The 104th General Assembly of the United Nations has adopted the “Progress declaration of the high-level meeting on improving global road safety“, reaffirming the global target of reducing road traffic deaths and injuries by at least 50% by 2030. Furthermore, Governments committed to undertake various actions, such as establishing or designating a national lead agency or equivalent entity to coordinate road safety across government. The Declaration also highlighted the need to ensure that public road transport systems, including bus rapid transit and similar systems, are safe, affordable, accessible and inclusive, including for children, older persons and persons with disabilities.  

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission recently announced new mandatory life-saving systems for all new passenger cars and vans registered across the EU, starting on 7 July 2026. These new systems include an advanced emergency brake detecting pedestrians and cyclists, a driver distraction warning system, better forward vision, new tests for worn tyres, and an expanded safety glass area to protect pedestrians in accidents. These requirements support the EU’s long-term Vision Zero goal of near-zero road fatalities by 2050, while helping to better protect vulnerable road users and encourage wider adoption of advanced driver-assistance systems.  

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission recently published its implementation strategy for its Directives to modernize EU rules on driving licences and driving disqualifications with the active contribution of NTUA. These initiatives aim to increase road safety across the EU, reducing the number of road deaths as well as undue administrative burden on citizens and authorities. The measures include an EU-wide accompanied driving scheme for 17-year-old drivers, a probationary period for novice drivers, and more systematic checks of people’s fitness to drive. The new rules also adjust training and testing requirements and set out key steps for the introduction of mobile EU driving licences and the EU-wide recognition of driving disqualifications, ensuring drivers who commit serious offences are held accountable across the EU.  

The European Road Safety Charter of the European Commission has announced the finalists for its Excellence in Road Safety Awards 2026, as a part of the EU Road Safety Conference which will take place on 23 November 2026 in Brussels, recognizing inspiring initiatives from Charter members across Europe that advance road safety through smart infrastructure, real-time data, immersive training and child-friendly streets. Fifteen finalists were selected across five categories: At Work, Education, Technology, Urban, and Vulnerable Road Users. The winners will be announced at a ceremony during the Event.  

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission recently adopted an Implementing Regulation establishing a common set of urban mobility indicators to be applied across the European Union. This Implementing Regulation mandates Member States to collect policy-relevant data on urban mobility, helping cities, Member States and EU institutions to monitor developments on the basis of reliable data. It covers key dimensions of urban mobility, including sustainability, safety and accessibility. This adoption marks an important step in strengthening the evidence base for urban mobility policy in the EU. Better data will support better decisions, enabling public authorities at all levels to plan and invest more effectively in sustainable urban transport. 

The PHOEBE Decision Support Tool (DST) is now available through the PHOEBE Dashboard. Developed within the Horizon Europe PHOEBE project, the platform enables practitioners, researchers and decision-makers to assess and compare the impacts of road safety interventions using evidence from real-world European pilot cases. Users can explore safety, mobility and environmental performance indicators, Impact Modification Factors (IMFs), and supporting statistical evidence to evaluate different intervention scenarios. The dashboard supports transparent, data-driven decision-making towards safer and more sustainable transport systems. 

The United Nations Road Safety Fund (UNRSF), has recently launched the UN Road Safety Lab, a new Knowledge Hub and AI-enabled knowledge platform for road safety. Established in 2018, UNRSF brings together 21 UN member organizations, governments, the World Bank, the private sector and civil society under a single coordinated framework, mobilizing resources and driving system-level road safety reforms in low- and middle-income countries. The new Lab is hosted by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the training and capacity-development arm of the UN, and organizes its content across four core areas: Knowledge Products, Platforms of Engagement, Learning, and AI-Enabled Knowledge Solutions, alongside an interactive map showcasing the countries where the Fund is active. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released new road death data, showcasing that despite the addition of more than one billion motor-vehicles to the world’s roads, road traffic deaths declined by 21% between 2011 and 2025. With nearly 60% of the world’s population now living in urban areas, growing demand for mobility threatens to overwhelm transport systems that were largely designed around private motor vehicles. This data show that across the world, 10 countries reduced road deaths by 50% in the decade to 2021 and more than half of all countries reported falling fatalities in that period. Yet progress is uneven, with 36% drop in deaths in the WHO European Region, a 15% drop in the Western Pacific Region, a 2% drop in the WHO South-East Asian Region, no change in rates in the Americas and a 17% rise in deaths in the WHO African Region. 

The European Road Safety Charter of the European Commission recently published an article titled “Road infrastructure: A foundation for safer roads“, highlighting the critical role of road infrastructure in achieving safer roads. Road design can either support safe behavior or create danger. Many roads encourage high speeds without adequate protection, increasing crash severity. Undivided roads raise head‑on collision risks, unsafe roadsides worsen run‑off crashes, and missing footpaths or crossings leave vulnerable users exposed. To create self-explaining and forgiving roads, six core design principles guide safer infrastructure: provide orientation by making the road environment easy to read and anticipate; attract attention through clear design and signs highlighting hazards; promote standardization with consistent layouts that help users recognize situations; support the detection of potential conflicts through good visibility and guidance at critical points; improve clarity with visible and easy to interpret signs and markings and provide passive safety through forgiving roadsides and designs that reduce injury severity. 

A Paper titled “Traffic safety culture within the safe system: developing a common definition of traffic safety culture” authored by Tor-Olav Nævestad, Uta Meesmann, Henriette Wallén Warner, Susanne Kaiser, Ingeborg S. Hesjevoll, Vibeke Milch, Sonja Forward, Mathias De Roeck, Michael Schachner, Dimitris Nikolaou, Gunilla Björklund, Alexandra Laiou, Hanna Wennberg, Eva Aigner-Breuss and Anita Eichhorn was recently published in Frontiers in Sustainable Cities. This study developed the following definition of traffic safety culture, based on a three-step refinement approach, combining literature reviews, Delphi studies and focus group discussions: “Traffic safety culture encompasses shared values, beliefs, attitudes, norms, and patterns of behaviours that shape how traffic safety is understood and enacted within a meaningfully defined group of actors in the transport system. This meaningfully defined group of actors can refer to road users, organizations, authorities, or other actors within the transport system.” 

Future Transportation Journal has recently launched the Special Issue titled: “New Challenges in Road Safety Infrastructure Management” aiming to address emerging challenges and propose innovative solutions for enhancing the safety, resilience, and performance of road infrastructure systems. It provides an opportunity to present the latest scientific advances in infrastructure safety assessment, risk analysis, proactive safety management, connected infrastructure, artificial intelligence applications, digital twins, and data-driven decision-support tools for road safety infrastructure management. The manuscript submission deadline is until 28 February 2027. Guest editors of this special issue from NTUA are: Dr. Stergios Mavromatis, Prof. Dr. George Yannis.

The Horizon Europe research project CulturalRoad has recently released the CulturalRoad 4th Newsletter, which provides information on the latest outcomes of the EU-funded CulturalRoad Project aiming to develop innovative methodologies to ensure the equitable deployment of Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) services. This version of the Newsletter highlights that the project’s partners have shared their achievements, results and ongoing research at several key events, including the RTR Conference, Hannover Messe, ITS European Congress and TRA 2026, and hosted two webinars, one with the sister project Diversify-CCAM focusing on inclusive automated mobility, and a second one with representatives from the project’s five demonstration sites discussing their experience engaging local communities. Furthermore, it introduces new blog posts from the demonstration sites, where partners share more on the co-creation activities and stakeholder workshops.

A Paper titled “Social values behind the wheel: How does social value orientation shape speeding behaviour across drivers in Europe?” authored by Amir Hossein Kalantari, Amna Chaudhry, Mark Burke, Ana María Pérez-Zuriaga, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Eleonora Papadimitriou, Shanna Lucchesi and Amir Pooyan Afghari was recently published in Transportation Research Part F: Psychology and Behaviour, The Study examined how Social Value Orientation (SVO), a personality trait capturing tendencies toward altruism, cooperation or competitiveness, is associated with drivers’ stated propensity to speed across three European urban contexts, the West Midlands (UK), Athens and Valencia, using Random-Parameters Ordered Probit models with heterogeneity in the means. Results show that road design, traffic density and speed enforcement are associated with self-reported speeding, but these associations vary substantially across contexts and drivers. Furthermore, in the West Midlands, a stronger prosocial orientation weakened the links between behavioral risk constructs and stated speeding, while in Athens the same trait mainly strengthened the association between speeding tendencies and speeding propensity. The study suggests that speed-management strategies may be more effective when physical design and enforcement are paired with communication that presents speed limits as credible, locally relevant and clearly connected to the safety of other road users.

A paper titled Physical Fitness and Highway Driving Performance: Evidence from a Driving Simulator Study of Young Drivers authored by Marios Sekadakis, Theofanis Mitsis, Thodoris Garefalakis and George Yannis has been published in Theoretical and Applied Ergonomics. This Paper investigates the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and driving behaviour in a highway environment using a driving simulator, with 46 young drivers aged 19 to 27 classified into high-fitness and low-fitness groups based on estimated maximum oxygen consumption, and each participant completing three simulated highway driving scenarios under varying traffic and lighting conditions. The findings suggest that higher physical fitness is associated with greater adaptability in driving behaviour, reflected in increased headway distance variability and slightly higher driving speeds, while high-fitness drivers also exhibited longer time to collision, suggesting improved anticipation and more effective management of traffic conditions. Moreover, environmental factors, particularly traffic volume and lighting conditions, remained the dominant influences on driving behaviour overall. Overall, the Study highlights the importance of considering health-related factors in road safety research and offers insights for developing preventive strategies targeting young drivers.

A paper titled Crash risk factors in the evolution from conventional to fully automated vehicles in urban environments authored by Maria Oikonomou and George Yannis has been published in Case Studies on Transport Policy. This Paper investigates the evolution of crash risk in urban road networks as the market penetration of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) increases across different levels of automation, using microscopic traffic simulations in a dense metropolitan area of Athens, Greece. The Study integrates conventional vehicles, partially automated (SAE Level 2-3), fully automated (SAE Level 4-5) and aggressively behaving AVs across 15 progressive deployment scenarios, employing an XGBoost machine learning model combined with SHAP explainability to identify the most influential traffic and behavioural features associated with crash risk. The findings suggest that automation influences crash risk in a way that is neither uniform nor isolated, with fully automated vehicles reducing crash risk as their share grows, while partially automated vehicles slightly increase it in mixed-traffic conditions. Aggressively behaving AVs were found to have minimal impact, mostly at high penetration rates, while traffic density, stop sign-controlled sections and queue length emerged as the most influential factors overall. These findings underscore the need for network-specific planning and offer guidance for AV deployment, infrastructure upgrades and regulatory frameworks to support a safer transition to automated mobility.

The Horizon 2020 research project PHOEBE has recently released the PHOEBE 8th 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. This version of the Newsletter marks the conclusion of PHOEBE, highlighting that the project’s Final Workshop took place on 23 June 2026 as part of the 10th Road Safety & Simulation International Conference (RSS2026) in Naples, where PHOEBE partners presented the project’s modelling results, including mode-choice modelling, behavioural modelling and the integration of the iRAP and Aimsun tools. 

A paper titled Impacts of different feedback features on driver behaviour: Findings from a multiphase naturalistic study authored by Armira Kontaxi, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis has been published in Transportation Research Part F: Psychology and Behaviour. This Paper examines the impact of driver feedback delivered through a smartphone application on driving behaviour risk indicators, within a 21-month multiphase naturalistic driving experiment involving 175 car drivers. The Study combines a preliminary analysis using summary statistics and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test with Structural Equation Models on a dataset of 73,869 trips, to assess how feedback mechanisms and exposure factors influence driving behaviours. The findings suggest that the examined feedback mechanisms are effective in reducing the percentage of speeding time and harsh braking events, with the scorecard feature having the highest positive effect on driving habits, followed by gamification through competition and challenges. Furthermore, driving during the morning peak was associated with more unsafe behaviour such as speeding and harsh accelerations, while strong positive correlations were found between speeding, harsh braking and harsh accelerations, highlighting the interconnected nature of risky driving behaviours.

The Editorial for the Special Issue Emerging Solutions and Technologies for Smart Mobility and Vehicle Safety in Transportation authored by Eva Michelaraki and George Yannis has been published in Vehicles. This Special Issue was conceived to explore how emerging technologies contribute to safer, more efficient and more sustainable transportation systems. Particular attention is given to AI-driven decision-making, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), intelligent transportation systems (ITS), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, connected and autonomous vehicles, and data-centric approaches to traffic safety and mobility management. The papers published in this Issue reflect the multidisciplinary nature of modern transportation research, addressing topics such as driver behaviour analysis, crash prediction and prevention, automated driving, adaptive traffic management, smart infrastructure, and predictive analytics. Although diverse in their specific application domains, these contributions collectively demonstrate that the future of transportation safety and smart mobility will be shaped by the convergence of artificial intelligence, connectivity, automation, human-centred design, and evidence-based operational strategies.  

The European Road Safety Charter of the European Commission recently published an article titled “Reduce speed to save lives” highlighting that an estimated 10% to 15% of all road crashes and as much as 30% of fatal crashes are directly linked to speeding. The article underlines that speed not only increases the likelihood of a crash but also makes its consequences far more severe for vulnerable road users: when a pedestrian is struck by a car at 30 km/h, their chance of survival is about 90%, while at 50 km/h this drops drastically to approximately 20%. Scientific evidence shows that implementing a city-wide 30 km/h speed limit can reduce fatalities by an average of 37%, while also contributing to an 18% reduction in emissions, a 2.5 dB decrease in noise pollution and a 7% reduction in fuel consumption, with minimal impact on travel times. 

The European Commission is organizing the EU Road Safety Conference which will take place on 23 November 2026 in Brussels. This flagship event marks the halfway point in Europe’s 10-year strategy to halve road deaths and serious injuries by 2030 and will bring together policymakers, researchers, employers, and civil society leaders to explore the future of safe mobility. At this EU Road Safety Conference will also be presented the Excellence in Road Safety Awards, recognizing the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter’s community towards the common goal of improved road safety across Europe.  The Award categories for 2026 include education, technology, vulnerable road users, at work and urban measures and urban initiatives. 

At a recent podcast in Break It Down, NTUA Professor George Yannis discusses how the traffic system works, congestion, private cars and public transport. The discussion highlighted that congestion is the norm in modern cities and that improving mobility requires better alternatives to private cars, including faster buses, expanded metro networks, cycling and walking. Special emphasis was given to traffic management, bus lane enforcement, the implementation of 30 km/h speed limits and the role of education and enforcement in changing road safety culture. The discussion also highlighted that the significant reduction in road fatalities in Greece during 2025 demonstrates that consistent enforcement can save lives. Full article and related video-podcast are now available.   

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) of the European Commission recently published the third edition of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP) Guidelines, providing cities across Europe with improved support to plan, develop and implement sustainable urban mobility. The updated SUMP Guidelines are aligned with key frameworks such as the European Green Deal, the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the Road Safety Policy Framework, the new EU Urban Mobility Framework, and reflect the requirement under the revised TEN-T Regulation for 431 urban nodes across Europe to adopt a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan by end 2027. Related to the updated SUMP Guidelines, the SUMP Reference Document on Cycling and the Urban Vehicle Access Regulations were also published.

The Horizon Europe research project TRUST has recently released its 1st Newsletter, providing updates on the first year of activities of the project, which aims to grow a positive Traffic Safety Culture across Europe through a systematic transition towards shared responsibility for safe and sustainable mobility. The Newsletter highlights that TRUST project partners presented at two major road safety conferences: the IRTAD 2026 Conference in Athens and the TRA 2026 Conference in Budapest. It also announces the launch of the first episode of the TRUST Podcast, in which TRUST Advisory Board members discuss traffic safety culture, as well as upcoming pilot activities for testing TRUST interventions in secondary schools, exploring how different approaches can improve Traffic Safety Culture among young people. 

The Foundation VINCI Autoroutes recently published the results of the 16th Euro-Barometer for Responsible Driving by Ipsos BVA, in which representative attitudes of Europeans at the wheel are recorded, enabling also the monitoring of the evolution of risky driving and good practices to better target prevention messages in European countries. According to this Study, Greece has the highest rate of drivers (89%) that fear aggressive behavior from other drivers (EU average 82%), while 76% of Greek drivers admit exceeding the speed limit by a few km/h. Furthermore, 66% of Greek drivers admit talking on the phone while driving and 37% of Greek drivers do not always wear their seatbelt, more than double the EU average of 17%. 

The European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (ACEM) recently published a Guide titled “Rightsizing Urban Mobility: The L-Category integration guide for European cities“. This hands-on guide focuses on helping local authorities close that gap and reflect L-category vehicles: mopeds, motorcycles, tricycles and quadricycles, within their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). The Guide provides cities with evidence-based recommendations across three interconnected action fields: mobility, safety, recognizing riders as vulnerable road users,  and environment, and includes a comprehensive annex of actionable policy measures that cities can implement without major infrastructure investment. The evidence highlights that 10% shift from cars to L-category vehicles could cut congestion by nearly 40%, benefiting all road users, while four motorcycles fit in a single car parking bay, freeing space for pedestrians, businesses and greenery.  

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission recently published a Report, assessing the current state of cycling within the European Union. This Study identified over 900,000 km of cycling paths and lanes network at EU level, providing a first comparable EU overview of the network accessible to cyclists, and found that almost 24% of EU residents cycle at least once per week, while bike sharing services are present in the vast majority of EU cities with over 150,000 inhabitants, corresponding to a fleet size of about 300,000 bikes. The study includes findings and recommendations on the methodology for the current and future collection of cycling data in the EU, as well as 27 country fiches with a detailed overview for each country.   

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) recently published a report titled “Mapping the Automated Mobility Ecosystem: Landscape and Key Developments“, drawing on data from the European CCAM Observatory. This Report presents a landscape analysis, covering 122 automated mobility services and mapping 1,940 component–supplier pairs across 937 unique companies operating in 12 technology categories, examining the geographic distribution of service deployments, the composition and sourcing patterns of technology stacks, and the structure of the industrial ecosystem underpinning automated driving. Furthermore, a dedicated assessment of Europe’s position reveals that EU-based suppliers account for approximately 18% of all mapped component–supplier pairs and 165 unique companies, with relative strengths in connectivity, cybersecurity, and V2X communication, but notable gaps in software-intensive categories such as AI and planning, cloud infrastructure and ADS development. 

A Paper titled Learning-based methods for spatial road safety analysis using in-vehicle telematics data: A systematic review authored by Simone Paradiso, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis has been published in Journal of Safety Research. This Paper presents a structured review of the existing literature at the intersection of learning-based methods, spatial analysis, and surrogate safety measures derived from in-vehicle telematics data, following PRISMA guidelines, where 44 studies were identified and analyzed. The studies were analyzed and narratively synthesized focusing on data collection methods, feature engineering processes, and their implications on the selection of the spatial scale, with methods ranging from traditional econometrics to cutting-edge deep learning techniques. The findings suggest that advancements in AI and telematics data are reshaping road safety research, providing new tools to interpret safety analyses and generate actionable insights, while clarifying the relationships among data sources, feature selection, and spatial scale would strengthen the analytical framework and improve understanding for safer mobility.  

A Paper titled Conflict angle analysis at multilane roundabouts using naturalistic vehicle trajectory data from UAVs authored by Apostolos Anagnostopoulos, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Fotini Kehagia, Athanasios Theofilatos, Pantelis Kopelias and Nikolaos Eliou has been published in Traffic Injury Prevention. This Paper aims to enhance current knowledge by employing Surrogate Safety Measures (SSMs) to investigate conflict angles at modern multilane roundabouts in Greece using naturalistic vehicle trajectory data collected via Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Detailed vehicle trajectory data from four modern multilane roundabouts in Thessaloniki, Larissa and Volos were collected through UAV video recordings and processed using vehicle tracking software, with a mixed-effects Beta-regression Model (BRM) with site-varying random intercepts applied to model conflict angles. The findings suggest that the location of conflicts within the roundabout significantly affects the conflict angle, and that site-specific characteristics have a substantial impact, emphasizing that roundabout safety performance can vary by location.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), in cooperation with DG RTD, recently launched the Global Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) Observatory.  The Observatory provides a science-based, neutral hub that monitors the global ecosystem of connected and automated road mobility, by mapping private-sector developments across the full technology stack, tracking Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) of key components, and producing evidence-based recommendations that inform EU-level and national investment decisions. It currently tracks 1,335 ecosystem participants, 937 suppliers, 123 services and 44 countries.