics due to mobile phone use in Greece” was recently presented by Marilena Merakou. The data used for the statistical analysis were collected from field measurements during November-December 2021 in Greece. The collected data are related to distraction measurements but also to driver’s age and gender, the type of vehicle, the weather conditions, the time period and the road type in three areas (in and around Athens, Thessaloniki and Larisa). The results demonstrate that old and middle aged drivers are less likely to use mobile phone while driving than younger drivers. It was also found, that van drivers tend to use mobile phone more often than drivers of any other vehicle type.  

The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 6th Newsletter. The Newsletter provides information on the latest outcomes of the project. Many of SHOW’s demonstrations have kicked off during the past weeks, and numerous congresses, conferences, and various events have already showcased its pilot sites to the public with positive feedback. Another pivotal component of the project is international cooperation and participation in cross-border twinning events.  SHOW’s aim now is to enhance urban mobility by understanding people’s needs. 

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “Utilizing Data to Optimize Road Network Operations“. This work builds on the “Big Data for Road Network Operations” report from the 2016-2019 PIARC work cycle by providing current, real world examples of current application of big data concepts. The case studies included in this Report represent the current state of practice and highlight the progress being made by road network operators to utilize the growing amount of data available for road network operations. 

The South African Roads Federation (SARF) together with IRF and PIARC co-organised with great success the 7th African Regional Conference, which took place in Cape Town on 18-20 October 2022. This year’s conference theme was “Connecting Africa through Smart, Safe and Resilient Roads: Stimulating Growth and Trade on the Continent“. PIARC Technical Committee 3.1  on Road Safety organised a seminar to demonstrate and discuss the challenges of safe and efficient road transport especially in Low and Middle Income Countries. Special emphassis was given to PIARC extensive work on road safety (Road Safety Manual, Tunnels Manual, Road Safety in LMIC, etc.).   

The European Commission together with the European Partnership on Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) and the FAME project organised the fourth European Conference on Connected and Automated Driving (EUCAD 2023), which was held in Brussels on 3-4 May 2023. This event brought together political leaders from the European Commission and Member States with high-level representatives of industry, academia, and road authorities from across Europe and internationally, to discuss whether our societies are prepared for the deployment of smart, inclusive, and sustainable mobility solutions.  

The Fondation VINCI Autoroutes has recently published the results of a unique study on “Sharing the road”. This Ipsos survey offers an overview of the behaviour of Europeans dealing with the coexistence of different modes of transport. This includes drivers of cars and motorised two-wheelers, cyclists, users of personal light electric vehicles (PLEVs) and pedestrians. According to the results, Greece has the highest rate of drivers (77%) who use the phone while driving in Europe (EU average 66%). 89% of Greek cyclists are afraid of other road users’ behaviour and 58% of them wear helmet when cycling. Moreover, 98% of Greek motorised two-wheelers fear the behaviour of other road users. On the other hand, 26% of Greek drivers open the door without checking if a cyclist is coming, whereas the European average is 36%.   

A new book titled “Digitalisation for Sustainable Infrastructure : The Road Ahead” has been published on October 2022, highlighting the importance of technology and digitalisation and the tremendous impact they have on infrastructure worldwide. This book was edited by Carlo Secchi and Alessandro Gili and was published by the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI).  NTUA Associate Professor George Yannis and Research Associate Apostolos Ziakopoulos actively contributed with the following chapters :

•  Artificial Intelligence and Mobility: What Is at Stake for Safety?
•  The Way Towards Smart, Green and Efficient Road Transport

The Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP) has recently developed the Fleet Safety Guide 2022 , under the title “Global NCAP Fleet Safety Guide And Safer Vehicle Purchasing Policy”. Ensuring safer fleet purchasing decisions will not only help safeguard the safety of their staff, but also help accelerate the global uptake of safe vehicles and contribute to the United Nations (UN) Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 target to achieve at least a 50% reduction in road fatalities and injuries by 2030. This important guide provides recommendations on vehicle selection using NCAP ‘five star’ ratings and identifies the most important UN safety standards for passenger cars. Importantly, it also now includes recommendations for commercial vehicle categories and motorcycles.  

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission released the Statistical Pocketbook 2022 “EU Transport in figures”. In this Statistical Pocketbook, key road safety Tables are contained, together with several other Tables on transport statistics, providing a complete picture of current trends in transport in Europe. Data on road fatalities for the EU member states and associate countries allow for time series comparisons and country rankings.  

The German Road and Transportation Research Association (FGSV) organised with great success the Working Committee 3.9 “Road Safety Management” which was held online on 12 October 2022, under the theme “Road Safety Management“. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

•  Study on a Methodology for Network-wide Road Safety Assessment 

A paper titled “Investigating the Temporal Evolution of Driving Safety Efficiency Using Data Collected from Smartphone Sensors” authored by Dimitrios Tselentis, Eleni Vlahogianni and George Yannis, has been published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. Initial data analysis results to the most critical components of microscopic driving behaviour, which are used as inputs in the k-means algorithm to perform the clustering analysis. The main driving characteristics of each cluster are identified and lead to the conclusion that there are three main driving groups of the a) moderate drivers, b) unstable drivers and c) cautious drivers.

ERTICO organised the ITS European Congress, which was held in Lisbon on 22-24 May 2023, under the theme “ITS: The Game Changer”. The Congress focused on five topics on ITS and Smart Mobility, that served as the foundational basis for the entire programme. Several submissions explored best practice implementations, issues related to data ownership, privacy and security, and other aspects of data processing.  

The European Commission funded Baseline project (Collection of Key Performance Indicators for Road Safety in the EU) organised with great success the Road Safety KPIs Conference which was held as a hybrid event (in Brussels and online), on 19 October 2022. The results of the extensive data collection and analysis performed in the EU countries were presented covering all 8 KPIs defined at the EU road safety strategic action plan: Speed, Alcohol, Distraction, Safety belt, Helmet, Vehicle safety, Infrastructure and Post-crash care.   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations :

•  KPI Helmet use among Cyclists and PTWs
•  KPI Helmet use among PTWs Greece
•  KPI Road Infrastructure Safety
•  KPI Driving under the Influence of Alcohol

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organised with great success the PIN Talk “Improving the road safety of young and novice drivers”, which was held on 20 October 2022, in Prague, Czechia. The PIN Talk focused on how to improve the road safety of young and novice drivers. Representatives of the Czech Republic, Germany and Norway shared details of the steps that they have taken or intend to take to reduce road deaths among young and novice drivers in their countries. 

The Transport Community organised with great success the 3rd Western Balkans Road Safety Observatory Meeting (WBRSO) which took place in Belgrade, on 6 October 2022. The Meeting covered topics related to the Western Balkans Road Safety Action Plan as well as the work plan of the WBRSO.   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations :

•  Setting Priority Measures to meet Targets and KPIs: The Greek National Road Safety Plan 2021-2030
•  CADaS Structure

The European Commission hosted the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards on 17 October 2022, recognising the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter’s community of members towards the common goal of improved road safety across Europe. Preventiedienst stad Leuven (Belgium) was the winner for its VRKeer virtual reality initiative targeting young people, Initiative für sichere Straßen GmbH (Germany) for its EDDA+ Hazard Score Map project using multiple data sources to implement change and create safer roads, Zavod Reševalni pas (Slovenia) for its rescue belt campaign to raise awareness and change driver behaviour and Acciona Energía (Spain) for their Drive Safe Programme for their employees across multiple locations. 

The International Transport Forum (ITF) has published a new Report titled Monitoring Progress in Urban Road Safety: 2022 Update. This Report tracks the progress in reducing the number of road traffic fatalities and serious injuries in cities between 2010 and 2020. It is a unique combination of traffic safety data collected in 32 cities participating in the ITF Safer City Streets network and compares trends in urban and national road safety.  

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has written to all 27 Member State Transport Ministers to ask if their countries will act on the European Commission’s suggestion to reduce speeds on motorways and in urban areas, in order to save energy. Eleven of them replied, with a mixed range of responses which can be summed up as “we’re working on it”, “we’ve already done it” and, in one case, “thanks, but no thanks”. Characteristically, Greece’s Deputy Minister of Transport told ETSC that the Greek National Strategic Plan will include the aims of reducing rural roads to 80 km/h from 90 km/h currently, with the establishment of a maximum speed in urban residential areas of 30 km/h.  

The International Road Federation (IRF) released the 59th edition of the IRF World Road Statistics 2022 (WRS2022), with data now open to all for free through the IRF WRS Data Warehouse platform, thanks to the generous support of the TotalEnergies Foundation and Michelin Corporate Foundation. The IRF WRS 2022 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 2022 includes the latest data covering years 2015 to 2020, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. It includes over 200 road and transport-sector related indicators across 11 sections, covering more than 200 countries and territories.   

A paper titled “The role of values in road safety culture: Examining the relationship between valuation of freedom to take risk and accident risk among motorcycle riders and car drivers” authored by Tor-Olav Naevestad, Alexandra Laiou and George Yannis, has been published in Traffic Safety Research. The present study was based on survey data from car drivers and motorcycle riders from two countries with distinctly different road safety records: Norway and Greece. The results indicated that values focusing on freedom to take risk have an important role in road safety culture, presumably legitimizing and motivating risky driving/riding. 

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “State of the Art in Road Design Standards“. The document aims to identify similarities and differences between the approaches adopted in different countries and evaluates the possible need of their adaptation to the requirements of a rapidly changing world in the field of road transport systems: new technologies, changes in mobility modes (new propulsion techniques, new personal transport mode, and connected and autonomous driving) and availability of multiple diffused data sources.   

The European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) organised with great success the 26th SLEEP EUROPE Congress, which was held on 27-30 September 2022, in Athens. The Congress, following the difficult period of a pandemic that barred international travel and prevented scientists from sharing their experience and progress in meetings in person, aimed to facilitate exchange of ideas and knowledge in a manner that promoted science and bonded further the scientific community by face to face interaction.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation :

•  Driving Insomnia: A Driving Simulator Study

The Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) organised with great success the Global Regional Road Safety Observatories (GRRSO) Dialogue on Powered Two-Wheeler Safety, that was held as a hybrid event (in Manila, Philippines and online) on 11-12 October 2022. The event brought together an unprecedented range of global experts and practitioners striving to address deaths and serious injuries resulting from motorcycle crashes. Additionally, it provided a unique opportunity to address issues relating to countries and cities where powered two-wheelers are the predominant form of transport. 

The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD), the Université Gustave Eiffel, CEREMA, ONISR and ENTPE co-organised with great success the 7th IRTAD Conference: Better Road Safety Data for Better Safety Outcomes, which was held in Lyon, on 27 – 28 September 2022 . The Conference focused on improvements in the quality of data systems and data analysis in IRTAD and other countries as an essential way to build and monitor strong road safety policies in the Decade 2021-2030, which are comprehensively summarized at the IRTAD Declaration.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations :

•  Traffic fatalities during the COVID-19 pandemic: Key lessons learned
•  EU Project Baseline measuring road safety performance indicators
•  Collection of Key Performance Indicators for Road Safety in Greece
•  Setting Priority Measures to meet Targets and KPIs: The Greek National Road Safety Plan 2021-2030
•  Driver behaviour KPIs through smartphone telematics
•  Crash data systems within the Eastern Partnership Road Safety Observatory

Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 43rd PIN Flash Report titled Reducing Child Deaths on European Roads. This report examines the latest data on child road deaths from across the EU and other countries that form part of ETSC’s Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme. It also looks at the main measures for reducing the risks to children including mobility policies and improved infrastructure, child restraint systems, vehicle safety, helmet use, pre-hospital care and licensing of young drivers who, in some countries, are able to ride a moped or scooter at the age of 14.