“PHOEBE – Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environments” of the Horizon Europe framework programme on transport research of the European Commission (2022-2025)

The EU-funded ‘Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environment’ (PHOEBE) project aims to increase the road safety of vulnerable road users, especially those who use active mobility and e-scooters. This is achieved through the inter-disciplinary power of traffic simulation and road safety assessment. The 3.5 year-long PHOEBE project will draw inspirations from real-world scenarios in the three pilot cities of Athens (GR), Valencia (ES) and West Midlands (UK). PHOEBE will develop an integrated, dynamic human-centred predictive safety assessment framework for all road user types in urban areas. This will be achieved by bringing together traffic simulation, road safety assessment, data concerning human behaviour and mode shift, as well as demand modelling of new and emerging mobility data. Vulnerable road users, such as women, the elderly, users of active mobility or emerging mobility solutions, as well as physically impaired people, need special attention from the city authorities. Therefore, the unique PHOEBE plan to develop integrated modelling and simulation tools to help cities to plan urban road safety measures. Overall, the results of PHOEBE can be used as a blueprint by other European cities to developed their own knowledge products, such as socioeconomic analysis model, urban road safety assessment, human behaviour and choice modelling.