The European Commission  developed the EU Urban Mobility Observatory,  a new virtual space for experts working on sustainable urban mobility across the European Union. This space includes case studies, success stories, as well as sustainable urban mobility plans, which include road safety as a major component. Furthermore, through this site researchers can find out insights, trends, tools and sustainable solutions for city transport across Europe. 

The European Commission with the active contribution of  NTUA,  SWOV and KFV has launched a safe mobility promotion activity focusing on driver distraction. According to three new Reports from the European Road Safety Observatory, mobile phone use is one of the most common sources of driver distraction and the usage of a hand-held phone increases the crash risk by around 2.5 times. These Reports also highlight effective measures against distracted driving, which include: strict enforcement of not using handheld devices, building rumble strips into road infrastructure, awareness campaigns, driver education through licensing and in-vehicle technology that warns or intervenes when departing from a lane or approaching too close to a vehicle in front.     

Getting into 2024, we steadily progress in our scientific excellence quests with persistence, dedication and passion to promoting evidence based safe mobility everywhere and for all. For reaching the decade -50% target we need to further strengthen our individual and collective efforts to sincerely include traffic safety into the mobility agenda and start implementing the vision zero traffic fatalities.

We thank you all for the excellent cooperation and we are sending you our very best wishes for Merry Christmas and a Joyful New Year, full of personal and professional achievements. 

The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 8th Newsletter. The SHOW Dashboard brings all the pilot sites in a cohesive and user-friendly interface. The combined efforts have brought real-life pilots to over 15 cities across Europe, paving the way for some countries to embark on their inaugural operations with shared Automated Vehicles. SHOW’s aim is to enhance urban mobility and automation by understanding people’s needs. 

The Horizon 2020 research project PHOEBE has recently released the PHOEBE 2nd Newsletter, which provides information on the latest outcomes of the EU-funded ‘Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environment’ (PHOEBE) project aiming to increase the road safety of vulnerable road users, especially those who use active mobility and e-scooters. Special focus is given to the assessment of current transport pilot plans in Athens, carried out by NTUA. 

The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety launched a strategic plan for the period 2024-2030 that sets out the vision, mission, and how these will be achieved during the remaining years of the Decade of Action 2021-2030. It has been developed with inputs from Alliance members, the Board, partners and key scientists. Through this strategic plan, 350-plus member NGOs in more than 100 countries will be empowered, mobilized and supported.   

Several cities worldwide have started setting speed limits of 30 km/h in large parts of the city. Brussels, Paris and Vienna have introduced city-wide 30km/h speed limits, mixing safely traffic of pedestrians, cyclists and motorised vehicles, with significant results in reducing road crashes, emissions and noise and upgrading city liveability. Within the 30 Marathons in 30 months campaign-challenge of Prof. George Yannis, a comprehensive set of resources on cities experiences with 30km/h speed limit is made available: georgeruns30x30.com/resources

The NRSO campaign for the promotion of city-wide 30km/h speed limit in all cities by running 30 Marathons in 30 months by Prof. George Yannis has received wide publicity in the tv, the radio, newspapers, magazines and the social media, as well as in scientific journals, conferences and workshops, with the active support of the NTUA and several International Organisations (ETSC, ECTRI, UITP, POLIS, ERF, IRF, FERSI, FEHRL, ECF, WALK21). This campaign has a particularly significant social impact, as depicted by international findings, demonstrating an average 37% reduction in fatalities in road crashes in cities which have adopted the 30km/h speed limit, together with significant environmental, energy and health benefits. All these media interventions are available at: https://georgeruns30x30.com/media

Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has recently published the 45th PIN Flash Report titled “Reducing Older People’s Deaths on European Roads”. This report highlights road safety challenges faced by older road users examines the latest data regarding road deaths of older people across the EU and other countries that form part of ETSC’s Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme. Key measures aimed at reducing risks for older road users, encompassing strategies that address behaviour, infrastructure and vehicle safety, are provided. Remarkable is that 55% of older people road deaths are vulnerable road users, while one third of them are pedestrians.  

IVORY – AI for Vision Zero in Road Safety is a new Industrial Doctoral Network funded by the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks 2022 Framework of the EC, coordinated by TU Delft with the active contribution of NTUA. The objectives of IVORY is to develop a new framework for optimal integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in road safety research, and train a new generation of leading researchers in the field through state-of-the-art doctoral research. In total, 15 PhD candidates will be fostered within the project, 4 of which will be within NTUA. Their topics concern proactive risk mapping, multiscale crash prediction, multiparametric data fusion for road safety and ethical physiological measurements for road safety risk prediction. Potential PhD Applicants are welcome.

The European Commission with the active contribution of  NTUA,  SWOV and KFV has launched a safe mobility promotion activity focusing on drink driving. According to two new Reports from the European Road Safety Observatory, around 25% of all road deaths in the EU are alcohol-related, representing 15 times higher crash risk than sober drivers. These Reports also highlight effective measures against impaired driving, which include: strict legislation backed by police enforcement, providing alternative transport means, awareness campaigns, rehabilitation courses, safety culture in companies, alcohol interlocks, and in-vehicle technology that warns or intervenes when impairment leads to critical events.     

Christina Alexopoulou, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Chairing the Road Safety Governmental Committee together with Konstantinos Kyranakis, Deputy Minister of Digital Governance, are set to implement the digitalization and automatisation of the system for traffic violations management within the framework of the National Road Safety Strategic Plan 2021 – 2030.  NTUA Professor George Yannis  will contribute actively, taking the role of Coordinator of the Executive Committee for Road Safety, which will focus on the new Road Safety Law & Road Traffic Code, the National Road Safety Observatory and the National Road Safety Communication Policy. 

•  National Road Safety Strategic Plan 2021 – 2030

Dimitrios Nikolaou, NTUA PhD Candidate & Researcher, received the Young Researcher Best Paper on Road Safety Αward 2023 during the International Congress on Transport Research 2023. The Award is granted jointly by the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT/CERTH) and the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE). The award concerned the paper is titled: “Spatial analysis of telematics surrogate safety measures across road environments”, co-authored by Armira Kontaxi, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis. 

Global University Rankings demonstrate excellent scientific performance of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), our Civil Engineering School and our Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering, along with the NTUA Road Safety Observatory. This is the result of NTUA Scientists’ long standing culture of persistence to our fundamental research principles: a) Scientific Excellence with advanced and innovative technology concepts, b) Research with significant Impact to society and economy, c) State-of-the-art organisation for highly efficient Implementation, d) Systematic international Cooperations. Great thanks to the highly dedicated NTUA Road Safety Research Team and to all our European and worldwide partners. And the exciting journey towards scientific excellence continues … 

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has recently released the FIA Road Safety Index, a tool that provides Organisations with a methodology to assess their road safety performance and calculate their safety footprint, relying on a similar concept as the carbon footprint calculators. The safety footprint of an Organisation refers to the number of fatalities and seriously injured persons as a result of road crashes occurring within its entire value chain. Designed on the basis of a long-term commitment, the index offers a systematic approach to identify, measure and follow up road safety results from a value chain perspective.  

NTUA Professor George Yannis is ranked  1^st most productive European Scientist in Road Safety Research (8^th globally and at the top 0.02% of all Scientists in the field), according to recent rankings from Expertscape‘s PubMed-based algorithms for the last 10 years. According to the same rankings, NTUA Road Safety research productivity is ranked 4^th in Europe (and within the top 40 Universities globally). 

The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 7th Newsletter. The Newsletter provides information on the latest outcomes of the project. The sites had the opportunity to present their achievements in a recent Review Meeting with the European Commission, where  the excellent work being done across the project, the results that are beginning to emerge, and of course, the challenges to overcome to allow the sites to fulfill their potential, were discussed. SHOW’s aim now is to enhance urban mobility and automation by understanding people’s needs. 

The Horizon 2020 research project PHOEBE has recently released the PHOEBE 1st Newsletter, which provides information on the latest outcomes of the EU-funded ‘Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environment’ (PHOEBE) project aiming to increase the road safety of vulnerable road users, especially those who use active mobility and e-scooters. Special focus is given to the assessment of current transport pilot plans in Athens, carried out by NTUA. 

The Public Policy Guide for Cycling has released the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, which includes a plan for the promotion of cycling in Greece in the horizon of 2030. The Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, responsible for transport issues, Michalis Papadopoulos pointed out the importance of promoting the use of bicycles as an equal mean of transport for all citizens. The objective to increase the share of travel by bicycle requires the cooperation of all stakeholders, institutional and non-institutional.  

The Horizon 2020 project i-DREAMS (smart Driver Environment Assessment and Monitoring System) released its 7th Newsletter, presenting the main accomplishments of the project, through creative solutions and risk mitigation strategies, exploiting state-of-the art findings on driver safety tolerance zone. The Newsletter presents the main results and the key findings from field trials and simulator experiments in Belgium, Germany, UK, Greece and Portugal and recommendations are also provided. The management approach, the communication and dissemination strategy as well as the ethical challenges tackled are presented through 37 deliverables, technical reports, interviews.  

The NTUA Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering organised with great success a Scientific Workshop titled “Telematics and Driver Behaviour” which took place in Athens on April 4th, 2023. Key driver telematics research findings were demonstrated and discussed, highlighting spectacular safety benefits from monitoring, evaluation and improvement of driver behaviour through feedback tools, social gamification schemes and motivation for drivers.

Workshop Presentations:

• Telematics, Big Data and Road Safety – nrso
• Improving driving behaviour through OSeven’s telematics application – Oseven
• Key road safety and telematics data – i-Safemodels
• Development of a global road safety model – i-Safemodels
• Exploiting surrogate safety measures and road design characteristics towards crash investigations in motorway segments – i-Safemodels
• A crash hotspot identification and safety ranking methodology – i-Safemodels
• State of the art on spatial analysis and visualization tools for potential telematics applications – SmartMaps
• Spatial analysis of telematics surrogate safety measures across road environments – SmartMaps
• From understanding the effects of driving behaviour on fuel consumption to a personalized eco-recommendation system – EcoDrive
• A personalized framework for fuel efficient route planning – EcoDrive
• The transformation of the insurance industry and road safety by driver safety behaviour telematics – BeSmart
• Investigating the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on driver behaviour through telematics data – Covid-19
• Effectiveness Evaluation of the i-DREAMS Interventions – i-Dreams
• Modelling the inter-relationship between task complexity, coping capacity and crash risk – i-Dreams
• Telematics, microsimulation and road safety assessment requirements for the enhancement of analytic tools – Phoebe

NTUA Professor George Yannis, after more than 30 years of dedication to road safety science and several Marathon races, decided to combine both passions for a cause: to run 30 Marathons in 30 months in order to actively promote the adoption of 30km/h speed limit in as many cities as possible worldwide, as a fundamental policy for safer, healthier and greener cities for all. Speeding is the number one cause of road crashes worldwide and the active promotion of 30 km/h cities can save 50% of lives lost today.        

The European Commission with the active contribution of NTUA, has presented proposals to modernise driving licence rules, including the introduction of a digital driving licence valid throughout the EU and new provisions to facilitate the enforcement of traffic rules across borders. More than 20,000 lives were lost on EU roads last year and the majority of victims were pedestrians, cyclists and users of scooters and motorbikes. The new rules will improve safety for all road users,  and will help the EU achieve its Vision Zero – having no deaths on EU roads by 2050.  

The Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of Civil Engineering School at the National Technical University of Athens was ranked 4th in Europe this year and 26th worldwide among all Transportation Departments, with the best performance among all NTUA Departments. This ranking is produced by EduRank‘s final score based on three parts: 45% Research performance, 45% Non-academic prominence and 10% Alumni score. NTUA road safety activities have significantly contributed to this ranking.

Departments’ Director George Yannis stated that: “the persistence in scientific excellence of our highly qualified transportation engineers contributes to a future with efficient, green and safe transport systems in Greece, in Europe and globally”. 

The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling for an EU cycling strategy, in an important step for equal treatment and financial support for the healthy and clean mode of transport. The Parliament’s resolution highlights the importance of cycling as a fully-fledged mode of transport that should be treated with the same importance as any other mode of transport. The initiative follows action on the issue by 11 EU countries, including France and Spain, through the “European Cycling Declaration,” which also calls for an EU cycling strategy. 

The Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) released recently a new guide titled “How Do Kids Experience Streets? The Reverse Periscope Companion Guide“. GDCI’s Streets for Kids Reverse Periscope is a do-it-yourself tool that encourages planners, city officials, and others to experience the obstacles and attractions of city streets from a child’s perspective. With this guide, anyone could learn how to create Reverse Periscope, what to look for when using it, and how to hold a community workshop to help more people experience Streets for Kids. 

Are you involved in urban transportation planning? Your voice is valuable for PHOEBE project, which aims to improve road safety prediction tools holistically! Please participate in the PHOEBE’s 20-minute survey that studies the key outputs and analyses supporting transport policy and safety objectives.

You are invited to send us your input by 28 February 2023! 

The European Commission has published the EU Methodology for Network-Wide Road Safety Assessment, as developed by NTUA, FRED and FPZ and adopted by the EU Member States. Τhis Methodology will assist EU National Road Authorities to carry out safety assessments of their road network easily and efficiently, as required by the EU Road Infrastructure Safety Management Directive. The Methodology comprises both a reactive (crash based) and a proactive (feature based) safety assessment, covering issues such as lane width, road curvature, junctions design, roadside layout and potential conflicts between motorised vehicles and vulnerable road users. Subsequently, the two assessments are integrated into a common safety rating system classifying all roads in a country. This way, Road Authorities will be able to identify priorities for future road safety interventions and investments.  

The 2022 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 33 innovative research projects, succeeded to publish a record number of 90 scientific papers (26 in peer reviewed journals), and travelled around the world in hundreds of meetings to develop and promote road safety science. 

The Horizon 2020 project i-DREAMS (smart Driver Environment Assessment and Monitoring System) recently released its 6th Newsletter, presenting the main accomplishments of the project, through creative solutions and risk mitigation strategies, exploiting state-of-the art findings on driver safety tolerance zone. The Newsletter presents some insights in the first results and findings from field trials in Belgium and the UK are described. The first outcomes have been also presented to the User Advisory Board and Expert Advisory Board.   

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has recently launched the FIA Road Safety Index, a tool that provides organisations with a methodology to assess their road safety performance and calculate their safety footprint, relying on a similar concept as the carbon footprint calculators. The safety footprint of an organisation refers to the number of fatalities and seriously injured persons as a result of road crashes occurring within its entire value chain. Designed on the basis of a long-term commitment, the index offers a systematic approach to identify, measure and follow up road safety results from a value chain perspective.  

The approval of the National Road Safety Strategic Plan for the period 2021 – 2030 took place at the Fourth Meeting of the Road Safety Governmental Committee which was held on 29 November 2022. The Strategic Plan adopted, developed with the scientific support of NTUA, aims to reduce road fatalities by 50% by 2030 through 44 actions and 200 measures following the safe system approach and the vision zero fatalities by 2050. Committee Chairman, Deputy Minister for Transport, Mr. Michalis Papadopoulos, stated that “the improvement of road safety level in our country is one of the key priorities of the Government and the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for safe traffic for everyone and everywhere”. 

NTUA Professor George Yannis has received the prestigious EU TRAVisions 2022 Senior Researcher Award during the European Commission Transport Research Arena Conference (TRA 2022), held on 14-17 November 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal. Professor George Yannis won the competition of EU Senior Researcher for Road Transport Research based on his exceptional and long-standing research contribution on Open Road Safety Decision Support Systems (ERSO, SafetyCube, SafeFITS, PRACT, Levitate).  

The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 6th Newsletter. The Newsletter provides information on the latest outcomes of the project. Many of SHOW’s demonstrations have kicked off during the past weeks, and numerous congresses, conferences, and various events have already showcased its pilot sites to the public with positive feedback. Another pivotal component of the project is international cooperation and participation in cross-border twinning events.  SHOW’s aim now is to enhance urban mobility by understanding people’s needs. 

The European Commission hosted the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards on 17 October 2022, recognising the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter’s community of members towards the common goal of improved road safety across Europe. Preventiedienst stad Leuven (Belgium) was the winner for its VRKeer virtual reality initiative targeting young people, Initiative für sichere Straßen GmbH (Germany) for its EDDA+ Hazard Score Map project using multiple data sources to implement change and create safer roads, Zavod Reševalni pas (Slovenia) for its rescue belt campaign to raise awareness and change driver behaviour and Acciona Energía (Spain) for their Drive Safe Programme for their employees across multiple locations. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has written to all 27 Member State Transport Ministers to ask if their countries will act on the European Commission’s suggestion to reduce speeds on motorways and in urban areas, in order to save energy. Eleven of them replied, with a mixed range of responses which can be summed up as “we’re working on it”, “we’ve already done it” and, in one case, “thanks, but no thanks”. Characteristically, Greece’s Deputy Minister of Transport told ETSC that the Greek National Strategic Plan will include the aims of reducing rural roads to 80 km/h from 90 km/h currently, with the establishment of a maximum speed in urban residential areas of 30 km/h.

The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 5th Newsletter. The Newsletter provides information on the latest outcomes of the project. Beyond technical developments, additional pilot sites have kicked off their real-life operations and will start collecting feedback from the project’s local teams and from the citizens using it’s services.  

The Final Synthesis Report of the European Survey of Road Users’ Safety Attitudes (ESRA) has been published with the active contribution of NTUA, containing a wealth of information on road safety in 48 countries, based on the ESRA2 survey. The results of the survey were published through a series of Reports: 15 Thematic Reports on road safety topics, the Country Fact Sheets and the 2022 Main Report. 

The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Report titled “Integrating Safety into Road Design”. This Guide has been produced in response to the ever-growing need for safe road and roadside design to save lives from road crashes. The Guide focuses on elements of safe road and roadside designs for road networks that can provide safe mobility to all road users, as well as complementary changes to improve speeds, vehicle safety, road user behaviors, and post-crash care. 

FedEx funded an online package of new Resources for 5-star RAPs, which has launched to support road assessment programmes (RAPs) around the world eliminate high-risk roads.  These resources are aligned with the UN High-level Meeting of Road Safety, as countries embrace implementation of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for safer national roads that save lives. The Resources offer guidance on how to develop an effective programme and includes 140 award-winning examples, templates and downloadable materials, drawn from the best practice of partners world-wide. 

The Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) released recently two new handbooks titled “How to Implement Street Transformations” and “How to Evaluate Street Transformations“, which can offer cities a new way of implementing and evaluating pop-up or interim street transformations with a focus on community-driven street designs. GDCI has also announced it’s call for applications for the first Streets for Kids Leadership Accelerator, that aims to create a global cohort of city leaders in order to hone their knowledge to create change for kids in their cities. The Accelerator will bring together 60 changemakers from 20 global cities to participate in an eight-month virtual professional leadership program. 

The UN Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt, launched the Book “The Road Ahead, 26 voices for Safe and Sustainable Mobility” with support from the UNRSF on 22 June 2022 at the European Development Days (EDD) Conference in Brussels. The Book includes a selection of essays from leading specialists, covering a wide array of global road safety issues: Green and Sustainable Cities, Economic Growth, Quality Education, Health, Gender Equality, Partnership.   

NTUA received the Best Paper Award during the 6^th International Symposium on Highway Geometric Design and Urban Street Symposium which was held on 26-29 June, 2022 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The award concerned the paper titled: “Development and implementation of a methodology for the economic appraisal of road infrastructure safety schemes”, co-authored by George Yannis, Anastasios Dragomanovits, Julia Roussou and Dimitrios Nikolaou.  

The Horizon 2020 project i-DREAMS (smart Driver Environment Assesment and Monitoring System) recently released its 5th Newsletter, presenting the main accomplishments of the project, through creative solutions and risk mitigation strategies, exploiting state-of-the art findings on driver safety tolerance zone. The Newsletter presents how to bring i-DREAMS to the market and society, the second successful review meeting and several i-DREAMS dissemination activities.  

The Civil Engineering School of the National Technical University of Athens was ranked this year 18th in Europe and 50th worldwide among all Civil Engineering Schools. This ranking is produced by the QS Organisation (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022) based on the following criteria: Research, Teaching, Employability, Facilities, Internationalization, Innovation, Engagement and Access. NTUA road safety activities have contributed to this ranking. 

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport developed the National Road Safety Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2030, with the scientific support of the Department of Transport Planning and Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). The National Road Safety Strategic Plan 2021-2030 exploits state-of-the-art international experience and good practice, adjusted to the Greek reality and contains a set of 44 actions and 200 measures with concrete budget and timeplan addressing the key road safety problems in Greece: speeding and motorcycle traffic; aiming to meet the quantitative targets set for the reduction of the number of fatalities and serious injuries in road crashes by 50% by 2030. Within the current final open consultation process you are welcome to submit your remarks and comments. 

The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 4th Newsletter. The Newsletter shares very interesting times for the project, with the first pilot sites progressing with their large-scale trials in public, allowing citizens to experience their automated solutions in public transport. 

Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) together with environmental and road safety organisations, has written to the European Commissioners responsible for Climate Action, Energy, Environment and Transport, calling for recommendations on lower speed limits as a way of tackling dependence on Russian oil, as well as emissions and road deaths. The six organisations say that with the catastrophic invasion of Ukraine, European reliance on Russian oil has become a strategic threat and the current crisis requires bold action. 

The European Commission announced the winners of the European sustainable mobility Αwards, where Rethymno (Greece) won the EU Urban Road Safety Award. The jury was impressed by Rethymno’s inclusive approach to road safety, which targets three main pillars: upgrading the public transport system, increasing and encouraging behavioural change through a variety of activities, and the establishment of integrated cooperation with local stakeholders. The awards were presented at a hybrid ceremony in Brussels hosted by Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Transport and Mobility. 

The Third Meeting of the Road Safety Governmental Committee was held on 31 March at the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The main priorities of the Government Road Safety Committee are the new National Road Safety Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2030, the new Road Safety Law and the improvements of the Road Traffic Code, the National Road Safety Repository and the National Road Safety Observatory. Participants in the committee were: the Minister of State Akis Skertsos, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Michalis Papadopoulos, the Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection Eleftherios Oikonomou, the Deputy Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Zeta Makri, the Alternate Minister of Health Mina Gaga, the Alternate Minister of Interior Stelios Petsas, on behalf of the Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Theodoros Livanios the General Secretary of Digital Governance and Procedures Leonidas Christopoulos and the General Secretary of Transport Giannis Xifaras. 

The Road Safety Institute “Panos Mylonas” (RSI) in cooperation with the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) presented the Digital Platform DRIVE IN THE MOMENT, in the context of the 15th Panhellenic Road Safety Week, March 21-27, 2022. The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Costas Karamanlis, who attended the event, referred to the National Plan for Road Safety, which extends to four main axes: Safe Roads – Responsible Drivers – Traffic Education – Fair Rules for All and welcome the initiative of the “Drive in the Moment” program, which aims to raise awareness, especially among young people, about the serious issue of distraction by using a mobile phone while driving.   

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has written a letter that was published in the edition of the Financial Times, titled: Lower speed limits are a triple win for reducing dependence on Russian oil, emissions and road injury. According to the letter, a measure that could cut oil imports in the EU in the short term is to reduce speed limits across the bloc. 

A Special Road Safety Event attended by the European Road Safety Coordinator, Matthew Baldwin and the Executive Director of the European Transport Safety Council ETSC, Antonio Avenoso, was successfully organized by the member of the European Parliament Elena Kountoura in Athens, on 14 March 2022. The guests presented and analyzed the goals, the challenges and the opportunities for improving road safety in the European Union the following years. 

The European Commission aiming to improve road safety and in order to prepare a Revision of the current Directive on driving licences, is opening a call for expressions of interest to participate in a series of workshops on EU rules regarding driving licenses. These three workshops aim to collect stakeholders’ views for the purpose of preparing a possible revision of the Directive on driving licences. Each workshop will tackle a specific element of the EU driving license rules: 1: training, testing and vehicle categories; 2: issuance and mutual recognition of driving licenses; and 3: driving disqualifications and fitness to drive. 

The 2021 infographic of NTUA Road Safety Observatory (www.nrso.ntua.gr) highlights one more very intensive and highly fruitful year, despite the pandemic. 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 a record number of 78 scientific papers (28 in peer reviewed journals), and travelled around the world in hundreds of webmeetings (and some in-person meetings) to develop and promote road safety science.

This year, besides intensive research in six Horizon 2020 projects and three innovative national research projects, we were also lucky to contribute to the National Road Safety Action Plan 2021-2030. Getting ready for the post-pandemic period, we are more than ever committed to our scientific quest for safer roads everywhere and for all. And of course we are waiting you all in-person at the highly promising 8th Road Safety and Simulation Conference in June in Athens. 

The European Commission presented its ‘Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy’ together with an Action Plan of 82 initiatives as a guide for the next four years. This strategy lays the foundation for how the EU transport system can achieve its green and digital transformation and become more resilient to future crises. Traffic safety is a major component of the EU Mobility Strategy. As outlined in the European Green Deal, the result will be a 90% cut in emissions by 2050, delivered by a smart, competitive, safe, accessible and affordable transport system. 

Getting into 2022, we continue progressing in our scientific excellence quests with persistence, dedication and passion to promoting evidence-based safe mobility everywhere and for all. The decade targets and programs for safer roads everywhere are well set globally and it is now time to sincerely include traffic safety into the mobility agenda and start implementing vision zero traffic fatalities. We thank you all for the excellent cooperation and we are sending you our very best wishes for Merry Christmas and a Very Lucky New Year, full of personal and professional achievements. 

The 3rd Newsletter of the Horizon 2020 project Drive2theFuture was recently released highlighting the 2nd Drive2theFuture Workshop, held on March 2021, with the so far achievements of the project. The Newsletter also includes a session entitled “Do we trust self-driving cars? – Social acceptance of autonomous mobility”. The aim of the session was to give an overview about Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM), its objectives and overall landscape, learn about driver behaviour and social acceptance of CCAM in Europe .  

The Horizon 2020 project LEVITATE (Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles) released a video explaining the LEVITATE Policy Support Tool, which is expected to be an open access, web-based  Decision Support System that will allow users to explore the impact assessment, forecasting and backcasting of different CCAM development scenarios in cities.  

The Horizon 2020 project i-DREAMS (smart Driver Environment Assesment and Monitoring System) recently released its 4th Newsletter, presenting the main accomplishments of the project, through creative solutions and risk mitigation strategies. The Newsletter presents team’s and participant’s view on the Belgian field trial, seven new technical reports submitted in 2021 and several i-DREAMS dissemination activities.  

The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 3rd Newsletter. The Newsletter provides information on latest achievements and upcoming activities of the project. Also, there is an open call for follower sites, which will allow all cities in Europe to endorse and replicate SHOW activities. 

The European Commission adopted a supplementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2144 of the European Parliament and of the Council by laying down detailed rules concerning the specific test procedures and technical requirements for the type-approval of motor vehicles with regard to their intelligent speed assistance systems and for the type-approval of those systems as separate technical units. The Regulation also includes a list of road speed limit signs used in each Member State.  

The European Commission published a breakdown of fatalities in the EU by road user and (other) “main vehicle” involved in the crash. The matrix shows clearly that fatalities overwhelmingly occur in collisions involving cars and trucks, and the need to increase the protection of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. EU policies are already evolving in this direction with the new mandatory safety measures introduced by the General Safety Regulation focussed on VRUs.   

The European Commission published the final figures on road fatalities for 2020, following the publication of the preliminary figures in April 2021. These figures show that an estimated 18.800 people were killed in a road crash last year, an unprecedented annual fall of 17% on 2019, largely due to the effect of the COVID pandemic on mobility; however this fatalities drop being proportionately less than the sharp fall in traffic levels across the EU.  The Commission has also published the Country Profiles which provide a detailed statistical analysis of the road safety situation in each country. 

The European Commission hosted the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards on 18 November 2021, recognising the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter‘s community of members towards the common goal of improved road safety across Europe. Fundatia Siguranta Auto Copii (Romania) was the winner for its National Children Care Safety Caravan initiative, Interpolis (the Netherlands) for its hip-hop film and PhoNo app targeting teenagers, Cork County Council (Ireland) for its Road Safety Virtual Reality Education and Fundacion Educatrafic (Spain) for its road safety training and education. 

In the framework of three-year twinning program of the European Union Member States “EU Road Safety Exchange“, a delegation from the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport together with representatives of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) participated in the 2nd two-day study visit that took place in Madrid on 10-11 November 2021. This study visit was hosted by the Directorate for Traffic (DGT) of the competent Ministry of Spain and its topic was powered two wheelers (PTW) safety. The participants heard among others about the Spanish strategic approach to improving the safety of powered two wheelers.   

NTUA Professor George Yannis is ranked 2^nd most productive European Scientist in Road Safety Research (11^th globally and at the top 0.1% of all Scientists in the field), according to recent rankings from Expertscape‘s PubMed-based algorithms for the last 10 years. According to the same rankings, NTUA Road Safety research productivity is ranked 4^th in Europe (and within the top 40 Universities globally). 

The Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport proposed the New Driving Safely Law, which has been recently adopted by the Greek Parliament. The new law reforms the driving examinations’ framework, with the priority of ensuring the integrity of the procedure and the promotion of road safety. Among other things, the new safety net consists of double identity checks, camera recordings during the exams and collection of the audiovisual reports. Also, a temporary driving license is foreseen for young people aged 17 years old, who will be able to drive only within their residence area accompanied with a co-driver of over 25 years old holding a driving license for at least 5 years. 

The World Health Oganisation (WHO) opened the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 in Geneva, with the ambitious target of preventing at least 50% of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030. WHO and the UN Regional Commissions, in cooperation with other partners in the UN Road Safety Collaboration, have developed a Global Plan for the Decade of Action. Road traffic accidents have remained a major cause of death globally, even though every one of those deaths and injuries is preventable.   A Global Plan has been developed to support the implementation of the Decade of Action and its objectives. 

The 15th European Night Without Crashes was celebrated with great success on 16 October 2021 in most European countries. In Greece, the Road Safety Institute “Panos Mylonas” (RSI), EFTHITA Rhodes, AOLAP, KEDE, Road Traffic Police, OASA and other associations participated and supported the action, in order to raise awareness on the consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol, aiming to a world without road fatalities.     

The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly for road safety measures to reach zero deaths on EU roads by 2050. The vote was based on the EP Transport and Tourism Committee Report on Recommendations on next steps towards “Vision Zero”, which suggests key priorities and include key measures such as among others: 30km/h city speed limits, Zero-tolerance for drink-driving, the European Road Safety Agency, etc.  

The Deputy Ministry of Sport in collaboration with Motorsport Greece, in the framework of EKO Rally Acropolis, organized a Road Safety Event,  in Athens, on 8 September. Highlight of the event, was a simulated collision and rescue of an injured person, supervised by NTUA. Specifically, a passenger car performed a free fall from a height of 10 metres, only to hit the ground at a speed of 50 km/h. During the event, two strong road safety messages were  displayed: “Always wear a seat belt in the car, wherever you sit” and “We always wear a helmet and protectors on the bike”. 

The Road Safety Institute (RSI) “Panos Mylonas”, organised the 16th Year Anniversary Event of the Institute, under the auspices of H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), on 9 September. The message of the event was: “With a vision, we grow stronger TOGETHER” and it was attended by a number of personalities, representatives of the country’s leadership, politicians, executives from the Public and Private sector and other important social partners who pledged the commitment to improving Road Safety in Greece.