The 5th International Cycling Safety Conference (ICSC2016) organised by SWOV, TU Delft, TNO and Chalmers, will take place on 3-4 November 2016 in Bologna, Italy. The conference invites contributions on new developments, approaches and knowledge in the areas of cycling safety.

Topics for the conference include: Human factors – Safety-related behaviors and attitudes – Bicycle accident causation – Bicycle accident prevention – Active safety systems – Medical aspects of bicycle accidents – Cyclists’ injury prevention – Cycling infrastructures – Cycling education – Naturalistic cycling – Interaction between cyclists and cars/trucks – Helmet use – Cyclists’ impairment, distraction and inattention – Bicycle engineering including intelligent technology – Safe cycling in cities.

The deadline for abstract submission is 30 April, 2016. 

The 22nd International Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment organised by Wessex Institute and the University of Naples Federico II, took place with great success in Crete, Greece, on 21-23 June 2016. This event has been successfully held annually for more than 20 years and its distinctive element is the interaction between academic and practical perspectives where theories and ideas are debated and their practical applications rigorously tested. 

A Road Safety Conference for the International Business Traveler, organised by the Department of Public Health, University of Gothenburg in cooperation with the World Bank Group (WBG) and the Vehicle and Traffic Safety Center at Chalmers (SAFER) will take place in Gothenburg, on 30 May 2016. The aim of the conference is to review road safety from the aspects of the quality of roads, cars, and drivers with a focus on developing countries, and to discuss corporate travel policies and how they can be tailored to avoid collisions and serious injuries among business travelers. 

The Second Serbian Road Congress organised by Road Association of Serbia “Via-Vita” will be held in Belgrade, on 9-10 June 2016. National and international experts shared their knowledge, experience and vision all topics of the forthcoming congress:

– Planning and Design

– Construction and Maintenance of Roads and Structures

– Road Management

– Transport, ITS and New Technologies

– Road Traffic Safety

– Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection  

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 95th Annual Meeting was held in Washington, D.C., in 10-14 January 2016. The meeting program covered all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 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. More than 35 sessions and workshops focused on the spotlight theme for the 2016 meeting: Research Convergence for a Multi-Modal Future  and more than 75 sessions addressed one or more of three “hot topics”: Transformation Technologies, Resilience and Transportation and Public Health. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

  Development of a training course for road safety auditors in Greece

  Road, traffic and human factors of pedestrian crossing behaviour: integrated choice and latent variables models

  Modeling stopping sight distance on left-turn curves of freeways overlapped with crest vertical curves

SafetyCube – Safety CaUsation, Benefits and Efficiency

A conference on intelligent transportation systems and related developments in Greece, organised by ITS Hellas took place with great success in Athens, on 15-16 December 2015. Aim of the conference was to discuss 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. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Intelligent transportation systems and big data for the improvement of driver behavior and safety‘  

POLIS, the European cities and regions networking for innovative transport solutions organised its Annual Conference on “Transport innovation for sustainable cities and regions”, which took place with great success in Brussels, on 19-20 November 2015. More than 400 mobility professionals and experts from across Europe and beyond came together to debate on urban and regional mobility . At the conference, POLIS also launched its new policy paper “Sustainable Urban Mobility and the Smart City”, stating that the role and potential of urban mobility in making the city smarter is currently not sufficiently recognised. 

All presentations are now available. 

A special workshop of road safety data in the cities took place with great success, with the active contribution of NTUA. This workshop aimed at “Translating road safety data into policies and measures” with focuss on two approaches for local road safety policy: one on accident databases including data collection and how to identify measures and the second addressing the potential of road safety performance indicators (SPIs).

The Second Global High-level Conference on Road Safety: Time for Results, hosted by the Government of Brazil took place with great success in Brasilia, on 18-19 November 2015 with the active participation of more than 1.500 high level road safety decision makers and stakeholders from 150 countries. 

The 2nd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety defined the urgent measures needed to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s ambitious target to halve road traffic deaths by the end of this decade. The Conference adopted the “Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety”, which will guide action through the end of the UN’s Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 and beyond.  

The 24th World ITMA Congres took place with great success in Doha, on 16-18 November 2015, covering all areas of Traffic Medicine and its associated disciplines. The motto of the 24th World ITMA Congress was Traffic Medicine and Road Safety in Fast Developing Countries.

The Congress focussed on the progress in traffic safety and traffic injury prevention and treatment in recent years, and brought together more than 400 traffic medicine experts who shared the most advanced traffic medicine concepts, theories and techniques in order to promote traffic crash prevention, traffic safety, first-aid, medical treatment, and accordingly reduce the mortality and disability resulting from traffic injury in the world, to raise the road user’s health standard and the quality of life.

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Developing efficient traffic safety law enforcement programmes in rapidly developing countries’ 

A workshop on the innovative internet platform e-Drive organised by the General Directorate for Road Safety of the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks and supported by the European Commission and Digital Greece, took place with great success in Athens, on November 2nd, 2015. e-Drive is expected to become a central road safety web platform in Greece, for developing and exchanging road safety knowledge and resources with final objective to gradually develop conciousness towards an ecological and safe driving behaviour in Greece. The e-Drive Academy platform contains currently a series of programmes, destined for training of young, novice, older and professional drivers.

The XXVth PIARC World Road Congress took place with great success in Seoul, Korea on 2-6 November 2015. The congress was organized in close cooperation between the World Road Association (PIARC), responsible for the content and development of the programme, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Korea, the Korea Expressway Corporation, the Korea Road & Transportation Association and the PIARC Korean National Committee. The main theme of the XXVth World Road Congress concerned “Roads and Mobility – Creating New Value from Transport” with focus on sustainability and new technologies with the active five-days participation of thousands government officials, experts and business people from the road sector.

An international conference on road accidents, injuries and rehabilitation organised by the Health School of TEI of Crete and Hannover Medical School, took place with great success in Iraklion, Crete, on 22-23 October 2015. During this Conference, the results of the EU co-funded project ‘Reducing the Harm and the Burden of Injuries and human Loss caused by road traffic crashes and Addressing Injury Demands through effective interventions‘ (REHABIL AID) were presented and discussed together with the socio-economic aspects of road accidents in Europe. More than 200 road safety experts, professionals and stakeholders contributed and discussed state of the art developments for road accident and injury prevention and safety promotion in Grece, in Europe and worldwide. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Road infrastructure safety management‘  

The 9th Internationational Congress on Vascular Dementia (ICVD 2015) took place with great success on 15-18 October 2015 in Ljubljiana, Slovenia. The goal of this Congress is to facilitate a fruitful exchange of knowledge between clinicians and researchers in the field, with a particular interest in its overlaps with Alzheimer’s disease as well as the effects of vascular brain disease. 

The 21st Meeting of the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) organised by the International Transport Forum (ITF) took place in Ljubljana, on 12-13 October 2015. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Distraction, Cognition, Behaviour and Driving Analysis of a large data set

 Bicycle Traffic Rules in OECD countries

The FENS Featured Regional Meeting – FFRM 2015 meeting, organised by the Hellenic, Israel and Serbian Societies for Neuroscience, took place in Thessaloniki, on 7-10 October 2015. The three Neuroscience Societies came together for the first time, enhanced their relationships and represented themselves to an international audience. 

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Executive Functions and Driving Performance in a High Traffic Urban Condition in Mild Cognitive Impairment‘ 

The ITS World Congress took place with great success on 5-9 October 2015 in Bordeaux, France. The ITS Congress and Exhibition is the world’s largest event in intelligent transport systems and services. Through the main theme “Towards Intelligent Mobility – Better Use of Space”, the Bordeaux Congress focuses not only on how achieving intelligent mobility will change our lives but also on the benefits space can bring to ITS applications. 

This year’s Road Safety Conference organised by TISPOL took place with great success in Manchester on 7 October 2015. This year’s conference  focused on the challenges of protecting vulnerable road users, and the importance of finding effective solutions to reduce death and serious injury on Europe’s roads. There was an interesting and varied line-up of speakers from police, policymaking and industry across Europe. 

The 2015 Road Safety & Simulation International Conference (RSS), organised by the University of Central Florida (UCF) and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) took place with great success on 6-8 October 2015, in Orlando, Florida, USA. Under the auspices of the Southeastern Transportation Center, three world-class research centers supported the conference: Center for Advanced Transportation Systems Simulation and the Institute for Simulation and Training at UCF and UTK’s Center for Transportation Research. More than 200 road safety scientists showcased and discussed  advancements in traffic simulation and driving simulator technologies, introducing new initiatives and concepts that have emerged since the previous editions of the RSS conference . 

NTUA presentations concerned:

  In-vehicle distraction and brain pathologies: Effects on reaction time and accident probability

  Cell phone use and driving performance of different age groups

  Comparative analysis of young drivers behavior in normal and simulation conditions at a rural road

The 43rd European Transport Conference (ETC) took place with great success in Franfurt, on 28-30 September 2015. The ETC connects the worlds of research, consultancy, policy and practice. The conference programme is available here.  

The 4th International Cycling Safety Conference took place with great success in Hannover on 15-16 September 2015, hosted by the Accident Research Unit of the Hannover Medical School, in cooperation with the Deutsche Verkehrswacht, the DVR and the ETSC. This conference started as a Dutch initiative of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, TNO, Fietsberaad (Dutch center of expertise on bicycle policy), SWOV and Delft University of Technology together with Chalmers University of Technology. The International Cycling Safety Conference (ICSC) developed to a premium forum for researchers and development engineers in the field of cycling safetyto exchange their knowledge, to extent their network and to bring up new research topics and safety solutions. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

   Analysis of Preferences for the Use of a Bicycling Sharing System in Athens

   Cycling Acceptability Investigation among University Students in Athens, Greece

The 3rd International Conference on Access Management, organised by the Transportation Division of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) and the Access Management Committee of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) will take place in Pretoria, South Africa, on 6-7 July 2016. It be the 3rd International Conference following on from Athens in 2011 and Shanghai in 2014. The aim is to provide a forum to bring together specialists from around the world to interact, debate and exchange information with practitioners, researchers, academics, officials applying access management as well as students and others interested in the subject. The deadline for abstract submission is set for September 30th, 2015. 

The 1st International Conference on Transport and Health organised by the University College London (UCL) and the Transportation Public Health Link (TPH Link) took place with great success in London on 6-8 July 2015. This innovative event combined presentations of submitted work with cross-disciplinary workshops lead by teams of transport and public health professionals on several topics, including Global Road Safety & Injury Prevention.

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Investigating the different distraction mechanism between cell phone use and conversation with the passenger, through a driving simulator experiment

 How cell phone use affects reaction time of older drivers

 How drivers with brain pathologies deal with in-vehicle distraction, what are their emotions and driving habits: a questionnaire assessment

The 1st Congress of the European Academy of Neurology took place with great success in Berlin, on 20-23 June 2015. More than 6.000 participants from more than 100 countries attended with an overwhelmingly positive feedback 8 Symposia, 25 Teaching courses, 23 Focused workshops, 5 Hands-on courses, 3 Interactive sessions, 5 Special Sessions and showed 1.546 posters, including 2 Scientific and 17 Industry Satellite Symposia. Few sessions concerned cognitive impairment and driving. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Accident risk of drivers with cognitive impairments

 Assessment of driving performance of drivers with cognitive impairments: which are the critical measures?

 Cerebral diseases and distractibility while driving

 Self-awareness of performance in cognitive testing: differences between healthy elderly and patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD)

 Self-assessment of change in driving in relation to current driving performance on a driving simulator in patients with various neurological conditions

 Assessing incidental memory in cognitively intact individuals versus patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)

 The role of sleeping abnormalities on the driving performance of individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment

 Exploring indexes of driving performance in cognitively intact drivers and drivers with Parkinson’s Disease (PD)

The 5th International Symposium on Highway Geometric Design organised by TRB (Trasport Research Board), UBC (University of Columbia) and TRANSOFT took place with great success in Vancouver, on  22-24 June 2015. More than 300 road experts from more than 40 countries contributed to the discussions of more than 150 presentations on geometric design issues throughout the world, together with country reports featuring recent developments in road design, policy and practices, design and research products. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Design Considerations of Modern Roundabouts

 3D SSD Control on Left-turn Curves of Freeways Overlapped with Vertical Curves

A very interesting workshop targeting the upgrade of road transport safety through the improvement of tunnel user behaviour with new training technologies took place in Athens, on 16 June 2015. The workshop was organised by SiEBEN, Mediascape, SYNERGEIA and the Laboratory of Industrial Engineering of the School of Mechanical Engineering of NTUA and concerned very interesting presentations and discussions on the findings of the respective research project safetunnels4u, funded by the Greek General Secretariat for Research and Technology.

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Road Safety Infrastructure management‘  

The 27th National Conference of the Hellenic Neurological Society took place with great success in Alexandroupolis, on 6-9 June 2015. One of the conference sessions was dedicated to neurological diseases and driving.

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Relationship between sleep disorders and driving behavior of people with mild cognitive impairment

 Self-awareness of cognitive performance: differences between healthy elderly and patients with mild cognitive impairment

 Walking in a direct line as a prognosis indicator of fitness to drive in Parkinson disease patients

The 15th National Congress on Psychological Research organised by  the Hellenic Psychological Society and the University of Cyprus took place with great success in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 27-31 May 2015.  The theme of the conference was ‘Psychology in Greece and the Mediterranean‘ and included topics on driver psychology. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Neuropsychological factors in driving with or without distraction‘ 

The Stakeholders Workshop on the European Road Safety Decision Support System to be developed by the SafetyCube Horizons 2020 research project is scheduled for June 17th 2015 in Brussels. The purpose of this Workshop it to identify the needs and initiate the discussion between key road safety experts and stakeholders for the development of a European Road Safety Decision Support System (DSS) which will provide reliable and easily accessible information for the identification of the most cost-effective measures addressing each specific road safety problem.

The Workshop programme focuses on two main goals:

– to identify user for the European Road Safety Decision Support System

– to identify “hot topics” in terms of risk factors, safety effects and cost-benefit analyses to be considered in the SafetyCube DSS

Attendance is free on first-come first-served basis to those registered at the following link 

The First Danube Region Road Safety Conference: “Towards an Increased Road Safety in the Danube Region, towards Zero Vision”, organised by the EU Strategy for the Danube Region Programme (EUSDR PA1b), together with the Ministry of Infrastructure of the Republic of Slovenia and the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastucture of the Republic of Serbia, took place with great success in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 20 – 21 May 2015.

More than 100 policy makers, lead experts and international academia gathered in Ljubljana to discuss present and future road safety relevant challenges, solutions and best practices for the 14 countries of the Danube macro-region and beyond, including road safety soft and hard measures, improvement and development of road infrastructure, road safety management and human behaviour in traffic. 

All presentations are now available.

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

A Regional Conference on Road Traffic Safety and activities within the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020″, organised by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – Mission for Kosovo, took place in Pristina, Kosovo on 29 April 2015. More than 50 road safety decision makers, experts and stakeholders adressed all current and future aspects of road safety in Kosovo.

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

The 67th AAN Annual Meeting organised by the American Academy of Neurology took place with great success in Washington, DC, on 18-25 April 2015. A special session ondriving performance contained very interesting contributions.

NTUA presentations concerned:

 City and rural driving performance in healthy controls, MCI, and AD patients: Preliminary results from a driving simulation experiment with the use of distraction

 Motor abilities and driving performance in Parkinson’s disease (PD)

 Motorway driving performance in healthy controls, MCI, and AD patients: Preliminary results from a driving simulation experiment  

The 9th Panhellenic Conference of Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders organised by the Greek Association of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders took place in Thessaloniki, on 23-26 April 2015. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Relationship between depression and driving behavior of people with mild cognitive impairment 

 Walking in a direct line as a prognosis indicator of fitness to drive in Parkinson disease patients

The Road Traffic Safety Agency of Serbia (RTSA) together with several Serbian and international road safety Governmental, Academic and other organisations organised with great success the 10th Jubilee International Conference on Road Safety in Local Communities, in Kragujevac, Serbia, on 22-25 April 2015. More than 150 national and international road safety decision makers, experts and stakeholders contributed to very fruitful discussion focussing all five pillars of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Integrated speed management strategies in local communities in South East Europe‘ 

An International Symposium on Road Safety Behaviour Measurements and Indicators, organised by the Belgian Road Safety Institute, took place with great success in Brussels, on 23 April 2015. The event featured presentations by international experts on behaviour monitoring, exchange of experiences in implementing behaviour measurements and discussions about methodologies used to build representative indicators. 

All the presentations of the conference are now available. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Star rating driver traffic and safety behaviour through OBD and smartphone data collection‘ 

The Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) organised the FEHRL Infrastructure Research Meeting (FIRM15), which took place in Brussels, on 22-23 April 2015. This key event, gathered some 120 transport infrastructure innovation and research experts, including European and national policy makers, leading industry, standardisation agencies, SME’s and the media. 

With the theme of “Innovative maintenance of Transport Infrastructure. Faster, cheaper, more reliable, safer, greener”, FIRM15 featured multiple information sessions on the following themes:

• Infrastructure level: Engineering and technical solutions

• System level: operations including monitoring inspections

• Governance level: management and financial issues

All the presentations of the event are now available. 

More than 200 road infrastructure safety experts and stakeholders have attended the 2-day Technical Conference on ‘Current Advances in Road Infrastructure Safety Equipment’ organised by the European Union Road Federation (ERF), in cooperation with the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), that took place on 12-13 February 2015, in the Acropolis Museum, Athens.

The first day of the Technical Conference was dedicated to European and Greek policies and legislation with respect to road infrastructure safety, with the second focusing more on European standards and their implementation in Greece, together with good practices for road infrastructure safety equipment. Technical sessions focused on road restraint systems, horizontal and vertical signage, work-zones, passive support and maintenance. All presentations are now available. 

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Management of Road Infrastructure Safety‘ 

The FAST-zero Symposium organised by SAFER – Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre and Chalmers University of Technology in co-operation with Swedish Vehicular Engineering Association will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 9-11 September 2015. The symposium will be held outside Japan for the first time. Sweden is a natural choice for a FAST-zero symposium since the Swedish parliament was the first to announce a Vision Zero policy. The main idea is simple: No loss of life in traffic is acceptable. But the approach is innovative; since humans make mistakes, instead of making the driver responsible, vehicles and traffic system solutions must be designed so that accidents are avoided. 

The 24th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV) organised by the Swedish Transport Administration and the SAFER Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden, on June 8-11, 2015. The ESV conference is internationally focused on vehicle safety and is supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and many other participating Governments across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. 

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 94th Annual Meeting was held in Washington, D.C., in  11-15 January 2015. The TRB Annual Meeting program covered all transportation modes, with more than 4,500 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops addressing topics of interest to all attendees-policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. The spotlight theme for the 2015 TRB Annual Meeting was Corridors to the Future: Transportation and Technology. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

  Multilevel comparative analysis of road safety in european capital cities

  Introducing human factors in pedestrian crossing behavior models

  Driving behaviour of drivers with mild cognitive impairment and alzheimer’s disease: a driving simulator study

  Do simulator measures improve identification of older drivers with MCI?

  Localization and driving behavior classification using smartphone sensors in the direct absence of GNSS

  Controlling crest vertical curvature rates based on variable grade stopping sight distance calculation

 Management of Road Infrastructure Safety

The International Symposium on Communication Technologies and Road Safety 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 in Abu Dhabi, on 26-27 November 2014. The symposium objective among others was to highlight the solutions offered by modern technology to ensure positive impact on the behaviour of drivers while driving. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Distracted driving and mobile phone use: overview of impacts and countermeasures‘ 

The International Conference ‘Infrastructures and Behaviours to Enhance Road Safety’ organised by ALOT – the Agency of East Lombardy for Transport and Logistics, took place with great succes in Brescia on 21 November 2014. This event was organized in order to present the final results of the ROSEE project, carried out within the South East Europe transnational cooperation programme (SEE). In this Conference, the current situation of road safety potential in South East Europe was presented by international specialists followed by all the project results, with emphassis on road safety infrastructural and behavioural issues, including the relative pilot actions and investment proposals which emerged from the ROSEE project. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Proposals for Road Infrastructure Safety Investments and Interventions in South East Europe‘ 

An Infrastructures Road Safety Workshop, organised by Make Roads Safe Hellas took place in Athens on 20 November 2014. The aim of the workshop was to bring together international and national road safety experts, stakeholders and decision-makers and give them the opportunity to share their knowledge and discuss ways to continue improving infrastructures’ road safety. Make Roads Safe Hellas, as the Lead Partner of the SENSoR project had the opportunity to present the results of a comprehensive study regarding the assessment of the TEN-T network safety for first time in Greece, according to the international EuroRAP protocols. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Road Safety in South-East Europe‘ 

The 3rd International Cycling Safety Conference – ICSC2014, organised by SAFER Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre at Chalmers, Chalmers University of Technology and City of Gothenburg took place with great success in Gothenburg, on 18-19 November 2014. The conference was a great opportunity for the more than 160 researchers, legislators, politicians, and members of cycling associations to exchange knowledge on cycling safety and discuss new research topics and safety solutions. All the presentations and peer-reviewed papers are now available onto the conference website. 

The Safe Roads | Safe Kids Global Road Safety Summit will take place in Washington D.C., on 11-12 December 2014. This high level Summit will focus on strong action steps to end the epidemic of traffic deaths and injuries that threatens children worldwide. It will bring together International Agencies, Governments, Foundations, NGOs, the private sector and families.

The starting point of the discusions is the fact that every day, more than 500 children are killed in a road traffic collision, and tens of thousands are injured, often suffering lifelong disabilities.  Unless concrete action is taken now, the global toll of traffic injuries will explode, placing millions of children at risk. The Safe Kids Campaign and the Child Declaration for Road Safety are key global campaigns of road safety for kids. 

The 34th Annual Conference of the US National Academy of Neuropsychology took place in Puerto Rico, on 12-15 November 2014. This year’s NAN conference theme was New Horizons in Neuropsychology Research and Practice. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Neurocognitive correlates of driving behaviour

 Differential simulator driving patterns among community-dwelling healthy and mildly neurologicaly impaired adults during driver distraction conditions’

The 19th Meeting of the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) organised by the International Transport Forum (ITF) took place in Cologne, on 7-8 November 2014. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 ROSEE – Road safety in South East European regions: Final recommendations on investments and interventions

 An overview on the effect of weather and traffic conditions on road safety

The AFB 20 (2) Roadside Safety Design Seminar was organised by the European Union Road Federation (ERF) in cooperation with the International Road Federation and the Transportation Research Board and took place with great success on 5 November 2014 in Brussels. The conference was attended by more than 100 road safety experts and stakeholders from around the globe to gather and exchange information concerning the latest trends and developments in the area ofpassive safety and road infrastructure safety design. All presentations are now available. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘Effectiveness of Roadside Safety Measures‘ 

A road safety conference, organised by the Panhellenic Federation of driving instructors, took place with great success in Crete on 1-2 November 2014. The conference focuses on the driving instuctor’s role on road safety. 

The International Conference on Healthy Cities organised by the World Health Organisation, took place in Athens on 22-25 October 2014. This year’s international conference marked 25 years of implementation of the Healthy Cities programme in the European region of the WHO and the launch of the sixth 5-year phase, 2014-2018. It also marked the implementation of thenew WHO agenda, “Health 2020”. Road safety was addressed on several occasions in this international conference. 

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Traffic safety in urban mobility policy‘ 

A regional Road Safety Workshop, organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Government of the Republic of Serbia (Ministry of Construction, Traffic and Infrastructure (MCTI), the Road Traffic Safety Agency (RTSA) and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) in partnership with the South-East Europe Transport Observatory (SEETO), took place in Belgrade on 15-16 October 2014. The workshop brought together a wide range of road safety stakeholders and interested parties from the public and private sectors, including decision makers, planning authorities, and international organizations. The Workshop focused primarily on good practices and experiences on Road Safety Managementin South-East Europe and the Western Balkans. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Road Safety Management in Greece

 Road Safety Management in South East Europe

 Different forms of inter-agency coordination their potential benefits and risks

The American Neurological Association‘s 2014 Annual Meeting, took place in Baltimore on 12-14 October 2014. This year’s Annual Meeting offered scientific symposia on new sensation in the afferent limb, diseases of the synapse, brain initiative, expanded views on neurodegeneration, and neurological challenges of current chronic or recurring viral infections, plus Special Interest Group Symposia on 17 different subspecialties.Behaviour of drivers with cognitive impairements was addressed on several occasions in this ANA Annual Meeting.  

NTUA presentations concerned:

 Compensatory strategies in the driving behavior of MCI, AD, and PD patients: Preliminary results from a large driving simulation experiment with the use of distraction

 Exploring the capacity of neurological and neuropsychological measures to predict driving performance in individuals with MCI

A Road Safety Workshop was organised by the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of NTUA in the framework of the ROSEE project of the South East Europe transnational cooperation programme (SEE) in Athens, on 2 October 2014. Results achieved within the ROSEE project were presented in combination with valuable input from the members of the Greek National Advisory Group which was implemented within the project. This workshop was a great opportunity for knowledge exchange between the various Greek road safety stakeholders on key Road Safety issues in Greece and in the South East European Region in relation toroad safety policies, road infrastructure safety and road user behaviour. More than 80 people attended the Workshop including representatives of competent Ministries, road operators, NGOs and other road safety stakeholders. All presentations are available at the ROSEE project website. 

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Proposals for Road Safety Investments and Interventions in South East Europe‘ 

The Conference “Road Safety: risk mapping, infrastructures and behaviour” organised by the projects ROSEE and SENSOR in the framework of the South East Europe transnational cooperation programme (SEE), took place in Ljubljana on 25 September 2014. All results achieved by both ROSEE and SENSOR projects were presented. This conference was a precious opportunity to get updated and discuss with international experts about the major Road Safety issues faced in the South East Region both from Road Safety Audit and Inspections to road users’ behaviour perspectives. 

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Proposals for Road Safety Investments and Interventions in South East Europe‘ 

The 2nd Intenational Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia, organised by OMICS Group International took place in Valencia on 23-25 September 2014. The Conference aimed at bringing together the professors, researchers, and students in all areas of Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia and to provide an international forum for the dissemination of original research results, new ideas and practical development experiences which concentrate on both theory and practices, with a special session on Geriatrics, Care Practice and  Cognitive Disorder including impact on driving performance. 

NTUA presentation concerned ‘Speed and accident rates in MCI and mild AD patients: preliminary results from a large driving simulation experiment‘ 

The Symposium on Future Road Infrastructure Challenges was organised by the European Union Road Federation (ERF) and took place with great success in Brussels on 18 June 2014. It was a highly dynamic and interactive forum in which the current challenges faced by the sector were discussed by the more than 100 experts, decision makers and stakeholders.  The ERF event was structured around five principal themes: safety, sustainability, ITS, financing and innovation. All presentations are now available. 

The stakeholder Conference on Road Infrastructure Safety Management organised by the European Commision took place with great success on 13 June 2014, in Brussels. More than 80 key road safety experts, stakeholders and decision makers participated and contributed actively to the Conference discussions. The Conference was part of the study for theevaluation of the costs and benefits associated with Directive 2008/96/EC on road infrastructure safety management and focused on three key topics: Vulnerable Road Users, Intelligent Transport Systems and Measurement of Safety Performance of the Roads. 

The complete conclusions are now available. 

NTUA Associate Professor George Yannis summarised the challenges and the concluding remarks for each of the three key topics: ‘Current and future challenges of the Directive 2008/96/EC‘ 

The Joint Congress of European Neurology, organised by the European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS) and the European Neurological Society (ENS) took place on 31 May – 3 June, 2014, in Istanbul. This scientific meeting provided a platform for continuing education in all fields of neurology, covering a broad spectrum of topics with state-of-the-art lectures by acknowledged experts. 

NTUA contributed to the following road safety presentations:

 Predictors of driving performance in individuals with MCI: preliminary results

 Prediction of driving performance in patients with Parkinson’s disease: preliminary findings on the role of the Comprehensive Trail Making test

 Reaction time to incidents as a function of age and neurological disease: preliminary findings from a large driving simulation experiment

 The relation between intentional and incidental memory in healthy young versus older individuals

The workshop ‘Together we are road safety’, organised by the European Road Safety Charter and the Road Safety Institute ‘Panos Mylonas’ took place with great success on May 28th in Athens . 

The purpose of the workshop was to promote best practices and explore new ideas in relation to awareness and education of young people on road safety issues.

NTUA Professors George Yannis and Constantinos Antoniou presented: ‘Safety statistics at the Greek roads’.  

The Sixth European Road Safety Day took place with great success in Athens on May 9th, 2014 organised by the European Commission, in cooperation with the Greek EU Presidency. This one-day conference, centred around the headline theme ‘Safe and smart infrastructure’, brought together more than 250 road safety experts, stakeholders and decision-makers from Greece and from Europe who participated actively at the two round table discussions on infrastructure challenges and on technological solutions. In parallel, several interesting road safety products, services and concepts were presented at the information stands offered by leading European and Greek road safety organisations. 

NTUA Professor Emeritus George Kanellaidis presentation concerned Road safety strategy and measures. 

The 42nd Annual ASECAP Study and Information Days organised by the European Association with tolled motorways (ASECAP) took place with great success on 26-28 May in Athens. The conference reflected the interconnection, under the umbrella of sustainability, between questions regardingtolling and concessions, road safety and security and Intelligent Transport Systems, and exploited the added value of combining the unmatched technical expertise and field experience of ASECAP Members with top-notch political considerations. On the first day of the discussion a special session focused on Road safety, security and sustainability.  All conference presentations are now available. 

A conference on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), eCall and road safety was organised by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks of the Hellenic Republic in cooperation with the European Commission and ERTICO, under the auspices of the Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The conference took place with great success on 25th April, in Athens. More than 200 key stakeholders and decision makers on ITS and road safety discused and contributed with the latest developments in the field with focus on the potential deployment of these techologies in Greece. 

The Transport Research Arena 2014 (TRA 2014) took place with great success in Paris on 14-17 April 2014. TRA 2014 isthe major conference on transport research in Europe, organised by IFSTTAR, the French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks, supported by the European Commission, the Conference of European Road Directors, and the three European Technology Platforms: the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC), the European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC), and the Waterborne TP. 

Almost 3,000 participants from 56 countries attended over 130 sessions, 650 presentations and 15 associated events. Bernard Jacob, IFSTTAR Deputy Scientific Director, stated that researchers and industrial and public policy players had vivid discussions on our society’s changing transport usage and requirements in the face of increasingly serious energy and environmental challenges. Current and future road safety challenges were discussed in several sessions, including the Transport Safety strategic session chaired by NTUA Associate Professor George Yannis.  NTUA presentations concerned:

 Transport Safety in Europe – a cross modal approach

 European perspectives for reliable crash modification factors

  Development of the European Road Safety Knowledge System

  Analysis of road safety management systems in Europe

  European Road Safety and e-Safety

  Assessment of road safety legislation, policy and institutional capacity in South-East European regions

  First exploration of the effect of road environment on distracted driving through a driving simulator study

  First findings from a simulator study on driving behaviour of drivers with cerebral diseases

  Attitudes of Greek drivers towards mobile phone use while driving

  Mobility and safety of powered two-wheelers in the OECD countries

The Transnational Road Safety Workshop took place in Budapest, on April 9th, 2014 and was organised by the ROSEE project in the framework of the South East Europe transnational cooperation programme. Representatives from the ROSEE project countries (Italy, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Bulgaria) discussed on the current road safety situation in the South-East European regions, explored the potential for the improvement of the road users’ and the road infrastructure safety and contributed in forming proposals and recommendations for road safety investments. All presentations are available at the ROSEE project website. 

The NTUA presentation concerned the Transnational Report on road safety in South-East Europe, focussing on specific road safety issues related to the policy framework, the road infrastructure and the behaviour of road users in this region. 

The 35th FISITA Congress, organised by the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies (FISITA) and the Royal Institute of Engineers in the Netherlands (KIVI), took place on 2-6 June in Maastricht. 

A special session ‘Towards a Global Strategic Research Agenda for Road Safety‘ was organised by the PROS European research project on the 5th of June.

EFTHITA Rhodes and the Region of South Aegean organised a workshop celebrating 10 years of actions on road safety, which took place with great success in Rhodes on 27-28 March 2014. Road safety experts and stakeholders contributed and discussed on new challenges for road accidents prevention. Special emphassis was given to traffic education, including an interactive theatrical performance for young children. 

NTUA presentations on Road Safety concerned:

 Development of the Strategic Plan for the improvement of road safety in Greece, 2011 – 2020

 Road Safety Education at the Strategic Plan for the improvement of road safety in Greece, 2011 – 2020

The 17th Meeting of the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) organised by the International Transport Forum (ITF) in Paris, on 24-25 March, 2014. 

 Investigation of the impact on road safety of increasing the speed limit on Greek motorways

 ROSEE – ROad safety in South East European regions

A Road Safety debate on Greece’s Road Safety in a European context was organised by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), the Road Safety Institute “Panos Mylonas” and the Hellenic Institute of Transport, under the auspices of the Greek EU Presidency, on March 19th, 2014, in Athens. 

This was the 38th Road Safety Performance Index debate (PIN Talk) organised by ETSC since the first PIN talk in Athens on November 2006. The Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) Programme was launched in 2006 aiming to compare country performances in road safety, issuing every year the PIN Annual Report.  More than 100 experts and stakeholders participated in the very interesting discussions on measuring safety performance in Europe and in Greece. 

NTUA Associate Professor George Yannis made a presentation on Monitoring road safety policies and performance.  

The 6th International Expert Symposium on Accident Research (ESAR) took place in Hanover on 20-21 June 2014. ESAR is organised by the Medical School of Hanover, 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. 

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 93rd Annual Meeting was held in Washington, D.C., in January 2014, with more than 5.500 presentations in more than 800 scientific sessions and workshops and more than 12.000 transportation experts and stakeholders. The spotlight theme for the 2014 TRB Annual Meeting is Celebrating Our Legacy, Anticipating Our Future.

NTUA road safety presentations concerned:

  Results from a driving simulator study on performance of drivers with cerebral diseases in rural roads

  Sign recall in a fixed-base simulator as a measure of fitness-to-drive

 European Road Safety Forecasts

 Relationship between road safety and economic indicators

A Workshop on Education and Road Safety was organised by the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers in Athens on 27 November 2013. Several aspects and initiatives of road safety education were highlighted with the the active participation of road safety decision makers, experts and practicioners from Greece. 

All the workshop presentations are now available. 

NTUA Research Associate Dr. Sophia Vardaki presented the education at the national road safety strategic plan. 

The 15th European Transport Safety Lecture was organised by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) together with its three founding members – the German Road Safety Council, the Dutch Safety Board and the British Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety and took place with great success on November 21st, 2013 in Berlin. Prof. Dietmar Otte from the Medical University of Hannover gave the Lecture on Road Safety: Reliable Data – Effective Policies, having attracted a large audience of more than 150 national and international road safety practitioners, technical specialists and decision makers. Response to the Lecture was given by European Commission Head of Road Safety Unit Mr. Szabolcs Schmidt and TU Delft Professor Fred Wegman. At the lecture and the vivid discussion followed there was focus to the need forreliable and accurate data to be placed at the core of road safety policies, serving to identify problems, risk factors, and priority areas as well as to formulate strategies, setting targets and monitor performance. 

This ETSC Lecture coincided with the celebration of 20 years of ETSC. On the occasion, ETSC Chairman Herman De Croo stated that “ETSC has marked 20 years of concerted advocacy efforts on road safety throughout Europe, acting as an established source of independent and impartial advice to policy and decision-makers in Europe”. 

The 20th Forum for Road Safety ‘Reducing victims of road accidents in urban areas’, organised by RACC, P(A)T and Generalitat de Catalunya took place with the participation of more than 200 road safety experts, decision makers and stakeholders, in Barcelona on 14 November 2013. The conference focused on a range of preventive, and corrective techniques applied to the management of public space, especially in the locations in which more accident and fatalities occur as well on the safety of vulnerable road users.  Urban Authorities presented and discussed the complexity of implementing measures addressing and balancing safety concerns of the various different vulnerable road users.  

NTUA Professor George Yannis made a key note presentation on Current trends in Urban Road Safety in Europe 

The 8th annual International Conference on Safe Transport Infrastructure, organised by AF CityPlan took place in Prague on 11-12 November 2013, with the partidcipation of more than 120 road safety experts and stakeholders. In the conference several critical road safety issues found in the European Countries were presented as well as comparisons of the road safety performance of the Czech Republic with those of the 28 countries of the European Union. 

NTUA presentation concerned: ‘ROSEE – A road safety initiative to improve infrastructure and behaviour in South East Europe’. 

An international conference on “Engaging Stakeholders towards Road Safety”, organised by ROSEE and SENSOR projects in the framework of the South East Europe transnational cooperation programme, was held on November 7th, 2013 in Ljubljana. This Conference brought together the most important stakeholders, experts and public authorities from the South-Eastern Europe region who are engaged in road safety. The aim of the conference was to promote road safety in South East European roads through standardised safety assessment of the road infrastructure, proposals for road safety investments, comparative evaluation of safety performance and user behaviour in SEE countries and the active promotion of safer road user behaviours. 

 Road Safety policy and data analysis in the South East European countries

 Behaviour – Speed Management – Vulnerable Road Users

The PIN Annual Conference, organised by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), will take place in Brussels on 18 June 2014. Key road safety policymakers are invited to discuss national road safety policy, targets and strategies and to help create political leadership. National decision-makers are confronted with both the successes and shortcomings of their road safety policy. During that event ETSC publishes the results of the Annual Report and awards the PIN Award to a high level policymaker responsible for the country’s outstanding progress in road safety.  

The 8th International Congress on Vascular Dementia & The First Cognitive Impairment European Meeting, took place in Athens on 17-20 October 2013. The Congress was showcased new developments in the study of dementia. The goal of the Congress was to facilitate a fruitful exchange of knowledge and information between leading clinicians and researchers in the field of vascular dementia. 

A special session of this Conference focussed on the ability to drive in mild cognitive impairment and dementia, with four presentations:

 Assessing Driving Ability in the elderly: methodological issues

 Assessing cognition in elderly drivers

 Behavioral modifications in the elderly and driving

 Mild Cognitive Impairment, Dementia and Driving: Concluding remarks

Hellenic Institute of Transport and the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers took place in Thessaloniki, Greece on 17-18 October, 2013, with the participation of more than 200 transport scientists and stakeholders from Greece and abroad.  The main objectives of the Congress were to present recent research results in the field of transport and to examine the current developments and to exchange knowledge and experiences on the transport research at national and international level, with special focus on energy, environment and economy parameters in transport. 

NTUA road safety presentations concerned:

  Attitudes and behaviour of European drivers and other road users towards Road Safety

  Effect of GDP Change on Road Accidents

  Investigation of factors affecting helmet use among European motorcyclists

A symposium on “Powered Two Wheelers” organized by IFSTTAR, took place on 15-16 October 2013 in Lyon-Bron. This symposium was an opportunity to present to the scientific community recent research on the powered two wheelers road safety in France, in Europe and worldwide. 

NTUA presentation concerned “Implementation of the SUNflower Methodology for the analysis of Powered Two-Wheelers Road Safety In Greece“. 

A conference on ‘Improving road safety – Solutions that work’, organised by TISPOL took place in Manchester on 1-3 October 2013. At the conference, the current thinking and developments in road safety and enforcement from across Europe and beyond were discussed.