Author: Konstantinos Kaselouris
EPFL is organising an one-week program on 11-15 February 2024 that undertakes an in-depth study of discrete choice models and their applications. It provides participants with the practical tools necessary for applying new discrete choice techniques. The course will cover various topics such as fundamental methodology, data collection, model design and estimation issues, forecasting techniques, examples and case studies. Researchers can apply for a scholarship until 8 December 2023. 
European Commission and the European Parliament launched with great success the EU Road Safety Exchange project for a second three-year phase with the active support of ETSC and NTUA. The project connects road safety experts from various European countries to tackle specific road safety challenges through twinning activities. A high-level event in Brussels marked the official launch of the project on 18 October 2023. The project and its launch event covered various themes, including the safety of infrastructure, effective enforcement, the protection of vulnerable road users and driver training.
The European Commission hosted with great success the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards on 19 October 2023 in Brussels, recognising the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter’s community of members towards the common goal of improved road safety across Europe. The award categories for 2023 included best use of data promoting road safety, best project promoting fitness to drive and supporting road safety in the e-commerce sector and best road safety project for road users with reduced mobility. Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) was chosen by the audience at the awards ceremony to receive the Jacques Barrot Award.
The European Commission published the latest figures on Road safety in the EU, showing that 20,640 people were killed in road crashes in 2022, a 4% increase in relation to 2021 as traffic levels recovered after the pandemic. While the underlying long-term trend is downward (-9% compared to pre-pandemic year), it is not decreasing at a fast enough pace to reach the EU target of halving the number of deaths by 2030. Preliminary figures for the first six months of 2023 indicate the number of deaths on EU roads has fallen slightly, compared with the same period in 2022.
Bolt micromobility operator is actively engaged to high level safety of its services and has recently published a Report introducing e-scooter safety and gaining a deeper insight into the world of safe Bolt e-scooter and e-bike rides. Bolt is assisted by a Micromobility Safety Committee composed by renown urban safety experts, with the active contribution of NTUA, which provide advice, feedback and recommendations regarding micromobility safety performance, strategy, and future initiatives.
The International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences (IATSS) is organising the 9th GIFTS Symposium, which will be held as a hybrid event (in Tokyo and online), on 1 December 2023. In this 9th forum, experts in transportation and safety as well as specialists from international organizations, have the opportunity to exchange opinions and discuss about the ideal traffic culture and sustainable society from the perspective of the “positive benefits”.
The first results of the ESRA3 (E-Survey of Road users’ Attitudes) global survey on road users’ safety attitudes, self-declared behaviour on traffic and other background data such as exposure and traffic legislation, have recently been published. VIAS, with the active contribution of NTUA, has produced the 39 Country Fact Sheets that show national results compared to regional average values. Several other thematic reports will be published in 2024.
The European Commission with the active contribution of NTUA, SWOV and KFV has launched a safe mobility promotion activity focusing on drink driving. According to two new Reports from the European Road Safety Observatory, around 25% of all road deaths in the EU are alcohol-related, representing 15 times higher crash risk than sober drivers. These Reports also highlight effective measures against impaired driving, which include: strict legislation backed by police enforcement, providing alternative transport means, awareness campaigns, rehabilitation courses, safety culture in companies, alcohol interlocks, and in-vehicle technology that warns or intervenes when impairment leads to critical events. 
Christina Alexopoulou, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Chairing the Road Safety Governmental Committee together with Konstantinos Kyranakis, Deputy Minister of Digital Governance, are set to implement the digitalization and automatisation of the system for traffic violations management within the framework of the National Road Safety Strategic Plan 2021 – 2030. NTUA Professor George Yannis will contribute actively, taking the role of Coordinator of the Executive Committee for Road Safety, which will focus on the new Road Safety Law & Road Traffic Code, the National Road Safety Observatory and the National Road Safety Communication Policy.
The European Commission proposed a list of principles, in order to boost cycling across Europe. This proposal recognises cycling as a sustainable, accessible and inclusive, affordable and healthy means of transport, with strong added value for the EU economy. The Declaration should serve as a strategic compass for existing and future policies and initiatives related to cycling. The proposed principles will help the EU achieve its European Green Deal, Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and Zero Pollution Action Plan objectives.
The National Safer Roads Partnerships Conference took place with great success in Manchester on 27-28 September 2023. Key topics discussed in this conference were science and technology within policing, a new way to measure traffic safety and road safety as a government priority. NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following key-note presentation:
Monitoring the Safe System Approach
Monitoring the Safe System Approach
The “Energy Save” Conference, organised with great success by Be best company, took place on 25 September 2023 at SNFCC in Athens. The theme of the conference was “How to reduce the energy footprint in traffic” by promoting electromobility, micromobility and road safety. NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following key-note presentation:
CRC Press has recently published a Handbook written by Christina Ludin-Brown and Ashleigh Filtness titled “Fatigue Management in Transportation”, which is designed as a comprehensive reference point, bringing together international expertise from leaders in fatigue science, and showcasing valuable insights from transportation industry practitioners. The 40 authored chapters of this handbook are divided into six sections, to better understand fatigue science, the consequences of fatigue in transportation, contributors to fatigue, managing fatigue and promoting alertness, real world case studies of fatigue management in practice, and future perspectives.
The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety (the Alliance) and the International Road Federation (IRF), with the support of the TotalEnergies Foundation program, have recently released the LEARN Guide, a new resource of information and support to empower road safety advocates globally. This guide is structured in six straightforward steps and enables NGOs and other road safety stakeholders to set up their own LEARN coalitions, benefiting from the tools and learning experiences of existing ones. 
The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) program on Star Rating for Schools and AiRAP partnerships will be scaled up to provide 3-star or better journeys to school and address road traffic crashes that are the leading cause of death among children and young people worldwide with the support of Google. By using artificial intelligence to identify high-risk 1- and 2-star roads that children use on their journey to school, potential hazards and mobilise evidence-based upgrades that will save children’s lives will be identified.
Global University Rankings demonstrate excellent scientific performance of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), our Civil Engineering School and our Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering, along with the NTUA Road Safety Observatory. This is the result of NTUA Scientists’ long standing culture of persistence to our fundamental research principles: a) Scientific Excellence with advanced and innovative technology concepts, b) Research with significant Impact to society and economy, c) State-of-the-art organisation for highly efficient Implementation, d) Systematic international Cooperations. Great thanks to the highly dedicated NTUA Road Safety Research Team and to all our European and worldwide partners. And the exciting journey towards scientific excellence continues …
The International Road Federation (IRF) released the 60th edition of the IRF World Road Statistics 2023 (WRS2023), 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 2023 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 2023 includes the latest data covering years 2016 to 2021, 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 .
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ETSC, Fundación MAPFRE and the Flemish Foundation for Traffic Knowledge (VSV) organised the 2023 edition of the European Traffic Education Seminar, which was held as an online event, on 12 September 2023. The aims of the seminar were to equip young road users to become safe road users, given the appropriate education. The seminar consisted of three distinct parts, focused on sustainable mobility with traffic safety, safe (pre-)driver and passenger behaviour and e-scooter education.
The 2023 International Research Council on the Biomechanics of Injury Europe Conference took part with great success in Cambridge, UK, on 13-15 September 2023. Through scientific conferences, training courses and other activities, the IRCOBI Council provides an academically rigorous forum for dissemination of the latest research into injury causation and protective systems.
The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has recently released the FIA Road Safety Index, a tool that provides Organisations with a methodology to assess their road safety performance and calculate their safety footprint, relying on a similar concept as the carbon footprint calculators. The safety footprint of an Organisation refers to the number of fatalities and seriously injured persons as a result of road crashes occurring within its entire value chain. Designed on the basis of a long-term commitment, the index offers a systematic approach to identify, measure and follow up road safety results from a value chain perspective.
The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety launched, with the active contribution of NTUA, an accountability toolkit, which is a set of practical, web-based tools. It offers tangible steps to equip NGOs to hold their governments accountable for the safety of all road users by reducing road deaths and injuries by 50% by 2030, in alignment with the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 (Global Plan). The toolkit is a practical resource for NGOs and other civil society advocates and is underpinned by five Priority Interventions that have been proven to be among the most effective in reducing road deaths and injuries.
An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Fuel price impact on driver harsh behaviour improvement in Greece” was recently presented by Panagiota Konstantakopoulou. It analyses the impact of fuel price on driver behaviour and explores how price changes can influence driving style, abruptness and speed. The research includes statistical data of fuel prices and driver behaviour for the years between 2019 and 2022. The increase in fuel prices has led to a reduction in sudden acceleration/deceleration. It was observed that during periods of increased fuel price, drivers improved their driving style and were more attentive to the task of driving, performing fewer abrupt events.
An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Impact of road safety culture elements on road crash risk in Greece” was recently presented by Nikolaos Veneris. In order to achieve this, data from the “Safe Culture” research regarding private car and motorcycle drivers in Athens and Rhodes were exploited. Subsequently, the answers from questions that serve the purposes of this thesis were picked and classified, in order to develop binary logistic regression models. Results indicate that drivers probably understand the importance of more intensive traffic enforcement as a means of traffic accident reduction, the development of a common road safety culture in the island of Rhodes in contrast to that of Athens and, last but not least, the importance of factors such as driving frequency, age and experience, on traffic accident probability.
An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Correlation of crash risk with driver capacity in coping with driving tasks complexity using machine learning” was recently presented by Spyros Tsigkos. A large set of driving data under real-life conditions in Great Britain was exploited and eight Structural Equation Models (SEM) were developed. It emerged that increasing the complexity of the trip increases the risk of a crash, while the deteriorated condition of the driver and the vehicle leads to increasing the crash risk. Male drivers have more high-severity abrupt incidents while driving compared to female drivers, which confirms the international literature.
An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Economic assessment of free public transport in Athens” was recently presented by Chrysavgi (Chrysa) Vagdatli. For this purpose, a social-economic analysis, in the context of a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), was conducted to assess the socio-economic impact of the FPT, up to the year 2030. In the framework of the CBA, four Scenarios for reduction of public transport tickets were examined. Consequently, a multinomial logistic model was developed to investigate for each of the three Scenarios the level preferring Athenians the FPT over private car, using data from a stated preference questionnaire survey. This social-economic analysis demonstrated that the introduction of FPT in Athens can contribute to social welfare mainly due to the modal shift from private cars to public transport.
Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Dimitris Nikolaou, Armira Kontaxi, Eva Michelaraki, Virginia Petraki, Maria G. Oikonomou, Marios Sekadakis, Thodoris Garefalakis, Research Associates of the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of NTUA were awarded with the NTUA Thomaidion Award for outstanding road safety publications in scientific journals. The awards for publications in Scientific Journals concerned:
- Nikolaou D., Typa D., Yannis G., Investigation of traffic and safety behavior of pedestrians while talking on mobile phone, Advances in Transportation Studies, Special Issue, Vol. 3, 2022, pp. 73-82.
- Ziakopoulos A., Petraki V., Kontaxi A., Yannis G., The transformation of the insurance industry and road safety by driver safety behaviour telematics, Case studies on transport policy, 10(4), pp. 2271-2279.
- Michelaraki E., Sekadakis M., Katrakazas C., Ziakopoulos A., & Yannis G. (2023). One year of COVID-19: Impacts on safe driving behavior and policy recommendations. Journal of safety research, 84, pp. 41-60.
- Petraki V., Papantoniou P., Korentzelou A., Yannis G., Public Acceptability of Environmentally Linked Congestion and Parking Charging Policies in Greek Urban Centers, Sustainability, 14(15), 9208.
- Tympakianaki A., Nogues L., Casas J., Brackstone M., Oikonomou M., Vlahogianni E. I., Djukic T. & Yannis G. (2022). Autonomous vehicles in urban networks: a simulation-based assessment. Transportation research record, 2676(10), pp. 540-552.
- Sekadakis M., Katrakazas C., Santuccio, E., Mortl, P., & Yannis G. (2022). Risk factors linked with elderly, truck and office worker drivers: a literature review in light of automated driving, Advances in transportation studies, pp. 3.
- Garefalakis T., Katrakazas C., Yannis G. Data-Driven Estimation of a Driving Safety Tolerance Zone Using Imbalanced Machine Learning, Sensors 2022, 22(14), 5309.
Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Dimitris Nikolaou, Armira Kontaxi, Eva Michelaraki, Maria G. Oikonomou and Marios Sekadakis, Research Associates of the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of NTUA were awarded with the NTUA Thomaidion Award for outstanding road safety publications in scientific journals. The awards for publications in Scientific Journals concerned:
- Ziakopoulos A., Spatial analysis of harsh driving behavior events in urban networks using high-resolution smartphone and geometric data. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 157, 106189 (2021).
- Ziakopoulos A., Nikolaou D., Yannis G., Correlations of multiple rider behaviors with self-reported attitudes, perspectives on traffic rule strictness and social desirability, Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, Vol.80, 2021, pp.313-327.
- Kontaxi A., Ziakopoulos A., Yannis G., Trip characteristics impact on the frequency of harsh events recorded via smartphone sensors, IATSS research, 45(4), pp. 574-583.
- Michelaraki E., Katrakazas C., Yannis G., Filtness A., Talbot R., Hancox G., Pilkington-Cheney F., Brijs K., Ross V., Dirix H., Neven A., Paul R., Brijs T., Fortsakis P., Frantzola E. K., Taveira R. (2021), Post-trip safety interventions: State-of-the-art, challenges, and practical implications. Journal of safety research, 77, pp. 67-85.
- Ziakopoulos A., Oikonomou M. G., Vlahogianni E. I., & Yannis G. (2021). Quantifying the implementation impacts of a point to point automated urban shuttle service in a large-scale network. Transport Policy, 114, pp. 233-244.
- Sekadakis M., Katrakazas C., Michelaraki E., Kehagia F., & Yannis G. (2021). Analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on collisions, fatalities and injuries using time series forecasting: The case of Greece. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 162, 106391.
NTUA Professor George Yannis is ranked 1st most productive European Scientist in Road Safety Research (8th globally and at the top 0.02% of all Scientists in the field), according to recent rankings from Expertscape‘s PubMed-based algorithms for the last 10 years. According to the same rankings, NTUA Road Safety research productivity is ranked 4th in Europe (and within the top 40 Universities globally).
The World Road Association – PIARC recently published two Reports titled “Road Safety in LMICs: Identification and Analysis of specific Issues” in two parts Literature review and Illustrative Examples. The first part starts from the notion that road safety is a multifaceted problem which requires a multi-disciplinary approach. The safe system approach is generally considered as the central concept for this purpose and this starting point is also taken in this study. The second part is a follow up of an earlier literature review, in which were indicated which specific issues do need further attention in LMICs in the coming period up to 2030.
