Author: agouma
FedEx funded an online package of new Resources for 5-star RAPs, which has launched to support road assessment programmes (RAPs) around the world eliminate high-risk roads. These resources are aligned with the UN High-level Meeting of Road Safety, as countries embrace implementation of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for safer national roads that save lives. The Resources offer guidance on how to develop an effective programme and includes 140 award-winning examples, templates and downloadable materials, drawn from the best practice of partners world-wide. 
The Centro Studi Città Amica per la sicurezza nella Mobilità (CESCAM) of the University of Brescia, organised with great success the 3rd International Conference on Road Safety, that was held in Brescia, on 13 June 2022. This year the International Conference focused on “Priorities Actions Agenda”, or rather on which criteria to adopt to draw up an agenda of intervention priorities regarding road safety. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation :
The Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) released recently two new handbooks titled “How to Implement Street Transformations” and “How to Evaluate Street Transformations“, which can offer cities a new way of implementing and evaluating pop-up or interim street transformations with a focus on community-driven street designs. GDCI has also announced it’s call for applications for the first Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator, that aims to create a global cohort of city leaders in order to hone their knowledge to create change for kids in their cities. The Accelerator will bring together 60 changemakers from 20 global cities to participate in an eight-month virtual professional leadership program.
The European Commission has launched a public consultation on a revision of the rules governing the roadworthiness of vehicles in the EU, planned for mid-2023. The results of the public consultation will feed into the revision of the EU’s roadworthiness rules, including those on periodic roadworthiness testing, roadside inspections for commercial vehicles, and vehicle document registration. The Commission invites all those interested to express their opinions on the impact of the current legal framework, as well on the possible policy measures that could be taken and the impact they may have
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organized with great success the PIN Talk “Road Safety Strategies: Saving lives”, which was held on 7 July 2022, in Madrid, Spain. The PIN Talk focused on the role of road safety strategies in helping to reduce road deaths and serious injuries. ETSC and plenty of countries presented their latest road safety strategies. 
The UN Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt, launched the Book “The Road Ahead, 26 voices for Safe and Sustainable Mobility” with support from the UNRSF on 22 June 2022 at the European Development Days (EDD) Conference in Brussels. The Book includes a selection of essays from leading specialists, covering a wide array of global road safety issues: Green and Sustainable Cities, Economic Growth, Quality Education, Health, Gender Equality, Partnership.
ETSC, Fundación MAPFRE and the Flemish Foundation for Traffic Knowledge (VSV) organised with great success the 2022 edition of the European Traffic Education Seminar, which was held as a hybrid event (online and in Madrid), on 13 September 2022. The aims of the seminar were to equip young road users to become safe road users, given the appropriate education. The seminar consisted of two distinct parts, focused on sustainable mobility with traffic safety and presentations on the latest traffic education projects from across Europe.
The Dresden Technical University organised with great success the International Cycling Safety Conference (ICSC2022) which was held in Dresden, Germany on 8–10 November 2022. The ICSC is a forum for researchers and experts in the field of cycling safety to exchange their knowledge and bring up new research topics and safety solutions. The conference included 12 parallel sessions, 2 keynote speeches, 2 poster sessions and a variety of social events.
The Province of Brescia, leader partner of the Interreg Europe programme, co-organised with great success the Final High Level Political Dissemination Event of the e-MOPOLI project, which was held in Brescia on Wednesday 13th July 2022. The project, which started in 2018 and will end in November this year, involves 9 partners from 8 European countries: Italy, Slovenia, Greece, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Romania and Latvia.
A paper titled “Innovative road safety measures” authored by Stergios Mavromatis and George Yannis, has been published in Advances in Transportation Studies an international Journal. Τhis editorial collection represents a snapshot of current advancements in innovative road safety measures focusing on roadway infrastructure, safety modelling, human
factors, vulnerable road users and automated driving. Some key conclusions arisen from the present Special Issue comprise of the need of co-consideration of all crash factors for accurate results, the importance of digitalisation and technological advancements on boosting road safety, and the significance of implementing innovative and evidence based road safety measures for multiplying the safety benefits. 
The European Commision put the new Vehicle General Safety Regulation into effect. The rules for the advanced driver assistant systems will first apply to new vehicle types from 6 July 2022 and to all new vehicles from 7 July 2024. The new safety measures will enhance the protection of passengers, pedestrians and cyclists across the EU, expectedly saving over 25,000 lives and avoid at least 140,000 serious injuries by 2038.
NTUA received the Best Paper Award during the 6th International Symposium on Highway Geometric Design and Urban Street Symposium which was held on 26-29 June, 2022 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The award concerned the paper titled: “Development and implementation of a methodology for the economic appraisal of road infrastructure safety schemes”, co-authored by George Yannis, Anastasios Dragomanovits, Julia Roussou and Dimitrios Nikolaou.
The European Union Road Federation (ERF) together with AISICO, organized with great success the second edition of the International Conference on Road Safety- Smart and Safe Roads: the role of vehicle restraint systems which took place on 29th-30th September 2022 at AISICO test Lab in Italy. The main topic of the Conference was to analyze how road restraint systems are evolving to face an ever growing demand for safety in a world that is moving towards smart roads. The conference was organized in 3 sessions .
The International Transport Forum (ITF) published recently a new Report titled The Safe System Approach in Action with the active participation of NTUA. Road crashes kill over 1.3 million people every year worldwide and seriously injure millions more. A Safe System approach to road safety can drastically reduce road deaths – but how can it actually be put in place? This Report provides experience-based guidance on implementing the Safe System approach worldwide.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 16th edition of PIN Annual Report , with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2022 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Award event which took place online with great success on 15 June 2022. The EU27 collectively reduced the number of road deaths by 31% over the period 2011-2021, from 28,865 in 2011 to 19,823 in 2021. There were 57,095 fewer deaths on EU roads over the last decade than there would have been if deaths had continued at the same level as in 2011.
, with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2022 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Award event which took place online with great success on 15 June 2022. The EU27 collectively reduced the number of road deaths by 31% over the period 2011-2021, from 28,865 in 2011 to 19,823 in 2021. There were 57,095 fewer deaths on EU roads over the last decade than there would have been if deaths had continued at the same level as in 2011. 
The Civil Engineering School of the National Technical University of Athens was ranked this year 18th in Europe and 50th worldwide among all Civil Engineering Schools. This ranking is produced by the QS Organisation (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022) based on the following criteria: Research, Teaching, Employability, Facilities, Internationalization, Innovation, Engagement and Access. NTUA road safety activities have contributed to this ranking.
The European Commission has added to its library of European Road Safety Observatory road safety data and analytical resources with the publication of Thematic Reports on the use of seatbelts and child restraint systems, serious injuries through road crashes and on driver impairment due to alcohol, drugs and medicines. The aim of these Reports is to aid understanding of the causes and impacts of road crashes, with the ultimate aim of achieving “vision zero” of zero road deaths or serious injuries in Europe’s roads by 2050.
The European Commission has launched EU pilot projects to assess safety of infrastructure. These pilot projects are carried out to test methodologies for the network-wide road assessments developed with the active contribution of NTUA, required under the Road Infrastructure Safety Management Directive (RISM). The Network-wide road assessments allow national authorities to identify those sections of road where the opportunities to improve safety are the greatest and where targeted investment should deliver the biggest improvements.
The European Commission marked the International Level Crossing Awareness Day. Almost 300 people per year die in crashes at level crossings, representing around 30% of all railway deaths. The Commission has published a thematic report on this issue, setting out the situation regarding collisions at level crossings and measures the that could be taken to prevent them. In the Western Balkans region, the Transport Community has launched an awareness campaign to try to reduce the number and severity of collisions at railway crossings.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organised with great success the EU Road Safety Exchange – Final Event which was held in Brussels, on 18 May 2022. Dutch-inspired improvements to cycling infrastructure in Lithuania, harmonised day and night-time urban speed limits in Poland and major new national road safety strategies in Greece and Portugal are some of the changes inspired by the EU-funded Road Safety Exchange project. The recordings of the Final Event are now available.
The World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) organised the 16th World Conference on Transport Research which was held in Montreal, Canada, on 17-21 July 2023. For the last 40 years, WCTR has been organised every three years by the WCTR Society. WCTR allowed sharing cutting-edge research and advanced state-of-practice and provides a unique opportunity for experts to exchange ideas in all areas of transport research.
The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Report titled Detecting Urban Clues for Road Safety: Leveraging Big Data and Machine Learning Report. The Report presents opportunities to use new technologies to improve current methods for data collection and analysis for various road safety assessments. This guidance note provides a practical guide for using new data sources and analytical methods for road safety analysis in different types of projects that may impact road infrastructure or risk-related factors.
The World Health Oganisation (WHO) recently published the revised edition of the Manual on Drink-Driving: A Road Safety Manual for Decision-Makers and Practitioners. The Manual provides guidance for decision-makers and practitioners to reduce the prevalence of drink driving and associated road trauma. It draws on experience from countries that have succeeded in achieving and sustaining reductions in alcohol-related road trauma, and includes recommendations for developing and implementing drink driving legislation, and advice on how to monitor and evaluate progress.
The 8th Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2022 (RSS2022) took place with great success on 08-10 June 2022 at Zappeion Megaron in Athens organized by NTUA and HITE under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the City of Athens. NTUA actively contributed with the following papers and presentations:
-
Exploring the development of an open data platform for road safety KPIs - Which driving performance parameters affect speeding? A naturalistic driving experiment
- Investigation of accident modelling data in Greece
- A state-of-practice review on Crash Prediction Modelling
- A state-of-the-art Review on Crash Occurrence Analysis and Hazardous Location Identification
- Road Safety Audit Implementation – an international inquiry
- Methodological framework of creating the Levitate Policy-Support Tool for Connected and Automated Transport Systems
- Discovering the influence of feedback on driver behavior through a multiphase experiment based on a smartphone application
- Modeling the concept of a Safety Tolerance Zone: State-of-the-art and proposed alternatives
- Methodology for the Evaluation of Safety Interventions
- Real-Time Monitoring of Driver Distraction: State-of-the-art and Future Insights
- A review of risk factors associated with elderly, truck and office worker drivers for automated driving applications
- The role of values in road safety culture: Are motorcycle riders’ higher accident risk a result of their appreciation of freedom to take risk?
- How environmental charging policies affect urban road safety?
- The Demands of Road Environments as Perceived by Vulnerable Road Users
- Identifying crucial factors of the impact of COVID-19 on driving behaviour using feature analysis on naturalistic driving data
- Design of an on-road driving experiment on assessing driving behavior of older drivers
- Assessing Driving Performance of Older Drivers – A Literature Review
- Correlation of declared and revealed driver behaviour using smartphone sensors
- Exploring critical driving parameters affecting speeding using data from smartphones
- Factors contributing to safety-critical events in urban areas: A driving simulator study
- Identification of safety-critical events on rural roads using a driving simulator
- Investigation of traffic and safety behavior of pedestrians while talking on mobile phone
- The Role of Traffic Speed Range in Road Safety – The Case of Two-Lane Rural Highways
- Investigating the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on Eco-driving behavior
- Defining Vehicle Passing Trajectories utilizing GNSS Data
- Retroreflection Performance of Urban Road Signs
- Overtaking Trajectory Assessment Utilizing Data from Driving Simulator
- Vehicle Data Collection for Predicting Driving Behavior on Interchanges
- Road Safety and Digitalization
The 10th Symposium of European Association for Research in Transportation (hEART2022), co-organized by KU Leuven and the University of Luxembourg took place in Leuven, on 1-3 June 2022. The Symposium offered an opportunity for in depth discussion in all scientific methods and analyses in transport including safety, in plenary, in focus groups and in a summer school for PhD students on 31 May 2022.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organized with great success the Road Safety Performance Index Annual Conference (PIN conference) which was held online, on 15 June 2022. This year’s PIN Conference focused on assessing how improving road safety can help countries reach the 2030 target to cut road deaths and serious injuries by 50% and it also presented the 2022 PIN Award to a country that has made outstanding progress on improving road safety.
The 74th AAN Annual Meeting, organised by the American Academy of Neurology, took place with great success as a hybrid event (Seattle and online) on 2-7 April 2022. The AAN Annual Meeting is the largest international meeting of neurologists and neuroscience professionals and with the return to a live, in-person meeting in 2022, there was strong professional attendance. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation :
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation :
HUMANIST organized with great success the “HUMANIST Summer School 2022“, which was held in Vienna, Austria on 14-16 September 2022. The main topic of this Summer School session was “Human Factors, Automated Driving and Active Mobility” with 2 focusses: Psychological fitness to manage automated driving & Changing mobility behaviour towards more active travel: measuring ‘experience’ and cultural factors.
The EU-funded Horizon 2020 project Levitate (Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles) organized with great success the Project’s Final Conference, which was held in Brussels, on 25 May 2022. The LEVITATE partners shared the results achieved and the tools developed to assess the potential societal impacts of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) on the mobility system and wider livability goals, including safety, the environment, the economy and society. A focused presentation of the Levitate CCAM Policy Support Tool is also foreseen. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations :
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations :
The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 4th Newsletter. The Newsletter shares very interesting times for the project, with the first pilot sites progressing with their large-scale trials in public, allowing citizens to experience their automated solutions in public transport.
