Author: agouma
Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) together with environmental and road safety organisations, has written to the European Commissioners responsible for Climate Action, Energy, Environment and Transport, calling for recommendations on lower speed limits as a way of tackling dependence on Russian oil, as well as emissions and road deaths. The six organisations say that with the catastrophic invasion of Ukraine, European reliance on Russian oil has become a strategic threat and the current crisis requires bold action. 
The ESRA2 Group (E-Survey of Road Users’ Attitudes) together with IFSTTAR/Universite Gustave Eiffel organised with great success the International Conference on Traffic Safety Culture and Performance Indicators that was held online, on 21 April 2022. The Conference was an opportunity to learn from in-depth scientific analyses of the ESRA databases, in relation to different types of road users and different aspects of attitudes, behavior and culture and highlight key road safety problems and solutions. 
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
The European Commission announced the winners of the European sustainable mobility Αwards, where Rethymno (Greece) won the EU Urban Road Safety Award. The jury was impressed by Rethymno’s inclusive approach to road safety, which targets three main pillars: upgrading the public transport system, increasing and encouraging behavioural change through a variety of activities, and the establishment of integrated cooperation with local stakeholders. The awards were presented at a hybrid ceremony in Brussels hosted by Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Transport and Mobility.
The Third Meeting of the Road Safety Governmental Committee was held on 31 March at the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The main priorities of the Government Road Safety Committee are the new National Road Safety Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2030, the new Road Safety Law and the improvements of the Road Traffic Code, the National Road Safety Repository and the National Road Safety Observatory. Participants in the committee were: the Minister of State Akis Skertsos, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Michalis Papadopoulos, the Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection Eleftherios Oikonomou, the Deputy Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Zeta Makri, the Alternate Minister of Health Mina Gaga, the Alternate Minister of Interior Stelios Petsas, on behalf of the Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Theodoros Livanios the General Secretary of Digital Governance and Procedures Leonidas Christopoulos and the General Secretary of Transport Giannis Xifaras.
The Intertraffic Exhibition 2022 was held in Amsterdam, on 29 March – 1 April 2022. The Exhibition offered mobility professionals the ability to experience the latest solutions for today’s challenges with all the experts in the field and to discover the latest trends in infrastructure, traffic management, smart mobility, road safety and parking. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
The European Commission published preliminary figures on Road safety in the EU, showing that road fatalities in 2021 remain well below pre-pandemic level. EU-wide, road deaths in 2021 rose by 5% on the previous year, although comparisons with 2020 are strongly influenced by the traffic level patterns in each country during the course of the pandemic. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of road fatalities fell by 17%.
The Road Safety Institute “Panos Mylonas” (RSI) in cooperation with the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) presented the Digital Platform DRIVE IN THE MOMENT, in the context of the 15th Panhellenic Road Safety Week, March 21-27, 2022. The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Costas Karamanlis, who attended the event, referred to the National Plan for Road Safety, which extends to four main axes: Safe Roads – Responsible Drivers – Traffic Education – Fair Rules for All and welcome the initiative of the “Drive in the Moment” program, which aims to raise awareness, especially among young people, about the serious issue of distraction by using a mobile phone while driving.
The European Commission published a Study titled Prevention of Driving under the Influence of Alcohol and Drugs. Among its conclusions, the Study argues in particular that taking steps to mitigate drink driving, such as lower permitted blood alcohol levels or alcohol interlocks, would be particularly relevant for young or novice drivers and for drivers of heavy goods vehicles. However, it also finds that there is a lack of data on drug-driving fatalities and a need to develop more accurate and usable drugs screening devices.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has written a letter that was published in the edition of the Financial Times, titled: Lower speed limits are a triple win for reducing dependence on Russian oil, emissions and road injury. According to the letter, a measure that could cut oil imports in the EU in the short term is to reduce speed limits across the bloc.
The European Platform of Transport Sciences (EPTS) organized with great success the 20th European Transport Conference under the theme “After pandemic – before autonomous transport“, which was held in Gyor, Hungary, on 9-10 June 2022. This Conference was special, as it was a joint event with the European Transport Congress organized by the European Platform of Transport Sciences.
The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published 4 Reports on Road Safety in Africa: Road Safety Data in Africa, Africa Status Report on Road Safety in Africa, Road Safety Strategies for African Cities and Road Safety Culture in Africa (with the active contribution of NTUA), analysing findings for road safety on the African continent. The main goal of these Reports is to support the quest for reaching the target of a 50% reduction of road fatalities in the Africa by 2030.
World Bank published a Knowledge Report titled Saving Lives Through Private Investment in Road Safety. This Report examines the enabling environment for structuring investable road safety projects in a sample of countries, looking at the barriers and opportunities, and proposing risks and mitigation strategies, like blended finance mechanisms and stable revenue sources, for long-term sustainability of road safety investments. 
The EU-funded Horizon 2020 project Levitate (Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles) organised with great success a Webinar under the theme “Building a dialogue with the LEVITATE cities” which was held online, on 7 April 2022. The participants had the opportunity to learn about the principles of backcasting, how a dialogue with city authorities led to valuable qualitative inputs for the research, and how the final results of the impact assessment relate to the backcasting approach.
Road fatalities in Greece in 2021 presented a slight increase (4%) compared to 2020 figures, according to the provisional ELSTAT data. This slight increase is mainly attributed to the returning back to normal traffic from the pandemic period. During the last decade, Greece presented an impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of 38% in road fatalities since 2012 and a decrease of serious injuries of 60%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 42% since 2012. 
The Horizon 2020 project HADRIAN (Holistic Approach for Driver Role Integration and Automation Allocation for European Mobility Needs) issued recently the 2nd Newsletter, with updates on the main project activities, focusing on studying the effects of haptic feedback, optimized head-up displays, adding predictability of the automated drive, and improved visual and auditory display elements and many more – all in the context of a holistic view on automated driving.
The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) organised with great success the Road Safety Strategies and targets for the Decade 2021-2030 Webinar, which was held online, on 10 March 2022. The Webinar focused on new road safety strategies and targets. NTUA contributed actively with the following presentation:
A Special Road Safety Event attended by the European Road Safety Coordinator, Matthew Baldwin and the Executive Director of the European Transport Safety Council ETSC, Antonio Avenoso, was successfully organized by the member of the European Parliament Elena Kountoura in Athens, on 14 March 2022. The guests presented and analyzed the goals, the challenges and the opportunities for improving road safety in the European Union the following years.
Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 42nd PIN Flash Report titled How Traffic Law Enforcement Can Contribute to Safer Roads with the active contribution of NTUA. Exceeding speed limits, drink- or distracted- driving, and failure to wear a seatbelt are among the important factors leading to death and serious injury on European roads. Road safety laws have been adopted to guide drivers in their behaviour. Many comply with them willingly. Others, however, would be less likely to comply if it were not for fear of being detected and sanctioned. This is where traffic law enforcement comes in. This Report gives an overview of the current state of road traffic enforcement across the EU, with recommendations for action.
The International Road Federation (IRF) organized with great success the Innovation Driving the Future of Sustainable Mobility Workshop that was held in Amsterdam, on 30 March 2022. This Workshop marked the launch of a new IRF Committee on Innovation with the active participation of NTUA. An overarching Committee with subgroups provided a unique platform to share expertise and knowledge and to tailor solutions (policy and technical) to the pressing issues our sector is facing.
Together for Safer Roads Global Coalition published a Report titled Driver Attitudes Towards Vehicle Safety Technology. Fleet Managers now have access to GPS-based telematics and in-cab driver assistance technology that is often paired with in-cab dash cameras—all of which can keep drivers and the public safe. Since many drivers and even some managers are critical of the technology, significantly impacting adoption and use, this Report helps to better understand what makes drivers reluctant to adopt in-cab camera technology and identify what can be done to positively influence perceptions.
The Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) organised with great success a Webinar under the theme: Network-wide Road Safety Assessment (Article 5) of RISM II, which was held on 3 March 2022. CEDR WG Road Safety aims to develop and share knowledge among NRAs on the improvement of safety of road infrastructure. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The Austrian Road Safety Board (KFV) and the European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (EuroSafe) co-organized with great success the EU-Safety 2022 which was held in Vienna, on 23-24 June 2022. The main topic of the Conference was the safety level in a digitalized and fast-changing world and how smart will injury prevention get.
The School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens organized with great success 5 Workshops in the field of Urban and Spatial Planning which were held in Athens, on 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 March 2022. In the Workshops, many interesting topics were covered such as Metropolitan Planning, Urban Endurance and Sustainable Mobility. NTUA Professor George Yannis contributed actively with the following presentation:
NTUA Professor George Yannis contributed actively with the following presentation:
A paper titled “Spatial predictions of harsh driving events using statistical and machine learning methods” authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Eleni Vlachogianni, Constantinos Antoniou and George Yannis is published in Safety Science. Spatial models including Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression, Bayesian Conditional autoregressive models (CAR), and variations of EXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) are implemented. The purpose is to: (i) explore parameters affecting frequencies of harsh driving events through causal spatial models in an urban road network and (ii) assess the predictive performance of models by testing the transferable components of these models in a new urban network test area. The models are trained and evaluated in terms of accuracy and transferability for Harsh Breaking (HB) predictions in separate areas of Athens, Greece. Findings indicate key geometrical characteristics affecting HB frequencies per road segment. 
A paper titled “Development of a Roadmap for the Implementation of a Sustainable Mobility Action Plan in University Campuses of Emerging Countries” authored by Tormo-Lancero M., Valero-Mora P., Sanmartin J., Sánchez-García M., Papantoniou P., Yannis G., Alonso F. and Campos-Díaz E. is published in Frontiers in Sustainable Cities. In this paper a customizable standardized Roadmap design is proposed, which consists of two documents: a tactical document that provides a global and sequential vision of the entire plan, and an operational document that details the actions for each strategic line. This roadmap is accompanied by a catalog of objectives, measures, and cost and impact indicators. This design might be instructive for universities because of its universal characteristics in Emerging Countries. To ensure this, it is necessary to apply this roadmap and carry out the corresponding evaluation.
ITS America, ERTICO and ITS Asia-Pasific co-organised the 28th ITS World Congress which was held in Los Angeles, on 18-22 September 2022, under the theme: “Transformation by Transportation”. ITS World Congress is the forum to make meaningful connections, experience inventive conference program presented by industry experts, and see cutting-edge technology in the Exhibit Hall. ITS World Congress allows the smart mobility community to come together to explore the deployment of intelligent transportation technologies that saves lives, improves mobility, promotes sustainability, and increases efficiency and productivity.
ERTICO organised with great success the 14th ITS European Congress which took place in Toulouse, on 30 May – 1 June 2022. The ITS Congresses represent the ultimate showcase of mobility services deployment and are the means for the ITS Community to keep pace with the incredible evolution of the industry. Over the years, the European Congresses have offered a platform for thought leaders, developers, entrepreneurs and decision makers from the transport, logistics and IT industries to share ideas and progress smart and sustainable mobility.
The NTUA Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering organised with great success a Scientific Workshop titled “Telematics and Improvement of Driver Behavior” which took place in Athens on February 22nd, 2022. Key driver telematics research findings were demonstrated and discussed, highlighting spectacular safety benefits from monitoring, evaluation and improvement of driver behaviour through feedback tools, social gamification schemes and motivation for drivers.
Workshop Presentations:
Workshop Presentations:
Telematics and improvement of driving behavior- Telematics and Internet of Things
- Naturalistic driving experiments as a driving behavior recording tool
- Assesment and Improvement of driving behavior and safety through the application of BeSmart
- Investigation of speeding and aggressive behavior of professional drivers on highways through an innovative smartphone application
- Driver-vehicle-environment interactions and the safety tolerance zone – i-Dreams
- Predicting unsafe driving events on motorway segments – i-safemodels
- Smart city mapping for safer and eco driver behaviour – SmartMaps
POLIS, the European Cities Network, organised with great success the 2022 Annual Polis Conference, which took place in Brussels, on 30 November and 1 December 2022. The POLIS Annual Conference provided an opportunity for cities and regions to showcase their transport achievements to a large audience of mobility experts, practitioners and decision-makers. Urban Road Safety is a key conference priority.
The European Commission aiming to improve road safety and in order to prepare a Revision of the current Directive on driving licences, is opening a call for expressions of interest to participate in a series of workshops on EU rules regarding driving licenses. These three workshops aim to collect stakeholders’ views for the purpose of preparing a possible revision of the Directive on driving licences. Each workshop will tackle a specific element of the EU driving license rules: 1: training, testing and vehicle categories; 2: issuance and mutual recognition of driving licenses; and 3: driving disqualifications and fitness to drive.
