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. 

The 13th World Conference on Transport Research, organised by the World Conference on Transport Research Society and by the COPPE – Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, took place in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, between 15-18 July 2013. More than 1.200 participants from more than 60 countries presented and discussed the most recent trends in transport research in more than 900 oral presentations and in more than 100 poster presentations. Traffic safety analysis and policy was a major topic area (C4) of the Conference with more than 50 presentations.

NTUA road safety presentations concerned:

  Review of distracted driving factors

  Characteristics of road accidents with young people in Europe

  Parameters affecting road fatalities outside urban areas in Europe

  Seasonal distributions of road fatalities in Europe

  Motivations, travel habits, attitudes and behaviour of European Pedestrians

  Evolution in motorcycle crashes and current crash characteristics in the OECD countries

  Contributory factors of powered two wheelers crashes

  Misreporting injury severity in European road accidents

  Impact of meteorological factors on the number of injury accidents

  Powered Two Wheelers Safety Measures: Recommendations and Priorities

The 1st Meeting of the Transnational Working Group for road safety in South East Europe took place in Athens, on 4 July 2013 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 onkey road safety issues in this European region and attempted to create synergies and cross fertilization across the South East Europe in the quest for fewer road accidents and casualties. All presentations are available at the ROSEE project website.

The NTUA presentation concerned a broad overview of road safety in Greece with focus on specific road safety issues related to the policy framework, the road infrastructure and the road user behaviour, as highlighted at the respective National Advisory Group.

ETSC has launched the PIN Annual Report at the PIN Annual Conference, which took place in Brussels on Monday 17th of June 2013. There have been 2,661 fewer road deaths in 2012 than in 2011 in the EU as a whole. Out of the 31 countries monitored by the PIN Programme, 27 registered a drop in the number of road deaths in 2012 compared to 2011. Frontrunners are Malta and Cyprus followed by Israel and Denmark, but road deaths increased in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Lithuania and Romania. Greece, the UK and Slovakia achieved better than EU average reductions. The 2013 PIN Award was presented to Denmark for its outstanding efforts to improve road safety. For the EU to be reaching the 2020 target through constant annual progress, another 600 deaths would have had to be saved over the 2011- 2012 period.

The final SOL conference on “Comprehensive road safety strategy for Central Europe” organised by the Agency of East Lombardy for Transport and Logistics (ALOT) took place on May 27th, 2013 in Brussels. The conference highlighted the undertaken actions and the results, including the SOL Road Safety Guidelines, which were produced during the project SOL – Save Our Lives, cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and carried out within the framework of the European Programme of Territorial Cooperation “Central Europe“.

NTUA Professor George Yannis presented “ROSEE – Road Safety Policies and Measures in South East European Regions“. 

A workshop organised by the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers, concerning transportation during periods of economic recession, took place in Athens on February 6th, 2013. The impact of the current deep economic crisis in Greece to the various sectors of transport was presented and estimations for the future of transport in Greece were attempted. The road safety contribution of NTUA  Professor George Yannis concerned the “Economic crisis and road accidents”.   

The European Road Safety Conference on data and knowledge-based policy-making took place with great success in the Acropolis Museum Conference Centre in Athens on 22-23 November 2012. This Conference was organised by the DaCoTA EU co-funded research project and it was a high level event which brought together more than 150 road safety delegates (policy-makers, stakeholders and technical community). The latest developments in EU road safety strategies were presented together with the latest research findings.

All Conference presentations can be found at the Dacota project website. 

The NTUA presentations concerned:

 Linking road safety management with road safety performance

 A comprehensive road safety data and knowledge support tool

 Forecasting fatalities in times of recession

The 25th annual ICTCT workshop took place on 6-9 of November 2012, in the Transportation Research Institute (IMOB), Hasselt University, Belgium. The workshop provided a forum to discuss innovating theories and concepts in Road Traffic Safety research and brought together international experts. This year the conference theme was ‘road safety in a globalised and more sustainable world– current issues and future challenges’. All the presentations can be found at the ICTCT website (Workshop – past – Hasselt-Belgium).

NTUA presentation concerned: “The attitudes and behaviour of European pedestrians”. 

The Final conference of th SARTRE 4 project took place on 8th November 2012 in Brussels. The objective of the project was to survey, with a uniform methodology in all 21 European countries participating, the attitudes, opinions, self-reported behaviour and experiences of European drivers, riders of power two wheels, and of non-driverswith respect to road trafic risk. The project addressed issues such as mobility experiences, perception of safety needs by different types of road users, opinions and experiences about speeding, impaired driving, attitudes towards motorcycle riders, pedestrians and other road users. NTUA was in charge of the survey in Greece and the respective analyses. The Final Report and the Booklet of the project are now available. 

A workshop on trasport in the Municipalities of Attica took place in Pefki on the 26th of September 2012. The workshop was organised by the the Association for Sustainable Development of Cities together with the Municipality of Likovrisi-Pefki.

NTUA road safety presentations concerned:

 Strategic Plan for the improvement of road safety in Greece, 2011 – 2020, by George Kanellaidis

 Policies and measures for the decrease of road accidents in the municipalities of Attica, by George Yannis

The European Commission and the EU Rotating Presidency (Ministry of Communications and Works of Cyprus) organised a conference titled ‘Active involvement of Youth in Road Safety’ for the fourth European Road Safety Day. The conference took place on 25 of July 2012, in Nicosia, Cyprus.

The Hellenic Organisation for Victims of Road Accidents of Rhodes (EFTHITA), member of the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR) organised a workshop on the Proposals for the improvement of road safety in Greece, which took place on the 22th of March in the island of Rhodes. NTUA Professor George Kannellaidis emphasised the need for cooperation in order to develop a modern, self-explaining and forgiving road environment.  

The 3rd pan-hellenic Highways Engineering Conference, organised by the Technical Chamber of Greece, took place on 9-10 February 2012 in Athens.

NTUA road safety presentations concerned:

 Safety in Road Design

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

  Application of the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM) in Greece

  Comparative analysis of road safety parameters on European motorways

  Parameters Affecting Greek Drivers Willingness to Pay for the Avoidance of Road Accidents

 Recording and Evaluation Procedure of Drivers’ Distraction. The Case of Thessaloniki’s Ring Road.

 Contribution to the investigation of behavior of drivers under fatigue, with the use of innovative technologies

  Road Safety Audit: principles and implementation in Greece. The case of Attica Tollway (“Attiki Odos”)

  Development of a methodology for road safety impact assessment of infrastructure projects in Greece

  Analysis of the safety impact of advertising signs on the number of road accidents

The Road Safety Insitute Panos Mylonas (IOAS) in collaboration with the European Transport Council (ETSC) organised a meeting on the 8th of November 2011 at the Zappeion Conference and Exhibition Center in Athens. The objectives of the meeting were the presentation of the AVENUEproject (Actions for Vulnerable, Elderly, Novice Drivers and road Users in Europe) as well as the education through experiential activities with the use of NESTs (Networks & Education for Safety and Traffic).

The 3rd International Conference on Road Safety and Simulation took place in Indianapolis, in September 2011, organised by the Transportation Research Board and the Center for Road Safety Center of Purdue University. NTUA Associate Professor Matthew Karlaftis was member of the Organising Committee.

NTUA presentations concerned:

  An investigation of older driver road safety perceptions and driving performance on freeways

  Is it risky to talk, eat or smoke while driving? Findings from a driving simulator experiment

  Identifying riding profiles parameters from high resolution naturalistic riding data

  Detecting secondary accidents in freeways

  Young drivers and alcohol impaired driving: a driving simulator experiment

  Model for sight distance calculation and three-dimensional alignment evaluation in divided and undivided highways

A United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) conference on Improving Global Road Safety: Setting Regional and National Road Traffic Casualty Reduction Targets was organized in Halkida, in June 2009.

NTUA presented ‘Assessment of Road Safety Measures in Greece’  and ‘National Strategic Plan for the Improvement of Road Safety in Greece (2006-2010)’. Despite some progress in recent years, South Eastern European countries are still suffering from high numbers of causalities on the road.