An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “The impact of Weather Conditions and Time Pressure on the safe driving behavior on rural roads, with the use of driving simulator” was recently presented by Gregory Christodoulou. In this Diploma Thesis the application of mathematical models showed that there are two variants that lead to a significant increase in the probability of an accident. These are the Snow and the Time pressure, which especially for the latter, is a fact of concern for the drivers.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Car drivers’ preferences towards the development of cycling infrastructure in the city of Athens, Greece” was recently presented by Thanos Zevgaras. This Diploma Thesis revealed that as the comfort of traveling by car increases, so does the likelihood of choosing a large amplification (aid) of the bicycle network, despite the costly contribution needed for it and that the greater the experience and the daily kilometers of the drivers, the more likely they are to choose the non-amplification (aid) of the bicycle network.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Comparative analysis of road safety between EU and USA” was recently presented by Charie Tsoukalas. The multivariate linear regression model developed, revealed that an increase in speed limit leads to an increase in lives lost in road crashes and an increase in GDP per capita leads effectively to a decrease in fatal accidents. The benchmarking of all US States and EU countries using Data Envelopment Analysis demonstrated that EU countries are more effective (higher safety performance) than those of the USA, possibly because of the higher vehicle fleet and vehicle-kilometers and lower public transport share in the US.  

The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety released its Good Practice Guide on Meaningful NGO Participation in the Field of Road Safety, demonstrating the unique and essential value of including NGOs in road safety decision making and implementation. The guide is a practical resource for NGOs and other civil society advocates. It describes steps that they can take to position themselves more effectively with their governments and to get their voices included in decision making. 

A paper titled “Trip characteristics impact on the frequency of harsh events recorded via smartphone sensors” authored by Armira Kontaxi, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis is published online in IATSS Research. Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models were fitted to the trips of car drivers who made frequent trips for two experiment phases in order to model the frequencies of harsh events. Results indicate that maximum speed, the percentage of speeding duration and total trip duration are positively correlated with both harsh acceleration and harsh braking frequencies. On the other hand, the exposure metric of total trip distance was found to be negatively correlated with both harsh event types. A small positive correlation of the percentage of mobile use duration with harsh accelerations was also detected. 

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “Automated Vehicles – Challenges and Opportunities for Road Operators and Road Authorities“.  It is likely that some support from the infrastructure will be needed to reach higher levels of automation. Among others, this Report provides initial insights on digital infrastructure and mentions 11 key challenges to tackle regarding social issues in order to make automation a success. 

A paper titled “Impact of socioeconomic and transport indicators on road safety during the crisis period in Europe“, authored by Dimitris Nikolaou, Katerina Folla and George Yannis is published online in International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion. The results of this research show that the evolution of human development affects the outcomes of road crashes more than suicides and passenger-kilometers travelled. After the end of the crisis, the impact of human development is even higher. Concerning passenger-kilometers travelled, there is an increase in the relative impact on road fatalities after the end of the crisis. 

Nneka Henry, Head of the UN Road Safety Fund (UNRSF), together with Namita Shah, Chairwoman of the  TOTALEnergies Foundation, published an article titled: Saving Young Lives, Protecting the Planet, and Growing the Economy: Road Safety for 2030. The article highlights that the global road safety crisis is the leading cause of death among children and youth and that the UNRSF and partners outline ways to make travel safer in developing countries, where 93% of the world’s road traffic deaths occur. 

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Investigation of the effect of pandemic restriction measures on Greek driving behaviour during COVID-19 through deep learning techniques” was recently presented by Aspasia Gonidi. This Diploma Thesis revealed that covid-19 cases’ increase lead to harsh accelerations increase, probably due to psychological pressure but also due to lower traffic volumes on the roads. Furthermore, the different effects of the two covid-19 “waves” on driver behaviour are highlighted.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Investigation of the effect of pandemic restriction measures in European mobility using clustering and machine learning classification” was recently presented by Dimitra Pigadioti. This Diploma Thesis revealed that the population’s behavior towards the pandemic and the consequent deaths, are better reflected and predicted by the characteristics of the population movements and not by the number of COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, the population’s mobility trends during the pandemic can be predicted satisfactorily for most European countries, considering the data of new COVID-19 cases per million population, the implemented vaccination policies and the movement trends to the grocery, pharmacy and parks.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Comparative analysis of road safety factors across generations, in Greece” was recently presented by Reggina Mermiga. From the application of Log-Linear regression models it emerges that the number of road casualties follows a rising trend in the transition from the older to the younger generations, which presumably can be attributed to increased mobility of younger generations. Additionally, most car crash victims between the ages of 26 and 64 belong to Generation X while those involved in a two-wheeled vehicle accident belong to Generation Y, most probably due to the fact that the members of the two generations are connected to different financial periods but also to the tendency of the members of Generation Y to experience delays in their transition to the following stages of their life.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Stated preferences of Athenians towards electric vehicles” was recently presented by John Kyparissis.  This Diploma Thesis reveals that drivers are mostly very positive towards purchasing an electric vehicle, with hybrid vehicles as their second choice. Furthermore, the probability of choosing an electric car depends to a large extent on the vehicle purchase cost, the ease of refueling and the views, habits and demographic characteristics of the respondents.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Correlation of organization and performance of urban transport systems in Europe“, was recently presented by Dimitrios Georgakopoulos. This Diploma Thesis reveals that more bus and tram stops, increase of GDP, higher population density and public operation of PT have a positive impact on PT demand in comparison to car ownership and the increase of PT fares with a negative impact on PT demand. Secondly, population density, bus and tram stops, modal share of active travelling modes (walking, cycling), GDP and tram speed lead to decrease of road fatalities.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Critical impact factors of travel time in Athens” was recently presented by Angelina Makri. The results revealed that the factors affecting travel time in the center of Athens are significantly related to the traffic of passenger cars, taxis, buses and trucks, with eco friendly modes of transport such as walking and cycling as well as road infrastructure which includes the number of traffic lanes and bus lanes. On Panepistimiou street, the cross sectional road increase from three to four lanes that took place in the second phase of the pilot implementation of the Great Walk of Athens, led to travel time increase.  

A paper titled “Post-trip safety interventions: state-of-the-art, challenges and practical implications” authored by Eva Michelaraki,  Christos Katrakazas,  George Yannis, Ashleigh Filtness, Rachel Talbot, Graham Hancox, Fran Pilkington-Cheney, Kris Brijs, Veerle Ross, Hélène Dirix, An Neven, Roeland Paul, Tom Brijs, Petros Fortsakis, Eleni Konstantina Frantzola and Rodrigo Taveira, was published in Journal of Safety Research. The synthesized results revealed that the majority of smartphone applications detected mobile phone use and harsh events and provided individual performance scores, while in-vehicle systems provided delayed visual reports through a web-based platform.  

A paper titled “Investigation of the speeding behavior of motorcyclists through an innovative smartphone application“, authored by Armira Kontaxi, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis is published in Traffic Injury Prevention.  Using risk exposure and riding behavior indicators calculated from smartphone sensor data, Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models are calibrated to correlate the percentage of riding time over the speed limit with other riding behavior indicators. Results indicate that the parameters of trip duration, distance driven during risky hours, morning peak hours and the number of harsh accelerations are all determined as statistically significant and positively correlated with the percentage of speeding time. Additionally, the provision of rider feedback and riding during afternoon peak hours are statistically significant and correlated with decreased percentages of speeding time. 

The Second Meeting of the Road Safety Governmental Committee was held on 27 July at the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The discussed topics were the upgrade and the promotion of the educational platform “e-drive academy”, the digitalization of the fines’ imposition and collection due to Road Traffic Code violations and the collection of good quality data for a uniform and systematic record of road crashes. Participants in the committee were: the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Yannis Kefalogiannis, the Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection Eleftherios Oikonomou, the Alternate Minister of Interior Stelios Petsas, the Deputy Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Zeta Makri, the Deputy Minister of Digital Governance Georgios Georgantas, the coordinator of the Road Safety Executive Committee Amalia Polydoropoulou and NTUA Professor George Yannis.  

A paper titled “Examining the relationship between impaired driving and past crash involvement in Europe: Insights from the ESRA study” authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Athanasios Theofilatos, Alexandra Laiou, Eva Michelaraki, George Yannis and Tova Rosenbloom, is published online in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion.  In this research, binary logistic analysis indicated that components involving overall personal and communal acceptance of impaired driving, overall and past year personal behaviour towards impaired driving and frequency of typical journey checks by traffic police were all quantities positively correlated with past crash involvement. 

Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) together with the Flemish Foundation for Traffic Knowledge (VSV) and Fundación MAPFRE have recently published the LEARN! Manual envisaged as a starting point for those who design, test, implement and evaluate educational activities on traffic safety and mobility, and are embarking upon the creation of new, or updating existing, activities. The new resource should also be useful to Ministries, Authorities, Schools and Organisations when deciding on which activities and projects to buy or fund.  

The  Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) has recently published the Journal of Road Safety, May 2021 Edition. The JRS accepts papers from all countries and regions around the world and publishes a diverse range of high-quality papers on road safety from researchers, policy makers, program implementers and other road safety experts, providing anyone interested in road safety with a rich source of current knowledge, evidence, developments and best practice in road safety implementation. 

A paper titled “To cross or not to cross? Review and meta-analysis of pedestrian gap acceptance decisions at midblock street crossings” authored by Athanasios Theofilatos,  Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Oscar Oviedo-Trespaliacios and Andrew Timmis was recently published by the Journal of Transport & Health. The paper explores pedestrian gap acceptance decisions in urban midblock locations. Fixed effects and random-effects meta-analyses are used to investigate the overall effect of critical variables. Results indicate that a unit increase in vehicle speed decreases pedestrians’ odds of crossing by 10%, while a unit increase in temporal gap size increases the odds of crossing by 7.2 times. Each crossing attempt increases the odds of crossing more than 16 times. 

A paper titled “Correlations of multiple rider behaviors with self-reported attitudes, perspectives on traffic rule strictness and social desirability“, authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Dimitris Nikolaou and George Yannis is  published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. Numerous statistical relationships were discovered and quantified correlating the four examined unsafe rider behaviors with eight latent unobserved variables. All covariances between unsafe behaviors were found to be positive and statistically significant, indicating that a rider who will engage more frequently in every single one of the four examined unsafe riding behaviors is more likely to also engage in all the others as well. 

The  World Health Organisation – Regional Office for Europe (WHO-Europe) recently published a Report titled: “Supporting healthy urban transport and mobility in the context of COVID-19“. The recommendations in this guidance can help in achieving multiple societal objectives, including: transport safety and efficiency; improved quality of urban life; reduced emission of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, and reduced noise; and greater opportunities to adopt a physically active lifestyle, while supporting economic recovery.  

Elsevier has  published the International Encyclopedia of Transportation on May 2021.  Containing almost 600 articles, the Encyclopedia brings a cross-cutting and integrated approach to all aspects of transportation from a variety of interdisciplinary fields including engineering, operations research, economics, geography and sociology in order to understand the changes taking place. Emphasising the interaction between these different aspects of research, it offers new solutions to modern-day problems related to transportation. NTUA actively contributed with the following paper: Traffic Flow Volume and Safety  

According to the 8^th Euro-Barometer for Responsible Driving, recently published by the Fondation VINCI Autoroutes, Greece has the highest rate of drivers (16%) that have been involved or almost involved in a road accident due to mobile phone use in Europe (EU average 11%). 57% of Greek drivers admitted calling while driving using a Bluetooth system, 53% using headphones and 42% without using any hands-free equipment. Moreover, 27% of Greek drivers stated sending and reading text messages or e-mails on their mobile phones while driving, whereas the respective European average is 22%. In addition, 11% of drivers in Greece report to have watched a film or video on a smartphone or tablet while driving, whereas the European average is 7%. 

The fifth Newsletter of the Horizon 2020 project BeOpen (European forum and observatory for open science in transport) was recently released with the results of the second event held virtually at the US TRB (Transportation Research Board) 2021 Annual meeting and successive presentations of the TOPOS Observatory and Forum key features to the transport and open science community.

The European Commission has recently published the Study on market development and safety of personal mobility devices (PMDs) and L-category vehicles, prepared by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). The main objectives of this Study were to provide an inventory of the various types of personal mobility devices available on the market, to provide a detailed analysis of the market and the influence of the existing legislations at EU and national level and to provide a collection and evaluation of available data and information on accidents involving personal mobility devices. 

The German Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) recently published a Report titled Safety Performance Indicators in road traffic – Overview and experiences from international practice. The findings of this Report contribute to the conceptual framework of the “Road Safety Research Programme 2019” of the German Federal Highway Research Institute, aiming to describe indicators that precede a potential accident event as a description of the state of the road traffic system and predictors of the accident. 

The Sustainable Mobility for All Initiative (SuM4All), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and the International Road Federation (IRF) have launched a Report titled Sustainable Mobility:  Policy Making for Data Sharing. The Report draws attention to the need for policy guidance for data sharing between public and private sector stakeholders in the transportation sector.  Increasing digitalization of mobility can accelerate the transition toward sustainable urban mobility.   

The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), under the new BIGRS Program 2020-2025, hosts the new Speed Management Hub.  In this platform, the GRSF team provides evidence-based road safety knowledge to help manage speed through infrastructure interventions, effective enforcement, targeted awareness measures, and vehicle technology, highly useful also for the UN Global Road Safety Week pledge for 30km/h speed limit in urban areas. Key engagements from this focus area include the provision of technical expertise to program partners, countries and cities on speed management and the preparation and publication of Global Speed Management Guidelines. 

The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) announced the launch of their newly redesigned website: roadsafetyfacility.org. This project provides better access to the use of GRSF research and products will improve guidance and advocacy actions to address the global road safety crisis. Some of the new features of this site are Interactive Road Safety Country Profiles, Speed Management Hub and DRIVER platform. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has recently published the PIN Flash Report 40 titled: Are Medical Fitness to Drive Procedures Fit for Purpose? with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report examines the current state of play in PIN countries regarding the assessment of medical fitness to drive, with reference to the 2006 EU Directive on Driving Licence and recommends that a standardised screening process be considered across all Member States when assessing a driver’s fitness to drive. The process should be based on international best practice and ideally, consistent across all jurisdictions.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Impact of pandemic to mobility behavior in the European Union using time-series analysis” was recently presented by Marianthi Kallidoni. This Diploma Thesis revealed that school closing is the most important exogenous factor for describing driving or walking, while the effect of “Stay at home” orders was not a significant factor for the evolution of people movements. In addition, countries which suffered the most due to the pandemic showed a strong correlation with the restrictive measures. Furthermore, no time-series models were found to describe the countries which implemented weak countermeasures.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Investigation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mobility in Greece using time series analysis” was recently presented by Eleni Blatsouka.  Data on mobility and restrictive measures were collected from online databases and ARIMA time series models were developed for Greece and Athens with dependent variables: driving or walking and with exogenous factor one of the restrictive measures. It was demonstrated that the closing of educational institutions and lockdown are the most important exogenous factors for describing mobility, while the curfew and the mandatory use of mask in all public areas are not significant factors. In addition, seasonal models appear to produce better forecasts than the non-seasonal ones.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Time Series Analysis of Vehicle and Pedestrian Traffic in Athens” was recently presented by Nick Economou. The result of this Diploma Thesis is that from summer onwards the forecasted mobility evolution of drivers and pedestrians in Athens Great Area is lower than the observed one, which may be due to summer holidays and high temperatures during summer months in which the prediction was based. Considering the modal split on the examined roads in the center of Athens, it is observed a reduction in the use of passenger vehicles with a simultaneous increase in the use of taxis, which may be due to the adaptation of drivers to the new traffic conditions of the Panepistimiou street brought about by the Athens Great Walk pilot operation.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Impact of weather conditions and rush on road safety” was recently presented by Giota Spanou. Data of 42 young drivers were collected, from a driving simulator experiment with and without any time pressure in good weather conditions, in fog, rain, and snow. Linear and binomial logistic regression models were developed for the mean driving speed, reaction time, headway and accident probability. The application of the mathematical models showed that snow and rain lead to a significant increase in the probability of an accident. Fog increases the accident probability only in the event of a dangerous event and time pressure seems to have the same effects as snow, a fact that should concern drivers.   

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Correlation of declared and revealed driver behaviour using smartphone sensors” was recently presented by Nadia Kokkali. 19 drivers naturalistic driving data were collected through the OSeven smartphone application and the respective questionnaire. Two regression poisson statistical models were developed, indicating that driving experience, driver age, number of injury accidents in which the driver was involved, vehicle age, fines received by the driver during the last 3 years are all associated with increased harsh events. In most of the cases, a convergence between stated and revealed behaviour was observed.  

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has recently published a Report titled: Road Safety Priorities for the EU: Briefing to Members of the European Parliament. In this briefing, ETSC outlines its recommendations to MEPs on what can be done to reach the new 2030 road safety targets, as input to the European Parliament’s Own Initiative Report on Road Safety. The Road Safety Framework proposes eight new Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) against which EU Member State performance will be analysed to set outcome targets based on the indicators.  

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) partnership with iRAP’s award-winning Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) programme, delivered the FIA School Assessment Toolkit to identify high-risk schools, establish and conduct safety assessments, communicate results and scale-up outcomes. The Toolkit provides over 30 knowledge documents, guidelines and templates to plan, resource, apply and advocate for school zone improvements that will save children’s lives by delivering a 3-star or better journey to school. 

A new book titled ‘Highway Safety Analytics and Modeling‘ authored by Dominique Lord, Xiao Qin, Srinivas R. Geedipally, has been recently published. This book covers the key elements needed for making effective transportation engineering and policy decisions based on highway crash data analysis. It covers all aspects of the decision-making process, from collecting and assembling data to making decisions based on the results of the analyses. The book discusses the challenges with crash and naturalistic data, identifying problems and proposing best methods to solving them. It examines the nuances associated with crash data analysis, showing how to develop countermeasures, policies, and programs to reduce the frequency and severity of traffic crashes.   

A new book titled “Road safety. Technical solutions to a behavioural and technological problem with a scientific approach” authored by Pasquale Colonna, Vittorio Ranieri, Nicola Berloco and Paolo Intini was recently published. This book is aimed to provide both the scientific background and an operational framework for safety enhancement of existing roads, applicable regardless of the specific country and to prioritise the human value thanks to the benefits from reduced severe crashes. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has recently published a Report titled: The Impact of COVID-19 on Traffic Safety and Mobility Education.  The Report focuses on the effect of the restrictions imposed by most European Governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular the closure of schools, affected the provision of traffic safety and mobility education in their country, their work related to it, and how they adapted to it. The potential for Traffic Safety and Mobility Education improvement during and after the pandemic is discussed.  

Together for Safer Roads (TSR), together with presenting sponsors UPS foundation  and CalAmp,  announced a vision zero technology fund to support fleet safety in essential services and purpose-based organizations. The fund will underwrite the adoption of lifesaving vehicle technologies and will assist in its implementation among essential service organizations’ fleet operations.  

The Horizon 2020 project HADRIAN  (Holistic Approach for Driver Role Integration and Automation Allocation for European Mobility Needs) published recently the 1st HADRIAN Newsletter.  One-year technical work is presented, highlighting the HADRIAN operational concept for improved driver role for automated driving and the respective driver state monitoring capability and HMI approach, together with related safety and impact assessment and the elaboration of ethical and legal implications for automated driving.  

The Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes (FERSI) published a Paper titled “E-scooters in Europe: legal status, usage and safety“, which presents the legal status, usage and safety of e-scooters in 18 European countries.  Many countries are working on more targeted or more elaborate legislation. Οbjective information about numbers, safety, users and their behaviour is scarce and needs to be strengthened. 

The Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes (FERSI) published a Position Paper titled “Towards an evidence-based national road safety programme“. The paper intends to offer guidance to Member States on developing a national road safety programme. Its main message is that a road safety programme must be based on scientifically sound evidence in order to ensure that it focuses on the most relevant issues and implements the most appropriate treatments.  

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), recently released a Report titled “Global Trade in Used Vehicles“, which looks at 146 countries that import used vehicles, and calls for action to regulate the trade through the adoption of a set of harmonized minimum quality standards. These would ensure used vehicles contribute to cleaner and safer fleets in recipient countries. UNEP and partners will address these issues, initially with a project focused on Africa.  

The Road Safety GB organised with great success the 6th conference titled “Joining the Dots“, held online on March 2021.  This  conference focused on pressing topics facing the profession in this exceptional year and beyond including; changes in travel choice, the impact on roads casualties, shifting road user behaviour and predicting modal shift towards active travel.  The recordings of the presentations are now available:  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Impact of COVID-19 on driver behaviour in Greece and selected countries

The fourth Newsletter of the Horizon 2020 project BeOpen (European forum and observatory for open science in transport) was recently released with all the past 6 months achievements, including activities and deliverables. The project’s goal is to progress beyond the state-of-the-art, developing an appropriate regulatory framework and policies to support innovation and deployment. 

The Horizon 2020 project i-DREAMS (smart Driver and Road Environment Assessment and Monitoring System) recently released its 3rd Newsletter, presenting the main accomplishments of the project, through creative solutions and risk mitigation strategies.  The newsletter overviews the progress of the project during 2020, and highlights the technical results of project deliverables, spanning from the theoretical modelling of the Safety Tolerance Zone and the active and post-trip intervention strategies to the practical organization of the 6-month field trial experiment and the corresponding hardware and software developed from the consortium.  

A new book titled “Advances in Mobility-as-a-Service Systems” has been published on June 2020, highlighting the innovative solutions for urban mobility, as long as describing effective strategies accelerating urban transformation. This book was edited by Eftihia G. Nathanail, Giannis Adamos and Ioannis Karakikes and was published by Springer.  NTUA Associate Professors George Yannis, Eleni Vlahogianni  and Research Associate Foteini Orfanou  actively contributed with the following chapter :

•  A taxonomy of skills and knowledge for efficient autonomous vehicle operation

A new book titled “Frontiers in Sustainable Cities” has been published on July 2020, highlighting the importance of  innovations in the approach to future urban living in order to address the challenges cities are facing. The book was released as an e-book by Frontiers Media SA.  NTUA Associate Professor George Yannis, Senior Research Associate Alexandra Laiou and TOI Senior Researcher Tor-Olav Naevestad actively contributed with the following chapter :

•  Safety Culture Among Car Drivers and Motorcycle Riders in Norway and Greece: Examining the Influence of Nationality, Region, and Transport Mode

The 4th ESRA2 Webinar took place with great success on 16 December 2020 including the NTUA presentation titled: “Moped drivers and Motorcyclists”.  This presentation was based on the results of the ESRA2 Thematic Report titled “Moped drivers and motorcyclists” focusing on key PTW attitudes from a survey that collected data from more than 35,000 road users across 32 countries worldwide. Speeding, drink and drive, helmet use and mobile phone distraction as well as self-declared safety perception of using mopeds and motorcycles, were among the key issues highlighted.    

The European Commission (DG Move) has recently developed the Sustainable Urban Mobility Indicators, which is a set of practical and reliable indicators that support cities to perform a standardised evaluation of their mobility system and to measure improvements that result from new mobility practices or policies. Two out of the 18 mobility indicators concern key urban road safety indicators to be jointly considered within the new urban sustainable mobility policies.    The complete set of indicators is now available 

The European Commission (DG Move) recently presented the EU Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy together with an Action Plan of 82 initiatives (several of which aim to promote and enhance road safety), which lay the foundation for how the EU transport system can achieve its green and digital transformation  .

Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean said: “As the backbone that connects European citizens and business, transport matters to us all. Digital technologies have the potential to revolutionise the way we move, making our mobility smarter, more efficient, and also greener”.

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has recently published a Report titled: Alcohol Interlocks in Europe: An Overview of Current and Forthcoming Programmes. This new Report aims at providing a more practical approach showing how each country has implemented their national scheme or intend to implement it in the future. It also identifies strengths and weaknesses to advocate for more effective measures and to inspire other Member States to deliver successful programmes.   

The World Road Association – PIARC  published a Report titled “Prevention and Mitigation of Tunnel-Related Collisions”.  This report presents and recommends possible organizational and technical measures one can implement to lower the probability or the mechanical consequences of tunnel related collisions, that is, collisions in which the specific characteristics of a tunnel play a role in either the cause or the effect. 

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to support a EUR 470 million nationwide Scheme to reduce death and injury caused by traffic accidents across Greece.  NTUA had contributed to the economic analysis of this major road safety scheme. Over the next three years, national road operator Egnatia Odos will improve road safety at 7,000+ of the most dangerous sites, located across  11 Regions of Greece. The small scale safety schemes will include installation of traffic barriers, provision of anti-skid surfaces and improved warning signs and markings on roads identified as high-risk.

Greek Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Kostas Karamanlis, stated that “improving road safety across Greece is a national priority and the EIB support will reduce significantly the risk of accidents at the Greek interurban road network”. 

A  paper titled “Economic Assessment of Road Infrastructure Safety Schemes in Greece Using Crash Prediction Methodology”, authored by G. Yannis, A. Dragomanovits, J. Roussou, D. Nikolaou, was presented at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 99th Annual Meeting, on January 2020.  This research presents a case study for the economic assessment of road safety schemes in crash prone locations in selected rural highways in Greece, using crash prediction models from the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual. The analysis results demonstrate the high impact of this large Road Safety Scheme.   

A paper titled “Vulnerable road users: Cross-cultural perspectives on performance and attitudes“, authored by George Yannis,  Dimitris Nikolaou, Alexandra Laiou, Yvonne Achermann Stürmer, Ilona Buttler, Dagmara Jankowska-Karpa is now published in the Journal of IATSS.  The results of this paper indicate that crossing the road at places other than nearby pedestrian crossings, reading a text message or checking social media while walking on the streets, cycling and riding without wearing a helmet, and speeding on powered two-wheelers outside built-up areas but not on motorways/freeways were the most frequently reported self-declared behaviours in 32 countries. 

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Critical factors for the identification of traffic safety events in urban areas” was recently presented by Foteini Bardi. According to the results, the random forest model proved to produce more reliable results predicting traffic safety events with a lower false alarm rate, when compared to binomial logistic regression. Moreover, factor analysis demonstrated that data representing one minute before the event can be described by speed, the deviation of the vehicle from the middle of the road and the distance from the right boundary line.  Similarly, data during the event can be better described through speed and longitudinal and lateral acceleration.   

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Critical factors of the influence of mobile phone use on driving behavior, based on smartphones’ data” was recently presented by Sofia Akritidou. Data from a six-months 200-drivers naturalistic driving experiment, collected through the OSeven smartphone application, were analyzed and four statistical regression models were developed, forecasting the percentage of mobile phone use while driving. The results revealed that the parameters affecting the use of mobile phone while driving are four: the percentage of driving duration with speed above the speed limit, distance driving, average deceleration, and average speed. For the general, urban and rural models, the average deceleration had the most significant impact, whereas for the highway model, distance was the most significant parameter.  

An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Critical driving parameters affecting speeding using data from smartphones” was recently presented by Dimosthenis-Marios Tzoutzoulis.  Data were collected from the OSeven smartphone application of 200 drivers in naturalistic driving and four log-linear regression models were developed correlating speeding with driving characteristics and with answers to dedicated questionnaire. The results demonstrate that the number of harsh accelerations, the percentage of mobile use and the distance of the trip affect the speeding percentage and are correlated with the aggressive behavior of the drivers.  Furthermore, increased average acceleration does not always lead to breaking speed limits. Finally, male drivers tend to drive faster in comparison with women.  

The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Guide, which gives a precise assessment on the magnitude and complexity of road safety challenges faced by Low and Middle Income Countries and assists policy makers understand the road safety framework in context of their own country systems and performance.  This valuable Guide responds to the critical need for collecting and documenting accurate road safety performance data.  

The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Guide in order to assist a jurisdiction to determine the level of readiness to move to automated enforcement and -among others- aims in identifying the powerful practical value of Automated Enforcement in saving lives and reducing injuries and to identify also issues and criteria to be considered before commencing automated enforcement.  

The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Report, highlighting  examples of GRSF’s effective delivery of global road safety solutions for the period of 2017-2019, such as the Green Transport in Vietnam, the BIRGS in Colombia and the Road Safety Barrier in Nepal.  Since the first volume of this publication, GRSF work has come to fruition in these years and has pushed significantly forward the road safety agenda.    

A paper titled “Car drivers’ road safety performance: A benchmark across 32 countries” authored by C. Pires, K. Torfs, A. Areal, C. Goldenbel, W. Vanlaar, M. A. Granie, Y. A. Stürmer, D. S. Usami, S. Kaiser, D. Jankowska-Karpa, D. Nikolaou, H. Holte, T. Kakinuma, J. Trigoso, W. Van den Berghe, U. Meesmann, is now published in the Journal of IATSS. This paper is based on the second edition of the E-Survey of Road Users’ Attitudes (ESRA), an online survey carried out in 2018 and includes data from more than 35,000 road users across 32 countries. The objective is to present the main results of the ESRA survey regarding the four most important risky driving behaviours in traffic: driving under the influence (alcohol/drugs), speeding, mobile phone use while driving, and fatigued driving. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published a Position Paper concerning the European Commission roadworthiness package implementation report for Directives 2014/45/EC on periodic roadworthiness tests, 2014/47/EC on technical roadside inspections of commercial vehicles and 2014/46/EC on issuing registration certificates. ETSC has prepared this updated position paper to feed into this process including priorities not taken on board last time and new developments such as eCall and automation.   

The Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI), a program of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO),  in partnership with the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP) published recently the “iRAP Star Ratings of NACTO-GDCI’s Global Street Design Guide”. Released in 2016, the Global Street Design Guide has served as a blueprint for safer and higher-performing streets, and as a tool for addressing the 1.35 million road accident deaths and up to 50 million injuries that occur each year as a result of poorly-designed roads. As such, iRAP’s Star Rating methodology offers a useful framework for validating the tools and transformations featured in the publication.  

A paper titled “Meta-regressions of exposure parameters used in spatial road safety analyses, September 2020” authored by Apostolis Ziakopoulos, and George Yannis, is now published in Advances in Transportation Studies. The objective of this paper is to obtain quantitative estimates that several study characteristics impose on the values of their coefficients applying meta-regression techniques to three common exposure parameters (traffic volume/AADT, roadway length and vehicle distance traveled). Results indicate that the impact of traffic volume on crash counts was positively correlated with taking speed limit and road user age into consideration in spatial analyses, while the impact of road length on crash counts in spatial analyses was found to be higher in studies considering only fatal crashes. 

United Nations Road Safety Collaboration Group (UNRSC) produced a Report titled “The Ten Step Plan for Safer Road Infrastructure”. The main objective is to support countries seeking
to implement initiatives in relation to the “Improved safety of road infrastructure and broader transport networks” for the achievement of UN Global Road Safety Targets 3 and 4 for safer new and existing roads. This Report aims to build the institutional capacity and regulatory framework to support these targets and unlock the potential of safer roads and safer cities to save lives.  

A paper titled “A descriptive analysis of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on driving behavior and road safety” authored by Christos Katrakazas, Eva Michelaraki, Marios Sekadakis, and George Yannis, is now published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Driving behavior and safety indicators were captured through a specially developed smartphone application in two countries, namely Greece and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It was shown that reduced traffic volumes due to lockdown, led to a slight increase in speeds by 6–11%, but more importantly to more frequent harsh acceleration and harsh braking events (up to 12% increase) as well mobile phone use (up to 42% increase) during March and April 2020. 

The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “Implementation of National Safe System Policies: A Challenge”, providing a summary of National Safe System Policies and Implementation in relation to the Safe System Approach. The Report also highlights the steps that low, middle and high-income countries alike can take to accelerate progress towards Safe System outcomes. Emphasis is given to road infrastructure safety and the respective institutional safety management. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 39th PIN Flash Report “How to improve the safety of goods vehicles in the EU?“. This report examines the toll transport of goods and services has taken in terms of road deaths over the period 2010 to 2018. It examines the performance of individual countries, as well as the European Union as a whole, in tackling the risks, and describes some of the policies needed to reduce future deaths and serious injuries related to goods traffic.  

A new NACTO resource on emerging street practices for pandemic response and recovery was developed through a collaboration between the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), the NACTO Global Designing Cities Initiative, Bloomberg Associates, Street Plans, and Sam Schwartz. This resource aggregates and synthesizes emerging practices in transportation and street design in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights cities’ current efforts to re-organize streets to best manage this crisis and support economic recovery. This new resource will be revised and expanded regularly as more data becomes available on what approaches are the most successful at meeting city goals.  

Audrey Testaferrata de Noto has successfully defended his PhD dissertation titled: Driver Perception-Reaction Times in Level 3 Automated Vehicles. This PhD thesis was carried out at the Faculty for the Build Environment of the University of Malta under the supervision of NTUA Prof. George Yannis.  The scope of the research was to establish the Perception-Reaction Time (PRT) of drivers in a simulated Level 3 vehicle and to examine the interdependency between the person-specific characteristics in relation to different scenarios featuring different in-vehicle distractions and different type of alerts and subsequently to compare these values with those of standard specifications used in road design in different countries for the calculation of Stopping Sight Distances (SSD). The results gave an average perception-reaction time of 4.23 seconds and showed that the younger age groups have lower PRTs for all scenarios than their older counterparts.   

A paper titled “An exploration of European road users’ safety attitudes towards speeding” authored by Alexandra Laiou, Athanasios Theofilatos, George Yannis, Uta Meesmann and Katrien Torfs is now published in Journal of Transportation Safety & Security. The objective of this paper is to analyse attitudes and opinions of Europeans on speeding and compare them amongst countries based on demographic characteristics as well as to provide a number of recommendations to be used in the effort to reduce speeding and improve road safety. All reported attitudes depend strongly on participants’ gender and age. The majority of people who accept driving over the speed limit do not believe that speed limits are set at acceptable levels.