The International Road Federation (IRF) organised the IRF Global Road Conference on 7-9 November 2018, in Las Vegas, USA. The theme of the Conference was “Building the Transport Infrastructure of Tomorrow“. The IRF Global Road Conference was the new international meeting point where leading industry innovators, researchers, and stakeholders acquire essential engineering & business insights, and help build tomorrow’s transportation infrastructure today. 

iRAP organized a workshop entitled: “Tackling the transition to highly automated vehicles – the assessment of road and vehicle investment priorities” which took place with great success on 8-10 November 2017 in Automotive Campus, Helmond, Netherlands. The iRAP innovation workshop brings together policy and technical leaders, along with investment experts and those with the capacity to implement change and eliminate high-risk roads. Global leaders who, together, will play a significant role in ensuring safer infrastructure and safer speeds do their part in delivering a safe road and transport system. 

The World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET) organised the ICTTP 2018: 20th International Conference on Traffic and Transportation Psychology on 22-23 October 2018, in Bali, Indonesia. The Conference aimed to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of Traffic and Transportation Psychology. It also provided a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Traffic and Transportation Psychology. ICTTP 2018 has teamed up with the Special Journal Issue on Traffic and Transportation Psychology. 

The International Conference on Traffic Safety “The impact of Education and Training on Traffic Behaviour” was organised by the Emirates Traffic Safety Society (ETSS), the Arab Road Safety Organization (AROSO), La Prévention Routiére Internationale (PRI) and the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) and took place with great success in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on 1-2 November 2017. The conference’s main objectives were, among others, to ensure the importance of the individuals behavior as road users in society and to highlight the role of educational organizations in the different stages to implant the traffic education into students.  NTUA presentation concerned:

•  Road Safety Training for Professional Drivers: Worldwide Practices

The Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) organised the 5th Africa Road Safety Event, which was held with great success in Cape Town, South Africa on 23-24 October 2017. To meet the fast-approaching UN SDG target to halve deaths by 2020 there is need for sharing successes and results across the region. GRSP brought together Governments, Financial Institutions, industry and civil society partners who are making an impact. The Africa Road Safety 2017 event provided practical knowledge on: Global success stories from GRSP, WHO Save LIVES package, the latest on GRSP Road Safety Management initiatives, and Coordinating action on Safer Road Users. 

NTUA contributed actively with two presentations:

•  Data Capturing and Management Challenges in Africa
•  Establishment of the African Road Safety Observatory

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. 

NTUA actively contributed with 8 presentations:

•   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

2017 NETS’ Strength in numbers Annual Conference was held in Charlottesville, Virginia, on October 14-15. The conference convenes each year to review the results of NETS’ annual Strength in numbers Fleet Safety Benchmark Report, as well as to hear about featured road safety case studies, new research, emerging issues, and projects that are underway. This year the conference included: keynote presentations by industry leaders, road safety case studies, new research & technology solutions, emerging issues, ongoing projects, 2016 STRENGTH IN NUMBERS® Fleet Safety Benchmark Report, opportunity to network with other road safety professionals. 

How can countries best harness transport and trade to drive progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? How can enhancing countries’ statistics on trade, transport and road safety support this process? This was the focus of discussions at a Workshop organized by UNECE in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs and Ministry of Economy of Montenegro, on 11-12 October 2017 in Podgorica, Montenegro. A key objective was strengthening countries’ knowledge of road safety, transport and trade-related SDGs, with UNECE highlighting the relevance of the SDG framework to the sustainability of national transport and trade policies. 

NTUA presentation concerned:

 Greek Road Safety Statistics – Best Practices

The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) organised with great success the 6th IRTAD Conference, “Better road safety data for better safety outcomes” on 10-12 October 2017, in Marrakech, Morocco. The objectives of the conference were to discuss improvements in the quality of data systems and data analysis in IRTAD and other countries through discussion of methodological issues to improve road safety data collection and analysis at country and city level, through showcasing recent initiatives to improve the quality of safety data collection and analysis and through presentation of recent research and analysis undertaken by the IRTAD Group. 

Marrakech Declaration on Better Safety Data for Better Road Safety Outcomes: 

NTUA actively contributed with 6 presentations:

 Pan-African Road Safety Knowledge and Data Centre

 A Critical Review of International Road Safety Databases

 An Overview of Road Safety Statistics in Africa

 Current and future challenges of the European Road Safety Observatory

 SafetyCube – The European Road Safety Decision Support System

  An assessment of the effectiveness of formal tools to address road network deficiencies

The 2017 TISPOL Conference “Safer Roads: Everybody’s Opportunity” organised by the European Traffic Police Network took place on 3-4 October 2017, in Manchester. The event offered a fantastic opportunity to hear some of the latest thinking in the field of casualty reduction, deterrent, post-collision response, enforcement and protection of vulnerable road users. Two days of compelling and engaging content were delivered without exception by passionate and enthusiastic people, all with something worthwhile to add to the theme of innovation and success.

The Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) and the Hellenic Institute of Transport (H.I.T.) co-organized the 8th International Congress on Transport Research (ICTR), which was held with great success on 27-29 September 2017, in Thessaloniki, Greece., with Scientific Committee Chair NTUA Prof. George Yannis. The spotlight theme of the 2017 Congress is: The Future of Transportation in Greece: A Vision for 2030. The ICTR has been a major event in the field of transportation research in Greece for the past 15 years with the active contribution of the research and academic community, the authorities as well as the public and private sector involved in the development and implementation of innovative projects in the field of transport. 

  Analysis of Alternative Scenarios for Managing Traffic Incidents Through Micro Simulation

  Attitudes of Greek drivers towards autonomous vehicles

  Association of stated and revealed driving behaviour using an On-Board-Diagnostics system

  Corellating driving behaviour and characteristics

  Predicting Road ACcidents – a Transferable methodology across Europe

  An overview of road accident fatalities in the European Union

  An overview of risk factors related to driver distraction: Reviews and meta-analyses

  Overview of the European Road Safety Decision Support System

  Assessing Road Safety Management in Africa

  Methodological Issues & Concerns from Using Smartphones to Collect Driving & Mobility Data

  Modeling Powered Two Wheelers’ overtaking maneuvers using Game Theory

.

Sessions’ minutes are available here: 

Congress evaluation report is available here: 

Oral presentations archive is available here: 

On the occasion of the World Day of Alzheimer Disease (21/09/2017), the Department of Mental Disorders / Dementia of the Second Neurological Clinic of the University Hospital “Attikon” organized with great success an informational event on the latest developments in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia diseases, in Attikon General Hospital, on 23 September 2017. The event included speeches by professors of the Athens University Medical School and specialized health professionals who answered questions in relation to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and other topics related dementias. NTUA presentation concerned:

 Assessment of driving behaviour of patients with Dementia, Parkinson’s Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment; Diagnostic and Predictive Indicators

The 4th European Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (EU-Safety-2017) took place in Amsterdam on September 21-22, 2017, organised by EuroSafe in collaboration with VeiligheidNL (Consumer Safety Institute). The conference builds on the many European Injury Prevention Conferences successfully organised over the past decades by EuroSafe and the success of the World Safety-2016 Conference (in Tampere, September last year) which was attended by the largest European contingent ever. This year the main theme of the conference is: “Safety Promotion in Action”.  

The 6th Annual International Cycling Safety Conference was held with great success, for the first time outside of Europe, in Davis, California, USA, the “Bicycling Capital of the United States” at 21-22 September 2017, organised by the National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) and the European initiators SWOV, TU Delft, TNO and Chalmers. The conference brought together a truly international group to discuss the most relevant topics on the safety of bicycling. 

The 2017 International Research Council on the Biomechanics of Injury Europe Conference took place in Antwerp, Belgium, on 13-15 September 2017. The focus of IRCOBI is on the avoidance and reduction of the severity of traffic accidents, with special emphasis on advanced safety technologies and the biomechanics of injury. 

The World Road Association (PIARC)’s Technical Committee D.5 “Road Tunnel Operations”, the French PIARC Committee and the French Center for Tunnel Studies (CETU) are pleased to announce the First International Conference on Road Tunnel Operations and Safety, which will be held in Lyon, France on 3-5 October 2018. It will be of great relevance for owners, operators, designers, representatives of fire departments, suppliers, installers. PIARC’s Technical Committee on Road Tunnel Operations is recognised as a reference technical body. It brings together almost 140 people worldwide and is very active on the subject of the operation and safety of road tunnels. In recent years, it has published 8 technical reports and developed an on-line reference manual. 

The 12th ITS European Congress took place with great success from 19 to 22 June 2017 at the Strasbourg Convention Centre. Under the theme “ITS Beyond Borders”, the Congress focused on the people, intelligent mobility users, as every day hundreds of thousands of them are crossing the French-German border to live their daily lives. During the Congress, the City and Eurometropolis of Strasbourg and ERTICO – ITS Europe hosted the second edition of the Mayors’ Summit. City mayors and leaders from Europe gathered again to explore opportunities, experiences and strategies related to present and future contributions of ITS to seamless travel and sustainable, efficient and innovative mobility. The 12th European ITS Congress 2017 was organised by ERTICO – ITS Europe in partnership with the European Commission and hosted by the City and Eurometropolis of Strasbourg.

The 2017 PIN Conference took place with great success in Brussels on 20 June, organised by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). The EU has set a target to halve road deaths by 2020. Which countries are on track, and which are playing catch-up? At the 2017 PIN conference, ETSC launched its latest Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) annual report looking at why some countries are still making progress on road safety and some are going in reverse. Two areas were highlighted where action is needed to ensure future progress: work-related road safety and reducing deaths in single-vehicle collisions. The event also saw the unveiling of this year’s PIN Award winner, presented to Switzerland for outstanding progress on road safety. 

The International Journal of Driving Science (IJDS) organised the 1st IJDS symposium in Haarlem, The Netherlands, which took place on 14-15 June 2017. In this symposium, intelligent vehicle technologies integrated with human factors in applied research. Here, researchers and engineers from academia, industry and government meet and present their latest findings and state-of-the-art technology.  

The Living and Walking in Cities Conference, organised by the Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics of Universita Degli Studi di Brescia, now in its 23rd edition, was held with great success in Brescia, on 15-16 June 2017. This Conference traditionally looks at different themes concerning the quality of life in urban areas and the goal of this event is to gather researchers, road users, administrators, technicians, city representatives and experts aiming to discuss problems that affect the safety of pedestrians in the city, especially of children and persons with reduced mobility. The conference covers international issues, national and local policies and the implementation of projects at the local level.  

The Vision Zero Conference organised by the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Administration) and Transportstyrelsen (the Swedish Transport Agency) and took place in Stockholm on 14-15 June 2017. How do we reach Vision Zero in the light of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals? The aim of the Vision Zero Conference was to provide new impetus to the promotion of road transport safety at the strategic level. The main focus was on best practice, innovation and future challenges. The Vision Zero Conference’s different sessions:

• Vision Zero around the world/UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
• 20 years with Vision Zero
• Livable Cities
• New Technology and Innovation
• Role of Humans and Organisation from a Vision Zero perspective

Policy makers, road safety practitioners, together with high-level representatives from industry and international academia shared their experiences, aim to find common goals and discuss the way forward.  

The 49th CIECA General Assembly and Congress took place in Trondheim, Norway, on 8-9 June 2017. With the Congress, entitled “Well-educated driving instructors and examiners: a pre-requisite for responsible drivers”, CIECA focused on the current efforts in the field to affirm that the quality of the education of driving examiners and driving instructors, has a decisive impact in the process of developing future responsible drivers. 

The 6th International Naturalistic Driving Research Symposium and the UDRIVE Final Event organized by SWOV, Virginia Tech and UDRIVE took place with great success in Hague, Netherlands, on 7-9 June 2017. The 6th International Naturalistic Driving Research Symposium provided with a thorough overview of international naturalistic driving and riding studies and insight into the next generation of this type of studies. In 2017, the symposium was organized in conjunction with the EC FP7 UDRIVE research project, where the results of this European Naturalistic Driving study were presented. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

  Naturalistic Aerial Approaches for Monitoring Powered Two Wheelers

  Monitoring distraction through smartphone naturalistic driving experiment

The Laboratory of Health and Road Safety of the TEI of Crete (LaHeRS) organised with great success a Workshop titled: “Promoting Road Safety Culture” in Heraklion, Crete, Greece on 29 May. Several presentations covered a large spectrum of promoting road safety culture such as research, interventions, promotion programs, targeted actions and good practices. The main conclusion of the Workshop is the need to adopt an holistic approach and to promote interdisciplinary cooperation in promoting road safety.    NTUA presentations concerned:

Road accidents characteristics and countermeasures

The SafeCulture project – Results on safety culture in professional transport in Greece

The 50th CIECA General Assembly and Congress took place with great success on 29 May – 01 June 2018, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The General Assembly and Congress was hosted by the Driver & Vehicle Agency. This year’s theme was “Safe driving for life: changing attitude and behaviour through education, training and testing” 

The Hellenic Association of Driving Instructors organised with great success the 1st International Interdisciplinary Conference on Road Safety and Children in Thessaloniki on 19-21 May 2017. Several results from road accident data analysis and methodologies and modern technologies related to road safety with focus to children were presented.    NTUA presentations concerned:

Road accidents involving children in Europe and in Greece

Problems and solutions for children road safety in developed countries

NTUA within the framework of the Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week organised with great success a Workshop titled “The Future of Road Safety Research” on 15 May 2017 at the NTUA Campus in Athens. The objective of this Workshop was to highlight through an intensive flow of presentations the main findings and challenges of key road safety research projects carried out within the NTUA Laboratory of Traffic Engineering and to open up the discussion in a round table on the future of road safety research in Greece, in Europe and worldwide. Special emphasis was be given to managing speed for improving road safety in line with the UN Global Road Safety Week objectives. 

Workshop presentations concerned:

  The NTUA Road Safety Observatory – Nrso

  The European Road Safety Observatory – Erso+

  The European Road Safety Decision Support System – SafetyCube

  The CEDR Road Safety APM and CMF Repository – Pract

 The African Road Safety Observatory – SaferAfrica

 Global benchmarking of road safety in cities – IrtadCities

 Predicting road accidents with real time data – WeatherSafe

 Monitoring road safety culture in Europe – SafeCulture

 Monitoring road safety attitudes in Europe – Esra

 Monitoring behaviour of older road users in Europe – ElderSafe

 Monitoring road safety risk factors and measures – SafetyCube

 Monitoring driver distraction – Distract

 Monitoring behaviour of drivers with cognitive impairment – DriverBrain

 Monitoring driver behaviour through mobile phones – OSeven

   Round Table

  The future of road safety research – HELLASTRON

 The future of road safety research – Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport

 Quantitative Methods in Road Safety – HITE

The 13th PRI World Congress and Exhibition on “Road Governance & its Impact on Road Safety: Achieving UN Decade of Action’s Road Safety Targets“, organised by La Prévention Routière Internationale (PRI) took place with great success in Gammarth, Tunisia, on 3 – 7 May 2017. The aim of the Congress was to: identify dangerous roadside hazards, understand the issues facing pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclist, public transport and non-motorized vehicle safety, obtain an understanding of work zones & how they can be made safer, learn how to create a road safety audit team and discuss how to collect data to assess the performance of roads, and how technology can be utilized to enhance operations and safety of roads.    NTUA presentation concerned:

 ‘Road Safety Investments and Interventions in South East Europe‘

A new two-day short course “The Safe System Approach: Managing for Better Road Safety Results” which has been developed by the Loughborough University Design School in association with Jeanne Breen Consulting took place with great success on 11-12 April 2017, in Loughborough. The background to this initiative is the adoption of Safe System by an increasing number of agencies, cities and jurisdictions in the United Kingdom and in the British Road Safety Statement.  This two-day course has been formulated to support professionals from the many sectors and disciplines involved in road safety and road traffic injury prevention, both in public and private sectors. The aim is to assist in the understanding of the Safe System goal and approach and what is involved in its broad implementation in terms of transport, planning, highway, vehicle, health, insurance, enforcement, education and research fields. 

Since New York City adopted its Vision Zero policy in 2014, other cities across the US have launched their own initiatives aimed at eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries. The street safety advocacy group Transportation Alternatives held its third Vision Zero Cities conference, on 4-5 May in New York City, bringing together policy makers and experts from around the nation and world to formulate new strategies to save lives. “With traffic fatalities and injuries spiking across the nation, many Vision Zero cities are experiencing setbacks in their efforts as we begin 2017,” said Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. “We’re calling on our street safety warriors and defenders to join forces and share ideas to keep the movement on track and rolling.” 

More than 50 experts from cities around the world met in Paris, France, on April 20-21 for the first Workshop of the “Safer City Streets” global traffic safety network for liveable cities created by the International Transport Forum with support from the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) in October 2016. Just over six months after its launch, Safer City Streets counts 38 participating cities around the world. The first meeting provided the opportunity to exchange knowledge on road safety policies and learn from other cities’ experiences.

A joint workshop session with POLIS, the European network of cities and regions for sustainable transport, further explored the issue of risk exposure data and addressed collaboration with hospitals to improve knowledge of crashes.    NTUA’s presentation concerned:

 Safer City Streets – Methodological Framework

The International Road Transport Union (IRU), the world’s road transport organisation, is leading a global initiative looking into the role and place of passenger transport, in particular that of buses and taxis, in the future mobility ecosystem by 2030. IRU is organising a Workshop on Mobility 2030, on 9 May 2017 in New Delhi, India. This workshop aims at contributing to a global vision on Mobility for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and implementing New Urban Agenda as also to help the developing countries like India to address the challenge of rising congestion and pollution, particularly in urban areas, and to better tap into the tremendous opportunities that sustainable transport can make possible. 

The Road Traffic Safety Agency of Serbia (RTSA) together with several Serbian and international road safety Governmental, Academic and other organisations organised the 12th International conference Road Safety in Local Communities that was held in Tara Mountain, Serbia, on 19-22 April 2017.  

• Strengthening of institutional capacity to further national road safety efforts
• Improve the safety of road network
• Improve vehicle safety
• Improve road safety behaviors
• Improve care after traffic accident

The European Association of Operators of Toll Road Infrastructures (ASECAP) held with great success its 10th Annual Road Safety Conference on Tuesday 21 March 2017 in Brussels on the theme: “Road safety – A shared responsibility. A story of success or failure?”, composed by two parts. Part One focused on a) EU priority on road safety: are we fulfilling the EU safety action plan? and b) The infrastructure of tomorrow: what role to play in the EU safety action plan (explanations and expectations)? Part Two concerned the theme Life saving chain: avoiding road safety fatalities and reducing serious injuries. 

Road Safety GB is staging a national conference for road safety data analysts in Birmingham in March 2017. The conference, which was organised by Road Safety GB in partnership with Road Safety Analysis, has now become an annual event. The conference took place on Thursday 2nd March 2017 in Birmingham, UK. 

The Fifth Global Meeting of Nongovernmental Organizations Advocating for Road Safety and Road Victims took place on 3-6 April 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Alliance brought together global members, dignitaries and distinguished guests from the field of road safety and public health. There were ample opportunities for networking and learning from NGOs around the world. The main aims were to facilitate members’ continued involvement in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals and to prepare for important road safety key events, such as the Fourth UN Road Safety Week in May 2017. 

The European Commission, with the support of the EC-funded projects CARTRE and SCOUT, organized its First European Conference on connected and automated driving: ‘Connected and Automated Driving – Together, shaping the future’. The high-level conference was held in Brussels on the 3 and 4 April 2017. The event was a unique opportunity for all participants to network and to discuss on how to boost the development and deployment of connected and automated driving technologies from a fourfold perspective: transport policy issues; technological challenges; legal and regulatory frame, and digital transformation. 

The European Commission, in collaboration with the Maltese Presidency of the European Union, organised with great success a High-Level Conference on Road Safety in Valletta, Malta. This participatory stakeholder event brought together road safety experts, stakeholders and political decision-makers on 28th March 2017, followed by a Ministerial Conference on the 29th March 2017. The objective of this conference was to launch a political debate and outline future political direction. 

• The Presentation of the 2016 road safety statistics by the Commissioner for Mobility and Transport, Violeta Bulc: 
• The Valletta Declaration on Road Safety: 
• The Recommendations about: Road safety strategies and policies , Enforcement of traffic rules , Infrastructure safety , Smart road solutions , Vulnerable road users 

The 5th International Conference on Driver Distraction and Inattention organised by IFSTTAR, ARRB Group and SAFER took place with great success (20-22 March 2017), in Paris. Presentations concern new forms of mobility (e.g. autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, soft modes of transport, etc.), other road user groups (e.g. motorcyclists, bicyclists, pedestrians, etc.), new modes of HMI interaction (e.g. voice recognition, I-watches, gesturing, etc.), new sources of distraction from outside the vehicle (e.g. advertising on moving trucks, bus shelters, mobile trailers, etc.), and sources of distraction in domains other than transport (e.g. aviation, medicine, process control, etc.).  The e-proceedings of DDI17 are now available:  NTUA contributed with two presentations concerning:

 The detrimental effect of mobile phone use on the driving competence of patients with neurological diseases affecting cognitive functions

 How does distracted driving affect lateral position of older drivers?

The 10th Road Safety Week organised by the Road Safety Institute ‘Panos Mylonas’ (RSI) and the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers  (HITE) on 18-24 March 2017, with information and awareness actions in Attica and throughout Greece, in order to provide appropriate information for accident prevention which are a scourge on our society. With the quote “Responsible driving means respect for life!“, this year’s tenth road safety week gives priority to enhancing road safety, responsible driving and courtesy on the Greek roads, through initiatives for education and awareness to road safety for all users road: students, parents, teachers, citizens and policy makers.  

The first SSATP Annual Meeting under the Third Development Plan (DP3) took place with great success in Marrakech, Morocco during the week of February 20-24, 2017. Within this Annual Meeting a Workshop regarding road safety data was co-organised by the Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) of the World Bank and the International Road Traffic Accident Database organisation (IRTAD) of the ITF/OECD, in which several road safety experts and stakeholders from Africa and worldwide contributed in vivid discussion for the improvement of road safety data in Africa. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Quelles données de sécurité routière pour quels usages? Les acteurs

 L’Observatoire de Sécurité Routière SaferAfrica

The 10th Panhellenic Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders and the 2nd Mediterranean Conference on Neurodegenerative Diseases, took place with great success in Thessaloniki, on 2-5 February 2017. The Panhellenic Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases, in cooperation with the Greek Association of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders organized this, well-established, meeting of top scientists from Greece and around the world, at the fertile ground of a Conference, which for sixteen years informs and educates health professionals and caregivers. 

A special session dedicated to “driving behavior in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease” included the NTUA presentation:

Drivers with AD and MCI: The predictive value of neurological and neuropsychological measures

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 96th Annual Meeting was held with great success in Washington, D.C., on 8-12 January 2017. The information-packed program attracted a record number of more than 14,000 transportation professionals from around the world. The meeting program covered all transportation modes, with more than 5,800 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops, addressing topics of interest to policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. The 800 sessions and workshops focused on the spotlight theme for the 2017 meeting: Transportation Innovation: Leading the Way in an Era of Rapid Change.   

NTUA presentations concerned:

  Stochastic cusp catastrophe models with traffic and weather data for crash severity analysis on urban arterials

  Willingness-to-Pay for Usage-Based Motor Insurance

  Can driving at the simulator “diagnose” cognitive impairments?

  When no difference makes a difference: older drivers, medical conditions, and freeway ramp negotiation

SaferAfrica: Innovating Dialogue and Problems Appraisal for a Safer Africa

Developing the European Road Safety Support System within the SafetyCube project

Roadside and Median Deficiencies within the SafetyCube Road Safety Decision Support System

The Hellenic Association of Driving Instructors with the support of the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers, the Hellenic Society of Automotive Engineers, organised the 2nd Interdisciplinary Conference “Society of Traffic and Road Safety: Crossing Glances”, which took place with great success in Athens on 7-9 January 2017. This Interdisciplinary Road Safety Conference brought together all road safety experts, stakeholders and Authorities in Greece in order to discuss current road accident problems and solutions in Greece with emphasis on road safety training and education. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

Autonomous vehicles safety challenges

The role of driving instructors on mixed traffic of autonomous and not-autonomous vehicles

The 2nd Annual Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems and related developments in Greece, organised by ITS Hellas took place with great success in Athens, on 19-20 December 2016. Aim of the conference was to discuss the latest developments and the wide application of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in Greece, as a mean of economic development and prosperity and to ensure the effectiveness, efficiency and transport safety for the benefit of users and the environment.  

The NTUA presentation concerned: Intelligent Transportation Systems supporting older drivers: Review and Future directions 

A Regional workshop on road safety, hosted by the Kenya National Transport and Safety Authority and co-organised by the Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) of the World Bank, the International Road Traffic Accident Database organisation (IRTAD) of the ITF/OECD and the United Nations Economic Commissions for Africa and for Europe, took place with great success in Nairobi, Kenya from 13 to 15 December 2016. 

This Workshop covered United Nations Road Safety legal instruments, fundamentals of road safety data management and minimum data requirements for all African countries to monitor progress towards the Decade of Action for Road Safety and Sustainable Development Goals, with active participation of African international road safety stakeholders and experts, including the active contribution of NTUA with the following presentations:

Africa Road Safety Workshop Safety Performance Indicators 

The SaferAfrica Road Safety Observatory

Basic Aspects of Road Safety in Africa – Short Questionnaire

This year’s Annual Polis Conference on “Transport innovation for sustainable cities and regions” took place with great success on 1 and 2 December 2016 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, organised by POLIS, the European cities and regions networking for innovative transport solutions. More than 400 mobility professionals and experts from across Europe and beyond came together to debate on urban and regional mobility.  

All presentations are now available. 

The 3rd International Congress “Traffic Enforcement: Challenges & Perspectives” was organised by the Emirates Traffic Safety Society (ETSS), the Arab Road Safety Organization (AROSO), La Prévention Routiére Internationale (PRI) and the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) and took place with great success in Abu Dhabi, on 2-3 November 2016. Key road safety experts contributed the state of the art developments on traffic safety enforcement worldwide. The final programme of the Congress is available here: 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Best Practices for Efficient Traffic Safety Law Enforcement Programs‘ 

The 2016 Safe Roads – Safe Kids Summit took place with great success on December 8-9, 2016, in Washington D.C. It was a biennial event designed to significantly enhance the visibility of global road safety on the international agenda and to reduce the number of deaths and injuries among children. The Summit offered stakeholders at all levels the opportunity to work together in a manner that is action-oriented and focused on meaningful outcomes, including international organizations, governments, corporations, foundations, researchers, non-governmental organizations, health care workers, first responders, law enforcement, families and children. The 2016 Safe Roads – Safe Kids Summit built momentum for urgently-needed progress on road safety for children worldwide. It focused on rapid implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) as they apply to road safety for children.  

The agenda is available here: 

The Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT), Lao PDR, the Ministry of the Environmet (MoE), Japan, Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) and the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) are organising the Intergovernmental Tenth Regional EST Forum in Asia under the theme “2030 Road Map for Sustainable Transport ~ Aligning with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. The forum will be held from 14 to 16 March 2017 in Vientiane, Lao PDR. It is expected that approximately 500 participants, including senior government representatives from Asia and the Pacific countries, city mayors, international experts, resource persons, and others as listed below will be attending the conference. 

The Transportation Public Health Link (TPH Link), the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) are organising the International Conference on Transport & Health (ICTH). ICTH is a direct participatory experience. Policy-makers, practitioners and academics from multiple disciplines involved in transport planning and engineering, public health, urban planning, spatial and architectural design, environmental planning, economics and beyond came together in Barcelona, Spain, on 27-29 June 2017, and shared their stories of success and failure; build world-wide collaborative friendships; but most importantly, leave inspired! The theme for ICTH 2017-Barcelona was “Changing Perspectives: Health Impacts of Urban & Transport Related Exposures.”

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) held the 6^th Annual European PRAISE Conference on work-related road safety in Brussels on 19 October. Using the roads is a necessary part of our working lives but it’s an ordinary activity that leads to an incredibly high level of injury and death. The conference brought together fleet safety managers, EU institutions, government representatives and road safety experts to discuss the latest developments and priorities in work related road safety. The winners of the ETSC PRAISE awards 2016 were also announced. The program included contributions from leading occupational health and safety experts and featured presentations of ETSC’s new reports: ‘Managing Grey Fleet Safety’ and ‘Making Taxis Safer’. 

The agenda  and the press release  are now available.

The  21st International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety organised by the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS) took place with great success in Gramado, Brazil on 16-19 October 2016. This international Conference sets an excellent opportunity to meet all those involved in Road Safety Research, particularly from the fields of Drugs and Alcohol, and promotes discussion and interaction with investigators, academics and professionals working in this area. 

The 2016 TISPOL Conference organised by the European Traffic Police Network took place with great success on 4-5 October, in Manchester. There was an interesting and varied line-up of speakers from police, policymaking and industry across Europe coverning a wide range of traffic enforcement and road safety topics. The 200+ people involved with TISPOL International Road Safety Conference made it an exceptionally useful and worthwhile event. Two days of compelling and engaging content were delivered without exception by passionate and enthusiastic people, all with something worthwhile to add to the theme of innovation and success.

The 12^th International Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, Safety 2016, took place with great success in Tampere, Finland, on 18-21 September, 2016. It was an initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its network of WHO-Collaborating Centres for injury prevention, attended by more than 1.100 participants from more than 120 countries. The conference programme consisted of 1.004 presentations and traffic safety was one of the major conference topics.

NTUA presentations concerned:

Characteristics of road accidents with youngsters in Europe

Comparative analysis of road accidents by gender in Europe

Exploration of accident probability of drivers with brain pathologies

Developing the European Road Safety Decision Support System

Exploring the difference of traffic parameters by severity level and accident type in urban areas

Correlation of road safety performance with social and economic indicators in the EU

Willingness to pay for innovative vehicle insurance schemes

The 15th International Alcohol Interlock Symposium organised by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) and the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), took place with great success on 13-15 September, in Brussels. Alcohol interlock programs have expanded greatly in recent decades. Today, programs combine technological advances with more tailored and efficient monitoring strategies to deliver high-quality services. The theme of the 2016 Symposium is “Efficiency Through Automation”. As alcohol interlock technology evolves, it becomes increasingly important to understand how intelligent devices can be embedded in sophisticated vehicles and linked to database systems to make services more accessible and enhance road safety. 

Please use the following link to download the presentations:

NTUA presentation concerned: Alcohol Interlocks & Building Capacity for Automated Solutions

A workshop on ‘Regulating drink driving to protect all road users’ will take place on 18 October 2016, in Brussels. This year’s European Transport Safety Lecture will be given by Prof Richard Allsop, Emeritus Professor of Transport Studies, University College London and will be followed by a panel debate. The event is part of the SMART project on drink driving. 

The Sixth International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology (ICTTP2016), organised by QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q) and Griffith University’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland took place in Brisbane, Australia, on 2-5 August 2016. It was the first time an ICTTP has been held in the Southern Hemisphere and only the second time outside of Europe. The Conference was a global forum, with a theme of “UN Decade of Action For Road Safety: The Half-way Point”, at which nearly 400 road safety experts from 39 countries attended, including researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and industry from the areas of public health, law, medicine, economics, law enforcement, public policy, education, human factors, and psychology met, presented and discussed on the latest work being undertaken in these areas.

The World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR) organised by the WCTRS and the Tongji University took place on 10-15 of July 2016, at Shanghai, China. The programme included more than 1.170 papers presented in oral and poster sessions. The authors from 65 countries ensured WCTR 2016 as a truly international event. The aims of the WCTR Conference were to offer a unique opportunity to bring together experts in all aspects of transport research, from all parts of the world and to stimulate the exchange of ideas in the broad field of transport research. 

The Conference Key Findings are now available. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

  Human factors of pedestrian walking and crossing behaviour

  Road safety data and priorities in South-East European regions

  Review of driving performance parameters critical for distracted driving

  Assessing the driving performance of drivers with cerebral diseases

  Investigation of road accident severity per vehicle type

  Texting on Young Drivers Behavior by Means of Multivariate Copulae Analysis

The Benchmarking Albania towards EU Road Safety Conference organised by AVIS Albania and Trans Andriatic Pipeline (TAP) took place on 6 July 2016, in Tirana. The Conference provided a platform for private stakeholders, government officials and international entities operating in Albania to raise awareness regarding the importance of road safety. Discussions also focused on current road safety reality and challenges and, above all, promoting ideas for new initiatives and policies.  

NTUA presentation concerned:  Road Safety Investments and Interventions in South East Europe 

The Annual Road Safety Conference of the Bar Ilan University, took place with great success in Tel-Aviv on 7 July 2016. More than 100 road safety experts and stakeholders have discussed on current developments and challenges on road safety worldwide, with emphassis on driver behaviour and respective road safety measures.

NTUA presentation concerned: Risk factors, driver behaviour and accident probability. The case of distracted driving. 

A Road Safety Workshop was organised by the SafetyCube EC funded project, regarding the first viewing of the SafetyCube European Road Safety Decision Support System (DSS). It took place with great success at BRSI in Brussels, on 27 September 2016. The purpose of the workshop was to illustrate how existing road safety knowledge can be collected, structured and distilled into the SafetyCube DSS that can be queried in terms of safety risk factors and potential countermeasures, including crash scenarios. Key road safety stakeholders had the opportunity to watch the methodology followed and test the SafetyCube DSS prototype, allowing vivid discussion for its further improvement.  

The NTUA presentations concerned

Design of the European Road Safety Decision Support System

 SafetyCube – Infrastructure risk factors and measures

The Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV’16),  sponsored by the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (ITSS) and organised by Chalmers University of Technology and SAFER Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre, took place in Gothenburg on 19-22 June 2016. Several technical sessions, workshops, poster sessions, exhibition, and technical visits will highlight the latest research and applications for Intelligent Vehicles and Vehicle-Infrastructure Cooperation.  

The results of the European Survey of Road users’ safety Attitudes (ESRA) were presented at a targeted Conference that took place with great success on 20 June 2016, in Brussels. This Conference was organised by the Consortium of 17 Institutes that participated at the survey under the coordination of the Belgian Institute for Road Safety (IBSR).  

During the conference, the Main Results of the ESRA Survey 2015 were presented together with the first six Thematic Reports on European drivers attitudes towards:

 Speeding

 Driving under the influence of alcohol & drugs

 Distraction & fatigue

 Subjective safety & risk perception

 Enforcement & support for road safety policy measures

 Seat belt and child restraint systems

NTUA presentation concerned: ESRA Thematic Report – Speeding

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) presents annual awards, as part of the PRAISE project, in recognition of organisations that have made an outstanding commitment to improving work-related road safety. The competition is divided into three separate categories according to the size and type of the applicant organisations: SME (Small-Medium Enterprise), large company and public authority. The winners will be chosen by an independent panel of experts appointed by ETSC. The deadline for applications is the 1st of September 2016 and the awards will be presented at ETSC Annual PRAISE Conference in Brussels in Autumn 2016. 

The 11th International Road Safety Seminar GAMBIT 2016 is organised by Gdańsk University of Technology in collaboration with the Motor Transport Institute, the Road and Bridge Research Institute and the Foundation for the Development of Civil Engineering and will take place on 17-18 November 2016, in Gdańsk. This year’s special formula of the GAMBIT Seminar ties in with “Development of Road Innovations”, a research programme of the National Centre for Research and Development and the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways.  

The Private Sector Global Coalition Together for Safer Roads (TSR) composed by 16 leading global companies has organised on June 14th, 2016, in New York a Round Table Discussion on Technology’s Impact on Road Safety. The Members of the TSR Coalition Expert Panel initiated the discussion on three key domains: a) The Technology Horizon and the People/Technology Interface, b) Using Information and Communication Technologies – and More – to Make Roads Safer and c) Policy and Partnerships Supporting Road Safety Technologies. This Round Table Discussion demonstrated the high potential of technology for safety improvement as well as the role of the Member Companies to promote and exploit this potential.

NTUA presentation concerned:  Star rating driver safety behaviour by the use of smart technologies   

The 7th International Expert Symposium on Accident Research (ESAR) took place with great success in Hannover on 9-10 June 2016. ESAR is organised by the Medical School of Hannover, the University of Technology of Dresden and the Federal Highway Research Institute of Germany and it is a scientific colloquium which can be seen as a platform for exchanges of information on accident research issues. Representatives from authorities as well as from medical and technical institutions came together to discuss new research issues and exchange experiences on accident prevention and methodologies of accident reconstruction. The goal of ESAR was to give the opportunity to all kind of studies on Accident Investigation Methodologies, Accident Analysis, Active and Passive Safety, Injury mechanisms and Injury Prevention to an audience of experts from government, industry and other researchers from all parts of the world. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

  The Impact of cognitive impairments on accident risk

  An overview of car occupant fatalities in the European countries

  Developing the European Road Safety Decision Support System

The final project workshop of the research projects PRACT (Predicting Road ACcidents) and ESRET (European Safety Review Tool) took place with great success on June 3rd, 2016, in Manchester, UK. 

Both projects were carried out for the Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR), within the framework of the CEDR Road Safety Programme.  The results of both projects provided very useful tools to support decision making in the field of road infrastructure safety in Europe. All presentations are now available.

NTUA presentations concerned:

 PRACT – Predicting Road ACcidents – a Transferable methodology across Europe APM/CMF review and Questionnaire

 PRACT – Predicting Road ACcidents – a Transferable methodology across Europe: Project Results for Practitioners I: Repository

The 2nd Congress of the European Academy of Neurology took place with great success in Copenhagen, on 28-31 May 2016 and was attended by a total of 5521 participants.

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Driving performance in the frontotemporal dementia spectrum

 Incidental vs intentional memory in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD)

 Deviant driving measures of healthy controls, MCI and AD patients in simulated driving

 Deviant driving measures and variability in Parkinson’s disease patients and healthy controls in simulated driving

An International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Transport Systems organised by the Brest State Technical University, took place with great success in Brest, Belarus on 25-28 May 2016, with the participation of several road safety experts and stakeholders from Belarus and other European countries.  This Conference took place within the framework of the BeSafe (Belorussian Road Safety Network) EU Tempus project, coordinated by the Research Centre for Transport and Logistics of Roma I University and the active participation of the National Technical University of Athens and the University of Loughborough.

  Star rating driver traffic and safety behavior through obd and smartphone data collection

  A classification of driver assistance systems

The International Conference Road Safety on Five Continents (RS5C) took place with great success in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 17-19 May 2016. The RS5C is one of the premier and most prestigious international conferences in the road safety area and is organised by the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), in close cooperation this time with the Brazilian National Association for Transportation Research and Education (ANPET) and in association with the Transportation Research Board (TRB), the Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes (FERSI) and the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI). 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Development of a crash modification factors model in Europe‘   

At the 42nd Panhellenic Medical Conference, which took place on 11-14 May in Athens, NTUA presentation concerning: ‘Mobility tests as a predictor of driving behavior of patients with Parkinson’s disease‘ won the best applied research award of scientific presentation paper. 

The international conference on the reliability of statistics & databases in measuring road safety performance index (PIN), took place with great success on 6-7 May 2016, in Tunis. This international conference was organised by the Prevention Routiere Internationale (PRI), the Association Tunisienne de la Protection des Accidents de la Route (ATPR) and the Arab Road Safety Association. Several road safety experts and stakeholders from Africa and Europe discussed the current and future challenges in road safety performance monitoring.  

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Monitoring Road Safety Policies and Performance‘  

The 11th ITS European Congress, organised by ERTICO and the European Union will take place in Glasgow, on 6-9 June 2016. The Congress consists of an extensive exhibition, live demonstrations and a programme of high level and technical sessions with industry’s experts and political leaders, while the  theme is “Delivering Future Cities Now”. 

The 23rd World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, organised by ITS Asia Pacific, ITS America and ERTICO will take place in Melbourne, on 14-16 October 2016. During the event, there will be plenary, scientific, technical and interactive sessions, a dynamic exhibition plus technical demonstration and tours that showcase the applications of the latest ITS technology. 

The 24th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, organised by ITS America and ITS Canada, together with ITS Asia and ERTICO will take place in Quebec, on 29 October – 2 November 2017. 

A workshop on ‘Driving Instructors and Safe Driving: The primary sector of road safety‘ organised by the Pan-hellenic Federation of Driving Instructors within the framework of Athens Money Show 2016, took place with great success on April 23rd, 2016, in Athens. Several presentations and discussions highlighted the key current road safety challenges in Greece, whereas driving instructors delivered safe and eco-driving seminars to visitors of Athens Money Show 2016 with the support of car and motorcycle driving simulators. 

NTUA presentation concerned: Road accident charasteristics and countermeasures. 

During the European Transport Research Arena Conference 2016, that took place in Warsaw from 18 to 21 April 2016, NTUA has contributed a series of road safety presentations with key results from the various national and international road safety research activities that is involved:

  An Exploration of Road Safety Parameters in Belarus and the European Union (BeSafe)

  Pedestrian Risk Taking while Road Crossing: A Comparison of Observed and Declared Behaviour (PedMod)

  Innovative Insurance Schemes: Pay As/How You Driver (PhD)

  Predicting Road Accidents: a Rare-Events Modeling Approach (PhD)

  Use of Accident Prediction Models in Road Safety Management – An International Inquiry(PRACT)

  Development of a Transnational Accident Prediction Model (PRACT)

  Management of Road Infrastructure Safety (IRTAD)

  Road Safety Investments and Interventions in South East Europe (ROSEE)

  Investigating the Effect of Area Type and Traffic Conditions on Distracted Driving Performance(Distract)

  Which are the Critical Measures to Assess the Driving Performance of Drivers With Brain Pathologies? (DriverBrain)

  How Safe Are Cyclists on European Roads? (ERSO+)

  Characteristics and Causes of HGV and Buses Accidents in Europe (ERSO+)

Socioeconomic status and traffic safety of pre-school children: a study in Athens (PhD)

The 6th Edition of the Transport Research Arena 2016 (TRA 2016) took place with great success in Warsaw, Poland from 18 to 21 April 2016. TRA is the major European Conference on Transport Research, supported by the European Commission (EC), the Conference of European Road Directors (CEDR) and the four European Technology Platforms on surface transport: the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC), the European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC), WATERBORNE TP, and the Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration (ALICE).

TRA 2016 Conference contributed to innovation in sustainable mobility for Europe, with the active participation of more than 2.200 participants from more than 50 countries. The main theme of TRA 2016 was – MOVING FORWARD Innovative Solutions for Tomorrow’s Mobility. TRA 2016 seeked to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the transport sector and, for this reason, addressed all stakeholders in both the public and private sectors and all professionals, regardless of their roles (researchers, practitioners, designers, constructors, operators, administrators, policy makers etc.).  Several road safety sessions and discussions were among the key activities of the TRA 2016 Conference.  

A Workshop on Road Safety and Tourism in Peloponnese, organised by the Greek Society of Regional Scientists and Make Safe Roads Hellas, took place with great success on 19 March 2016, in Vrachati Corinthias, Greece. The aim of this workshop was to emphasize on the necessity of regional level planning for road safety, with particular focus to touristic periods and related vulnerable road users and tourist industry professionals.  More than 80 key decision makers and stakeholders from the regional tourist and road safety sectors contributed and discussed problems and solutions for the upgrade of road safety in tourist areas in Peloponese and in Greece in general. 

All the presentations are now available: 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Road safety in Greece and at its touristic areas‘  

The 14th International Athens/Springfield Symposium on Advances in Alzheimer Therapy took place with great success on 9-12 of March 2016, at Athens, Greece. The very latest on Alzheimer therapy were discussed by the very top leaders in the world and it was the very best opportunity to learn and interact in a welcoming scientific environment. Leading scientists discussed new targets and drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and novel approaches to current therapy.

The Highlights of the Congress are available. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

Association between motor ability tasks and driving parameters in healthy, patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD)

Mini Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment: which is the best predictor of Driving Ability?

Self-assessment of driving performance in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD)

Mild Cognitive Impairment: The role of in-vehicle distraction in driving behavior