The World Road Association – PIARC implemented an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project, aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA and AIT, especially within Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The conclusion of this project was presented by the PIARC President Nazir Alli. Throughout the year, this global project addressed issues relating to vehicles, speed, data, vulnerable road users, infrastructure, tunnels, management and human factors in order to improve road safety.  

The 2023 infographic of NTUA Road Safety Observatory (www.nrso.ntua.gr) highlights one more very intensive and highly fruitful year. The nrso scientific team with high dedication, efficiency and expertise continues to grow and excel, being active in 31 innovative research projects, succeeded to publish 49 scientific papers (23 in peer reviewed journals), and travelled around the world in hundreds of meetings to develop and promote road safety science. The 30 Marathons campaign for promoting 30km/h city-wide speed limit was also widely welcomed, contributing to the culture of calm and safe streets everywhere and for all. 

A paper titled “Machine Learning Insights on Driving Behaviour Dynamics among Germany, Belgium, and UK Drivers” authored by Stella Roussou, Thodoris Garefalakis, Eva Michelaraki, Tom Brijs and George Yannis, has been published in Sustainability. Two machine learning approaches, Long Short-term Memory Networks and Neural Networks were implemented. The findings revealed a significant positive impact of i-DREAMS’ real-time interventions and post-trip assessments on enhancing driving behaviour. Furthermore, it is worth noting that neural networks demonstrated superior performance compared to other algorithms considered within this research context. 

The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published the Road Safety Annual Report 2023, focusing on the development of road safety in 2022, with the active contribution of NTUA. It is based on data from 35 IRTAD member countries, with some preliminary data also for the year 2023. The main findings revealed that the number of fatalities continued to fall compared with 2019 and previous years. The necessity on the adoption of low emission zones, traffic limited zones and the development of 30 km/h zones by many cities was also highlighted.  

The World Health Organization has released a Road Safety Manual for decision-makers and practitioners concerning Helmets Safety. This second edition of the Helmets Manual aims to provide guidance to countries on how to implement some of the recommendations identified within the World Report, and thus improve their overall road safety record. This Manual provides practical advice to road safety practitioners on how to achieve a much higher proportion of users of two-wheeled vehicles wearing helmets.  

A paper titled “Perceptions towards autonomous vehicle acceptance: Information mining from Self-Organizing Maps and Random Forests” authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Christina Telidou, Apostolos Anagnostopoulos, Fotini Kehagia and George Yannis, has been published in IATSS Research. Random Forests (RF) feature importance calculation indicated a number of affecting variables with distance covering capabilities of AVs being a major factor affecting acceptance decisions, followed (by a wide margin) by responder opinions on whether the principles and conscience of drivers can be replaced by an AI navigator without reducing safety levels. 

The World Road Association – PIARC implemented an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project, aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA and AIT, especially within Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The theme of this month refers to behaviour, as presented by NTUA Professor George Yannis. Throughout the year, PIARC focuses on the Safe System approach, addressing safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, safe vehicles and safe speeds.   

A paper titled “Exploring speeding behavior using naturalistic car driving data from smartphones ” authored by Armira Kontaxi, Dimosthenis-Marios Tzoutzoulis, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis, has been published in Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering. The results from the interpretation of the estimated parameters of the models indicate that trip distance and mobile phone use while driving have been determined as statistically significant and positively correlated with the percentage of speeding time during a driver’s trip. In the same context, male drivers and drivers in the age group of 18–34 also increase the percentages of speeding instances while driving. 

A paper titled “Examination of the Effect of Task Complexity and Coping Capacity on Driving Risk: A Cross-Country and Transportation Mode Comparative Study” authored by Stella Roussou, Thodoris Garefalakis, Eva Michelaraki, Christos Katrakazas, Muhammad Adnan, Muhammad Wissal Khattak, Tom Brijs and George Yannis, has been published in Sensors. The findings revealed a positive relationship between task complexity and coping capacity, indicating that as the difficulty of the driving task increased, the driver’s coping capacity also increased (i.e., higher ability to manage and adapt to the challenges posed by more complex tasks). 

The World Road Association – PIARC implemented an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project, aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA and AIT, especially within Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The theme of this month refers to road safety management, as presented by the head of Road Safety at the Transport Accident Commission of Australia Samantha Cockfield. Throughout the year, PIARC focuses on the Safe System approach, addressing safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, safe vehicles and safe speeds.   

The International Transport Forum (ITF) has recently published a new Report titled “Using Safety Performance Indicators to Improve Road Safety – The case of Korea“ with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report explores how Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs) can play a critical role in implementing the Safe System approach to road safety. The example of Korea was examined. Developing safety performance indicators involves identifying and prioritising policy areas, selecting relevant indicators, continuously monitoring and evaluating progress, and aligning selected indicators with national road safety strategies.  

A paper titled “Parkinson’s Disease and Driving Fitness: A Systematic Review of the Existing Guidelines” authored by Petros Stamatelos, Alexandra Economou,  George Yannis, Leonidas Stefanis and Sokratis G. Papageorgiou has been published in Movement Disorders. Results revealed that neurological aspects of driving fitness evaluation of PD patients are recognized in most of the guidelines. Furthermore, motor, neuropsychological, visual, and sleep assessment and medication review are key components for road safety. 

A paper titled “Cycling under the influence of alcohol and other drugs: An exploratory analysis” authored by Zoi Christoforou, Maria Giannoulaki, Christos Gioldasis and George Yannis, has been published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. Results revealed that Cycling Under the Influence (CUI) of alcohol and other drugs is indeed a common practice among Parisian cyclists, although they declare to be aware of related risks, but rarely adapt their drinking/cycling behavior to avoid them, even when they have previous accident involvement record. 

The World Road Association – PIARC implemented an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project, aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA and AIT, especially within Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The theme of this month refers to tunnels, as presented by the chair of the PIARC Technical Committee 4.4 “Road Tunnels”  Ingo Kaundinya. Throughout the year, PIARC focuses on the Safe System approach, addressing safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, safe vehicles and safe speeds.   

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Impact of compliance for the reduction of sulphur oxide emissions in the shipping industry” was recently presented by Maria Konti. In order to achieve this, two case studies based on data taken from two existing bulk carriers were presented. The study indicates that options i) and iii) are accompanied by significant capital expenditures (CapEx), while the Scrubber option is shown to be the most cost-effective considering 5 and 10-year depreciation scenarios. Other important parameters such as the vessels’ age, the management companies’ cash flow and risk appetite, and the hire rates are shown to influence the results.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Analysis of traffic behaviour and road safety of delivery riders” was recently presented by Konstantinos Choumis.  To achieve this, a questionnaire was developed, and 200 food delivery drivers from all over Attica were asked to respond based on the stated preference method for various hypothetical scenarios involving changes in delivery time, crash risk reduction and profit loss per delivery. The results of the multinomial logistic regression model revealed that the variables influencing the food delivery drivers’ choices in hypothetical scenarios include: delivery time, crash risk reduction, profit loss, age of the driver, the number of fines received, and their opinion on stricter penalties as a measure to improve road safety.   

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Survey on acceptance of speed limit reduction on Greek motorways” was recently presented by Christina Agourou. A stated preference survey was carried out examining three different scenarios of speed limits’ reduction on motorways. Multinomial and binary logistic regression models were developed and results demonstrated that drivers acceptance of  speed limit reduction in motorways increases as the number of fatalities and serious injuries increases. It was also revealed that females are more willing to comply with lower speed limits than males.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Impact factors of children’s road safety in Europe” was recently presented by Alexia Georgiou. For this purpose, data from the European CARE database on the number of victims aged 0-14 in road crashes and the characteristics of these crashes were used. Linear regression models and negative binomial regression models were developed. These models led to the conclusion that the percentage of drivers who develop speeds higher than the permitted ones in residential areas and the percentage of drivers who transport children over 150cm tall without a seat belt significantly affect the number of victims aged 0-14. Regarding crash characteristics, good weather conditions are associated with an increase in the number of victims.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Investigation of the impact of eco driving on fuel consumption using smartphone data” was recently presented by Aimilia Triantafyllou. To achieve this objective, data collected from 15 drivers who participated in a naturalistic driving experiment for a period of six months are analyzed. The results demonstrated that by improving the participants’ driving style, a remarkable reduction in fuel consumption was observed; and smoother and more ecological driver behavior was achieved.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Investigation of eco driving benefits at the rural network using driving simulator” was recently presented by Panagiota Kourenti. To achieve this objective, driving data from 39 participants were collected and the experimental procedure was carried out using a driving simulator. To complete the collection of the necessary data, the driving characteristics of the participants were collected through a questionnaire survey. The key conclusions of this thesis are that eco-driving reduces significantly emissions, fuel consumption and crash risk.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Comparative Evaluation of Road Safety Performance of the European Union Countries” was recently presented by Panagiotis Konstantopoulos. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for road safety were exploited as collected in 2021-2022 within the Baseline project, together with data from Eurostat and EC CARE road crash databases. It was observed that an increase in the percentage of vehicles travelling within the speed limits on urban roads and of the percentage of seat belt use, as well as an increase in the proportion of new vehicles in the total fleet, are associated with a clear reduction in crash severity.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Comparative analysis of road safety performance in the Regions of Greece” was recently presented by Lydia Papagianni. For this purpose, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for road safety in Greece were collected and calculated for the year 2022 as part of the European Union’s Baseline project. It was found that as the KPI for the use of protective equipment, distraction from handheld devices, compliance with speed limits, the per capita GDP, and the number of hospital beds increase, the number of road fatalities per population decreases. Conversely, as the employment rate increases, the road fatalities also increase.  

The World Road Association – PIARC implemented an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project, aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA and AIT, especially within Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The theme of this month refers to infrastructure, as presented by the chair of PIARC Technical Committee 3.1 John Milton. Throughout the year, PIARC focuses on the Safe System approach, addressing safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, safe vehicles and safe speeds.   

CRC Press has recently published a Handbook written by Christina Ludin-Brown and Ashleigh Filtness titled “Fatigue Management in Transportation”, which is designed as a comprehensive reference point, bringing together international expertise from leaders in fatigue science, and showcasing valuable insights from transportation industry practitioners. The 40 authored chapters of this handbook are divided into six sections, to better understand fatigue science, the consequences of fatigue in transportation, contributors to fatigue, managing fatigue and promoting alertness, real world case studies of fatigue management in practice, and future perspectives.   

The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) program on Star Rating for Schools and AiRAP partnerships will be scaled up to provide 3-star or better journeys to school and address road traffic crashes that are the leading cause of death among children and young people worldwide with the support of  Google. By using artificial intelligence to identify high-risk 1- and 2-star roads that children use on their journey to school, potential hazards and mobilise evidence-based upgrades that will save children’s lives will be identified. 

A paper titled “Real-Time Monitoring of Driver Distraction: State-of-the-art and future insights” authored by Eva Michelaraki, Chistos Katrakazas, Susanne Kaiser, Tom Brijs and George Yannis, has been published in Accident Analysis & Prevention. The aim of this research is to critically review and assess the state-of-the-art systems and platforms measuring driver distraction or inattention. The results indicated that real-time eye tracking systems, cardiac sensors on steering wheels, smartphone applications and cameras were the most frequent devices to monitor and detect driver distraction. On the other hand, less frequent and effective approaches included electrodes, hand magnetic rings and glasses. 

A paper titled “COVID-19 and driving behavior: Which were the most crucial influencing factors” authored by Marios Sekadakis, Christos Katrakazas, Eva Michelaraki, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis, has been published in Data Science for Transportation. Based on the collected data, XGBoost feature analysis algorithms were deployed to obtain the most significant factors. Results revealed that COVID-19 new cases and new fatalities were the most significant factors related to COVID-19 metrics impacting driving behavior. In addition, the correlation between driving behavior with other factors (i.e., distance traveled, mobile use, driving requests, and driving during risky hours) was revealed. Lastly, the differences and similarities of the harsh event rates between the two lockdown periods were identified. 

The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety launched, with the active contribution of NTUA, an accountability toolkit, which is a set of practical, web-based tools. It offers tangible steps to equip NGOs to hold their governments accountable for the safety of all road users by reducing road deaths and injuries by 50% by 2030, in alignment with the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 (Global Plan). The toolkit is a practical resource for NGOs and other civil society advocates and is underpinned by five Priority Interventions that have been proven to be among the most effective in reducing road deaths and injuries.

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Fuel price impact on driver harsh behaviour improvement in Greece” was recently presented by Panagiota Konstantakopoulou. It analyses the impact of fuel price on driver behaviour and explores how price changes can influence driving style, abruptness and speed. The research includes statistical data of fuel prices and driver behaviour for the years between 2019 and 2022.   The increase in fuel prices has led to a reduction in sudden acceleration/deceleration. It was observed that during periods of increased fuel price, drivers improved their driving style and were more attentive to the task of driving, performing fewer abrupt events.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Impact of road safety culture elements on road crash risk in Greece” was recently presented by Nikolaos Veneris. In order to achieve this, data from the “Safe Culture” research regarding private car and motorcycle drivers in Athens and Rhodes were exploited. Subsequently, the answers from questions that serve the purposes of this thesis were picked and classified, in order to develop binary logistic regression models. Results indicate that drivers probably understand the importance of more intensive traffic enforcement as a means of traffic accident reduction, the development of a common road safety culture in the island of Rhodes in contrast to that of Athens and, last but not least, the importance of factors such as driving frequency, age and experience, on traffic accident probability.   

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Correlation of crash risk with driver capacity in coping with driving tasks complexity using machine learning” was recently presented by Spyros Tsigkos. A large set of  driving data under real-life conditions in Great Britain was exploited and eight Structural Equation Models (SEM) were developed. It emerged that increasing the complexity of the trip increases the risk of a crash, while the deteriorated condition of the driver and the vehicle leads to increasing the crash risk. Male drivers have more high-severity abrupt incidents while driving compared to female drivers, which confirms the international literature.   

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Economic assessment of free public transport in Athens” was recently presented by Chrysavgi (Chrysa) Vagdatli. For this purpose, a social-economic analysis, in the context of a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), was conducted to assess the socio-economic impact of the FPT, up to the year 2030. In the framework of the CBA, four Scenarios for reduction of public transport tickets were examined. Consequently, a multinomial logistic model was developed to investigate for each of the three Scenarios the level preferring Athenians the FPT over private car, using data from a stated preference questionnaire survey. This social-economic analysis demonstrated that the introduction of FPT in Athens can contribute to social welfare mainly due to the modal shift from private cars to public transport.   

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published two Reports titled “Road Safety in LMICs: Identification and Analysis of specific Issues” in two parts Literature review and Illustrative Examples. The first part starts from the notion that road safety is a multifaceted problem which requires a multi-disciplinary approach. The safe system approach is generally considered as the central concept for this purpose and this starting point is also taken in this study. The second part is a follow up of an earlier literature review, in which were indicated which specific issues do need further attention in LMICs in the coming period up to 2030.  

The World Road Association – PIARC implemented an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project, aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA and AIT, especially within Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The theme of this month refers to Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), as presented by the PIARC Technical Committee 3.1 member Lawrence Chauke. Throughout the year, PIARC will focus on the Safe System approach, addressing safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, safe vehicles and safe speeds.   

A paper titled “The impact of cognition-affecting neurological diseases on reaction time and driving speed deviation” authored by Athina Diamanti, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis, has been published in Open Transportation Journal. Analysis of cognitive impairments based on GDS questions showed that frequent ‘feelings of boredom’ correlated with a 7% increase in reaction time and a 8% increase in the standard deviation of driving speed. Conversely, ‘feelings of worthlessness’ reduced the standard deviation of driving speed by 4.5%. Drivers with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases showed higher reaction times, while drivers with depression and the control group showed lower reaction times. Drivers with Parkinson’s disease showed statistically fewer deviations of average speed. This research demonstrated that cognitively impaired individuals have larger reaction times and more erratic driving speeds.  

The European Commision welcomes the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council on a proposal made by the Commission in 2021 on the revision of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive.  A smarter and interoperable transport system allows the more effective management of traffic and mobility across transport modes, enabling users to better combine the most sustainable modes of transport.  

The World Road Association – PIARC implemented an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project, aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA and AIT, especially within Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The theme of this month refers to Data, as presented by the PIARC Technical Committee 2.4 “Road Network Operation/ ITS” Secretary Kaouther Machta. Throughout the year, PIARC will focus on the Safe System approach, addressing safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, safe vehicles and safe speeds.   

A paper titled “A Review of Surrogate Safety Measures Uses in Historical Crash Investigations” authored by Dimitrios Nikolaou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis, has been published in Sustainability. On that purpose, 34 studies were examined, providing insights on the different types of SSMs collected under real road environment conditions, the way they are collected, their connection with specific road crash types, and the type of the developed statistical models are examined and discussed. Particular focus is also placed on the temporal dimension of the collection period of both SSMs and road crashes. Based on the classification performance metrics of the developed models, it was found that the Random Forests classifier outperformed the other developed classifiers in terms of predicting crash risk levels of the considered motorway segments. 

The World Road Association – PIARC implemented an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project, aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA and AIT, especially within Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The theme of this month refers to Speed, as presented by the PIARC Technical Committee 3.1 “Road Safety” member John Barrell. Throughout the year, PIARC will focus on the Safe System approach, addressing safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, safe vehicles and safe speeds.     

The World Road Association – PIARC implemented an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA and AIT, especially within the Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The theme of this month refers to Vehicles, as presented by the PIARC Task Force 2.1 President Ana Luz Jiménez Ortega. Throughout the year, PIARC will focus on the Safe System approach, addressing safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, safe vehicles and safe speeds.   

A paper titled “Driving behaviour in depression based on subjective evaluation and data from a driving simulator” authored by Vagioula Tsoutsi, Maria Papadakaki, George Yannis, Dimosthenis Pavlou, Maria Basta, Joannes Chliaoutakis and Dimitris Dikeos, has been published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The group of patients with depression did not differ from controls regarding driving behaviour as assessed through questionnaires; on the driving simulator, patients kept a longer safety distance. Results indicated that subjective fatigue was positively associated with aggression, dislike of driving, hazard monitoring and violations as assessed by questionnaires. It was revealed that, although certain symptoms of depression (insomnia, fatigue and somnolence) may affect driving performance, patients compensate by driving more carefully, eliminating thus, their impact. 

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “The Use of Big Data for Road Condition Monitoring“. This work provides an overview of numerous big data sources and the data-processing methods that can be used to analyse data for road condition monitoring. It focuses on solutions that allow data to be collected quickly, in real time and repeatedly. Also included is a summary of several completed or ongoing projects that have utilised many of the big data sources described in this document.  

The World Health Oganisation (WHO) in collaboration with the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety recently developed a guide that clearly defines the role that nongovernmental organizations can have in advocating on behalf of people who need emergency care, including those injured in road traffic crashes.  This guide is especially targeted towards nongovernmental organizations that operate with limited resources. While those affected by injuries and other health emergencies have a range of physical, psychological and legal needs, this publication is focused on advocacy for the time-sensitive health care that can save millions of lives every year.

An NTUA Diploma Thesis called “Analysis of the acceptance and cost benefit analysis of reducing the speed limit to 80 km/h on the interurban road network in Greece” was recently presented by Konstantinos Makrydakis. For the purpose of this Diploma Thesis, a special questionnaire was developed and answered by 408 travellers, from different parts of Greece, based on the stated preference method for 10 hypothetical scenarios with variations of the variables travel time, fuel consumption and probability of road accident with serious injury. The analysis calculated the investment costs and the impacts on traffic, road safety and the environment expressed in monetary units and showed that the reduction of the speed limit to 80 km/h on the interurban road network in Greece is considered to be economically very positive for the society, with a positive economic Net Present Value (ENPV=€170.7 million) and a high ERR (ERR=39.1%).   

A NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Investigating the influence of mobile phone use on driving behavior with Machine Learning analysis of imbalanced data” was recently presented by Konstantinos-Eirinaios Kaselouris. For classification and regression of mobile phone usage, telematics data from the OSeven telematics company were used as collected from naturalistic driving measurements. Mobile phone use was defined as an indicator of risky behaviour and classification was performed on two levels of driving behaviour (risky and not risky). Variables related to travel speed were found to be the most significant independent variables, while according to the classification evaluation metrics, the most appropriate model was considered to be that of ‘Linear Discriminant Analysis’.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis called “Analysis of seatbelt and helmet use characteristics in Greece” was recently presented by Nikolaos Lagonikakos. For the purpose of this Diploma Thesis, data were collected from field observations during November-December 2021 in Greece and are related to seatbelt and helmet use, driver’s age and gender, the type of vehicle, the weather conditions, the time period and the road type in three areas (Athens, Thessaloniki and Larisa). Regarding the statistical models of seatbelt and helmet use by drivers, the results demonstrated that female drivers are more likely to use their seatbelt compared to male drivers. With regard to age, middle-aged and elderly drivers present lower probabilities of using a seatbelt while driving, compared to young drivers. Moreover, in adverse weather conditions the probability of using a helmet is lower in comparison with good weather conditions.  

A paper titled “An Evaluation of the Passing Process through Road – Vehicle Parameters Assessment” authored by Stergios Mavromatis, Vassilios Matragos, Konstantinos Apostoleris, Fotios Fotos and George Yannis, has been published in European Transport Research Review. The methodology is based on a realistic representation of the passing task with respect to roadway’s posted speed and the ability of the passing (examined) vehicle to perform such maneuvers. The analysis revealed that the difference between the speed of the passed vehicle and the posted speed value, as well as certain interactions of the assessed parameters impact excessively passing sight distances (PSDs), especially for values below 20 km/h. 

The European Commission adopted a Recommendation designed to help Member States support their towns and cities in cutting transport emissions and improving urban mobility. The Commission recommends putting in place national programmes to support urban mobility planning and implementation, managed by a dedicated office. Support for cities should include guidance materials, training programmes and capacity building, as well as technical expertise and financial support. Peer learning and networking between cities and towns will be encouraged through the sharing of good practices and that will lead to reinforcement of road safety.

The International Transport Forum (ITF) has recently published a new Report titled “Shaping Post-Covid Mobility in Cities“. This Report explores how urban mobility changed during the pandemic, focusing on changes in how people work, examining also implications on safety. Based on a review of international best practices, the report provides recommendations for better urban mobility in a post-Covid world.  

A paper titled “Texting while driving: a literature review on driving simulator studies” authored by Gheorghe-Daniel Voinea, Razvan Boboc, Ioana-Diana Buzdugan, Csaba Antonya and George Yannis, has been published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. The main findings revealed that texting while driving has negative effects on driving performance, affecting drivers’ divided attention and concentration, which can lead to potentially life-threatening traffic events. This review can serve as a basis for regulators and interested parties to propose restrictions related to using mobile phones in a vehicle and improve road safety. 

The World Road Association – PIARC launched an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA and AIT, especially within the Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The general theme of this month refers to Boosting Road Safety, as presented by the Secretary General Patrick Mallejacq. Throughout the year, PIARC will focus on the Safe System approach, addressing safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, safe vehicles and safe speeds.  

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled  “Well-Prepared Projects, A PIARC Collection of Case Studies“. This collection of case studies includes 17 cases from 10 different countries participating in this task force, plus one case dedicated to the use of the SOURCE platform in the preparation of transportation projects. The objective of this collection is to provide a variety of highly relevant examples from the real life. Each case outlines good practices in place in a country with a focus on a particular aspect of the project preparation.

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “Documents Relevant to Road Infrastracture and Transportation Security“. This Literature Review is the first step in the development of a full technical Report on road infrastructure and transport security. The document contains a review of literature on road infrastructure and transport security. The review focuses on the following topics: Legislations and policies, Standards, Studies and researches, PIARC reports, Other reports, Manuals and books, Case studies and best practices, Events and situations. It is also completed with conclusions and recommendations, a glossary and appendices.

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “Good Practices in Maintenance and Traffic Operation of Heavily Trafficked Urban Road Tunnels“. This Report makes amends in detailing the challenges and inherent good practices for maintenance and operation from traffic management, to design and renovation. It was cowritten by a panel of designers, owners, operators, policy makers in the field of tunnels, from around the world taking inspiration from previous PIARC Case Studies.

A new publication titled EU Road Safety: Towards “Vision Zero” has been recently published by the European Commission. This publication presents a comprehensive overview of projects managed by CINEA and funded under Horizon 2020-the EU’s R&I programme that develop, test and exploit innovative solutions for a safer road transport. This document calls for a new approach to safe mobility to be achieved by 2030: one rooted in safety as a core value, and not one in which safety may come second to factors such as cost, speed, aesthetics, or profits. It draws on work done in the past few years by the H2020 funded projects.   

The International Transport Forum (ITF) has recently published a new Policy Brief titled Improving motorcyclist safety: Priority actions for Safe System integration. This Brief summarizes the current extent of PTW usage worldwide, highlights pressing safety issues for motorcyclists and presents priority actions for improving motorcycling safety. It results from a series of virtual workshops on motorcyclist safety held in 2021 and co-hosted by the ITF and key roadsafety partners.  

The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum(ITF/OECD) published the Road Safety Annual Report 2022 focusing on the development of road safety in the year 2021, the first year of the Second Decade of Action. The analysis draws on road safety data from 34 IRTAD member countries. It outlines short‑term trends for the year 2021 and long‑term trends for the period 2010‑19. The Report also presents provisional data on road deaths for the first semester of 2022 (January to June).  

A paper titled “The transformation of the insurance industry and road safety by driver safety behaviour telematics” authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Virginia Petraki, Armira Kontaxi and  George Yannis, has been published in Case Studies on Transport Policy. The aim of the present research is to expand on the aforementioned topics based on trends from recently published research and discuss the transformation of the insurance industry by driver safety behaviour telematics. An overview of the relevant technological advancements is provided, followed by the integration practices of telematics adopted by the insurance industry.  

A paper titled “One year of COVID-19: Impacts on safe driving behavior and policy recommendations” authored by Eva Michelaraki, Marios Sekadakis, Christos Katrakazas, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and  George Yannis, has been published in Journal of Safety Research. This study presented a descriptive overview of several driving behavior indicators as well as road crash data in correlation with the strictness of response measures in Greece and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The results indicated that during the lockdown periods, speeds were increased by up to 6%, while harsh events were increased by about 35% in the two countries, compared to the period after the confinement. However, the imposition of another lockdown did not cause radical changes in Greek driving behavior during the late months of 2020.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis called “Impact analysis of gasoline price on traffic conditions in Athens” was recently presented by Stylianos Peithis. For the purpose of this Diploma Thesis, data concerning traffic conditions, gasoline prices and a wide variety of traffic shaping factors such as weather data was collected. In order to accomplish this thesis’ objective Linear Mixed Effects models with random effect intercept were deployed using as independent variables various metrics with explanative power about traffic volume’s fluctuations. The results showed that the rise of gasoline prices has a negative impact on traffic volume while the impact of other factors such as weather conditions like temperature and rainfall are also substantial. Schools’ vacations, weekends and public holidays also have a decreasing impact in traffic conditions.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Imbalanced learning analysis for driving behaviour prediction using naturalistic driving data” was recently presented by Antonis Kostopoulos. For the purpose of this Diploma Thesis data was collected through the telematics company OSeven, in order to classify and predict driving behaviour in terms of harsh accelerations and brakings occurences. More precisely this thesis intends to determine the most crucial predictors for the occurrence of harsh events, through a feature selection process and to identify two safety levels for harsh accelerations and brakings using Machine Learning techniques. The imbalanced classification results showcased that the total driving distance was the more impactful variable to harsh events occurence, whilst the best techniques for this particular imbalanced learning process, were achieved by Gradient Boosting and Multilayered Perceptrons algorithms.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Analysis of distraction characteristics due to mobile phone use in Greece” was recently presented by Marilena Merakou. The data used for the statistical analysis were collected from field measurements during November-December 2021 in Greece. The collected data are related to distraction measurements but also to driver’s age and gender, the type of vehicle, the weather conditions, the time period and the road type in three areas (in and around Athens, Thessaloniki and Larisa). The results demonstrate that old and middle aged drivers are less likely to use mobile phone while driving than younger drivers. It was also found, that van drivers tend to use mobile phone more often than drivers of any other vehicle type.  

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “Utilizing Data to Optimize Road Network Operations“. This work builds on the “Big Data for Road Network Operations” report from the 2016-2019 PIARC work cycle by providing current, real world examples of current application of big data concepts. The case studies included in this Report represent the current state of practice and highlight the progress being made by road network operators to utilize the growing amount of data available for road network operations. 

The Fondation VINCI Autoroutes has recently published the results of a unique study on “Sharing the road”. This Ipsos survey offers an overview of the behaviour of Europeans dealing with the coexistence of different modes of transport. This includes drivers of cars and motorised two-wheelers, cyclists, users of personal light electric vehicles (PLEVs) and pedestrians. According to the results, Greece has the highest rate of drivers (77%) who use the phone while driving in Europe (EU average 66%). 89% of Greek cyclists are afraid of other road users’ behaviour and 58% of them wear helmet when cycling. Moreover, 98% of Greek motorised two-wheelers fear the behaviour of other road users. On the other hand, 26% of Greek drivers open the door without checking if a cyclist is coming, whereas the European average is 36%.   

A paper titled “Investigating the Temporal Evolution of Driving Safety Efficiency Using Data Collected from Smartphone Sensors” authored by Dimitrios Tselentis, Eleni Vlahogianni and George Yannis, has been published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. Initial data analysis results to the most critical components of microscopic driving behaviour, which are used as inputs in the k-means algorithm to perform the clustering analysis. The main driving characteristics of each cluster are identified and lead to the conclusion that there are three main driving groups of the a) moderate drivers, b) unstable drivers and c) cautious drivers.

The International Transport Forum (ITF) has published a new Report titled Monitoring Progress in Urban Road Safety: 2022 Update. This Report tracks the progress in reducing the number of road traffic fatalities and serious injuries in cities between 2010 and 2020. It is a unique combination of traffic safety data collected in 32 cities participating in the ITF Safer City Streets network and compares trends in urban and national road safety.  

A paper titled “The role of values in road safety culture: Examining the relationship between valuation of freedom to take risk and accident risk among motorcycle riders and car drivers” authored by Tor-Olav Naevestad, Alexandra Laiou and George Yannis, has been published in Traffic Safety Research. The present study was based on survey data from car drivers and motorcycle riders from two countries with distinctly different road safety records: Norway and Greece. The results indicated that values focusing on freedom to take risk have an important role in road safety culture, presumably legitimizing and motivating risky driving/riding. 

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “State of the Art in Road Design Standards“. The document aims to identify similarities and differences between the approaches adopted in different countries and evaluates the possible need of their adaptation to the requirements of a rapidly changing world in the field of road transport systems: new technologies, changes in mobility modes (new propulsion techniques, new personal transport mode, and connected and autonomous driving) and availability of multiple diffused data sources. 

A paper titled “Evaluating Good Practices for the promotion of Electromobility using Mul-ti Criteria Analysis Methods” authored by Athanasios Zirganos, Foteini Orfanou, Eleni I. Vlahogianni and  George Yannis, is published in Case Studies on Transport Policy. For the purpose of this work , 20 Good Practices implemented in 9 European Regions aiming at diffusing electromobility were selected for applying the proposed methodology. The results showed that practices offering significant environmental benefits and improved energy systems, received higher scores than those contributing in raising public awareness or proving an advantage of electric vehicles over the conventional ones.  

A paper titled “Risk factors linked with elderly, truck and office worker drivers: a literature review in light of automated driving” authored by Marios Sekadakis, Christos Katrakazas, Peter Mörtl, Erika Santuccio and George Yannis, has been published in Advances in Transportation Studies. This study tries to identify and review risk factors that impact road safety and driving performance focusing more on three types of users, namely elderly drivers, truck operators, and office workers. The literature review was conducted using popular databases such as Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Scopus using specific search terms and prioritization criteria for studies coming mainly from Europe and the U.S, and after 2005. The aforementioned review will be exploited by the HADRIAN project, like any other HMI stakeholder, in order to develop a human-centered assessment methodology that will evaluate the way the human interacts with potential HMI configurations. Finally, the reviewed risk factors could guide stakeholders in accomplishing a safer transition from manual to autonomous driving for all road users. 

A paper titled “Investigation of traffic and safety behavior of pedestrians while talking on mobile phone” authored by Dimitra Typa, Dimitris Nikolaou and George Yannis, has been published in Advances in Transportation Studies. This study aims to investigate how hand-held cell phone conversation affects the behavior of pedestrians at signalized intersections in terms of both safety and traffic. In order to compare the behavior of distracted and non-distracted pedestrians, an outdoor environment experiment was carried out in real road conditions. Various demographic and behavioral characteristics were recorded, including mobile phone use. Initially, multiple linear regression models were developed in order to identify how cell phone use affects pedestrians’ speed. The results of the developed statistical models showed that pedestrians’ main traffic and safety characteristics were negatively impacted by distraction from hand-held cell phone conversation, as mobile phone use not only reduces pedestrians’ speed but also increases the likelihood that they will be involved in a collision with an approaching vehicle.

A paper titled “Driving Behaviour and its correlation with COVID-19 response measures: A neural network forecasting analysis” authored by Marios Sekadakis, Christos Katrakazas, Eva Michelaraki and  George Yannis, is published in Journal of Transportation Engineering. The NNAR modeling results showed that with higher stringency index, mobile use and driving speed tend to increase, whereas speeding duration demonstrates higher peaks. Interestingly, with stricter response measures, lower values were forecasted for speeding. According to the modeling outcomes, there is a direct effect of the COVID-19 response measures on driving behavior.  

A paper titled “A state-of-practice Review on Crash Occurrence Analysis and Hazardous Location Identification” authored by Paola Tiberi, Antonino Tripodi, Anastasios Dragomanovits, Katerina Deliali and  George Yannis, has been published in Advances in Transportation Studies. This study provided a state-of-practice review of the international literature on methods and applied practices for the identification of hazardous locations based on crash occurrence analysis. The analysis identified and summarized differences and similarities in the various methods and applied practices. Overall, this review is useful for practitioners so that they can identify potential ways of improving their applied crash occurrence methodology, while it will also inform researchers on paths for future research in the field of crash and safety analysis.