Make Roads Safe Hellas in collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens, the University of Macedonia, the University of the Aegean, the Hellenic Open University and EASST, released a report titled: “International Tourism and Road Safety in Greece, Country Report 2019”. Make Roads Safe Hellas is a Non-Profit Organisation promoting road safety in Greece which hopes to gain momentum from their study and build support for the establishment of a Safe Tourism Network to ensure that road safety for tourists and travellers is given adequate attention, not just in Greece but across the globe. The report is based on a survey of almost 1,500 international tourists visiting Athens, Chania, and Thessaloniki in 2018. 
NTUA within the framework of the Fifth UN Global Road Safety Week organized a Scientific Workshop titled “Digitalisation and Road Safety Research” which took place with great success on 17 May 2019 in Athens. This Workshop attempted to shed light into the role and the challenges of digitalisation on road safety, through an intensive flow of state-of-the-art presentations of key NTUA road safety research projects and a vivid Expert Panel discussion on new perspectives and horizons of road safety in the digital era in Europe and worldwide. 
Workshop presentations concerned:
The NTUA Road Safety Observatory – Nrso- Driver needs and behaviour in automated traffic – Drive2theFuture
- Societal impacts of connected and automated vehicles – Levitate
- Smartphone exploitation for event spatial analysis & mapping-Sesame
- Data science techniques for driving behaviour evaluation – OSeven
- Smartphone applications for driver safety behaviour support – BeSmart
- Driver-vehicle-environment interactions and safety tolerance – i-Dreams
- The African Road Safety Observatory – SaferAfrica
- The road safety center of Saudi Arabia– RscKsa
- Measuring risk exposure in Ireland – IrlExpo
- Open science in road safety – BeOpen
- Big data for road safety – ForSafety
- Monitoring road safety culture – SafeCulture
- Monitoring road safety attitudes globally – Esra
- Cycling under the influence of alcohol and drugs – Velivr
- Safety skills of future transportation professionals – Skillful
- Actions to improve drivers’ safety behavior – SafeBehave
- Economic analysis of road infrastructure safety projects – EibCba
- Modelling crash modification factors globally – i-safemodels
- Safety implications from electromobility – e-mopoli
Panel Discussion
The International Motor Vehicle Inspection Committee (CITA), under the patronage of Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, organized an event under the theme: “The future of transport: The challenge of new technologies for road safety“. The event took place with great success in Brussels, Belgium, on 16 May 2019, at Autoworld: Parc du Cinquantenaire. Without doubt vehicle safety is one of the key pillars of an integrated EU road safety strategy. A discussion was made on how to improve road safety and the challenges for the testing and certification of new technologies and components, in order to make them safe and secure during the complete life cycle. 
The 5th International Conference on Vehicle Technology and Intelligent Transport Systems (VEHITS) took place with great success in Heraklion, Crete, on 3-5 May 2019. The purpose of VEHITS 2019 was to bring together engineers, researchers and practitioners interested in the advances and applications in the field of Vehicle Technology and Intelligent Transport Systems. This conference focused on innovative applications, tools and platforms in all technology areas such as signal processing, wireless communications, informatics and electronics, related to different kinds of vehicles, including cars, off-road vehicles, trains, ships, underwater vehicles, or flying machines, and the intelligent transportation systems that connect and manage large numbers of vehicles, not only in the context of smart cities but in many other application domains.
A paper titled “Safety assessment of control design parameters through vehicle dynamics model” authored by Stergios Mavromatis, Alexandra Laiou, and George Yannis is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. An existing vehicle dynamics model was utilized to define design parameters up to which steady state cornering conditions apply and consequently lift the restrictions of the point mass model. Aiming to assess critical safety concerns in terms of vehicle skidding, the motion of a passenger car was examined over a range of design speed values paired with control design elements from AASHTO 2011 Design Guidelines as well as certain values of poor pavement friction coefficients. 
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The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF) organised a Meeting in Paris, France, on 2 April 2019, in which the latest international road safety developments were discussed. NTUA contributed actively with the following presentation:
The European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) has published the “Safe Road Transport Roadmap – Towards Vision Zero: Roads without Victims”, with the active contribution of NTUA. The main objective of this ERTRAC roadmap is to provide a joint stakeholder view on the road safety research needs in Europe. The roadmap is based on the current state of the art and the identified challenges to reach the ambitious goals set for the EU. In this roadmap, ERTRAC proposes a set of eleven high priority road safety research and innovation needs, which should be implemented by providing ample room for citizens and road users themselves to engage.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) is organizing the REVIVE Conference which will take place in Brussels, on 18 June 2019. This conference will bring together road safety practitioners and legislators, and those working in the fire and rescue and emergency medical systems. It will provide an opportunity to learn more about the work of the REVIVE project and to discuss good practice in the emergency response across Europe. The aim of the REVIVE project is to map Emergency Medical Service (EMS) and Rescue and Fire Service (RFS) practices in the EU28 and raise the profile of both EMS and RFS on the national and European political agendas. The REVIVE project aims at improving post-crash care provided by EMS and RFS in order to mitigate the consequences of road collisions.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published a Report titled “Road Safety Priorities for the EU 2020-2030: Briefing for the European Parliamentary Elections”. This ETSC Report suggests additional legislation priorities over the period 2019-2024, concerning: a) the improvement of cyclists, pedestrians and powered two wheelers safety, b) automated and connected mobility, c) the reduction of serious injuries on EU roads, d) the efficient enforcement, e) the drug driving and f) the education and training (revision of the European Driving License Directive).
The European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) published a Report titled: “Transport in the European Union: Current Trends and Issues“. The Report sets out the key trends and issues for the single European transport area, the development of a safe transport infrastructure network across EU countries, and the external costs of transport, accompanied with the respective country analyses. Special emphasis is given to the consequences of road accidents.
The 4th SaferAfrica Dialogue Platform Workshop took place with great success in Brussels, Belgium, on 4th of April 2019. After the previous workshops in Marrakech, (Morocco, November 2017), Athens, (Greece, April 2018) and Abidjan, (Ivory Coast, November 2018), this workshop focused on SaferAfrica Overview and current activities, the Road Safety Observatories and Capacity Building in Africa. The SaferAfrica partners, the members of the Management Board and African Stakeholders coming from Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia have contributed actively to the discussion n the future of road safety in Africa. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation: The SaferAfrica African Road Safety Observatory
The Sixth Global Meeting of Non-Governmental Organizations Advocating for Road Safety and Road Victims took place with great success in Chania, Crete, Greece, from 8–13 April 2019, attended by 270 participants including NGOs and road safety stakeholders from 76 countries around the world. Highlights included workshops, training, the poster exhibition opened by Jean Todt, the High-Level Symposium, the FedEx Road Safety Award, photo exhibition, the preparations for UN Global Road Safety Week and the Third Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Sweden 2020. The NGOs Road Safety Declaration is available here:
International Tourism and Road Safety in Greece
ERTRAC organised the Annual Conference 2019: Road Transport Research towards “Horizon Europe” which took place with great success in Brussels, on 4 April 2019. The conference was dedicated to the preparation of the 9th Research Framework Programme “Horizon Europe”: which place for Road Transport Research and which key research challenges? Three new Roadmaps were presented and distributed: on “Connected Automated Driving“, on “Road Safety“, and on “Long Distance Freight Transport“. The event included an exhibition showcasing some examples of innovation in the automotive and mobility sector.
The FEHRL Infrastructure Research Meeting 2019 (FIRM19) took place with great success on 26-28 March 2019 in Brussels, Belgium. The theme was “On-Ramp to innovation: Let’s co-create together our future transport infrastructure“ and it coincides with the celebration of the 30th anniversary of FEHRL. The main stakeholders (EC, CEDR, PIARC, ERTRAC, ECTP) outlined the vision for the future cross-modal transport infrastructure and its implementation plan.
According to the EU road fatalities infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory, thirteen countries have a better performance than the EU average, namely UK, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Malta, Germany, Spain, Finland, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, and France. Greece has been ranked 22nd in 2018 but has demonstrated the highest road fatalities rate reduction (51%) in the last decade, followed by Slovenia (48%), whereas the EU average 10-year reduction is 31%. 
The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “Road Safety in European Cities – Performance Indicators and Governance Solutions”. This reports benchmarks road safety performance for 72 urban areas, mostly in Europe, and illustrates governance solutions to improve urban road safety with case studies conducted in Lisbon (Portugal) and Riga (Latvia). The report proposes new road safety indicators to assess the level of risk for each mode of transport. It finds that a modal shift away from private motor vehicles could significantly enhance road safety in dense urban areas and deliver public health benefits associated with increased physical activity and improved air quality.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) is organising the 13th Annual Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) Conference which will take place on 19 June 2019 in Brussels. During this Conference the latest road safety figures will be presented and actions needed to accelerate road safety progress will be identified. A high level representative on behalf of their country will receive the PIN award for achievements in road safety. The PIN conference will be attended by national road safety experts, high level officials and decision makers from across Europe and will provide an opportunity to discuss ways in which road safety in the EU can be further improved.
The ESRA consortium will host the 2nd ESRA Symposium on Global Road Safety Performance Indicators, which will take place in Brussels, on 18 June 2019. New results from the ESRA2 data, collected at the end of 2018, will be showcased. Presentations will focus on key results of global road safety performance indicators (i.e., release of 32 country fact sheets and thematic reports on speeding, mobile phone use, and fatigue). The symposium is sponsored by the Forum of European Road Safety Institutes (FERSI).
The Forum of European Road Safety Institutes (FERSI) has restyled and updated its website. The website not only provides information about FERSI, its members and activities, it also provides relevant links to road safety information, road safety organisations, major policy documents and European projects.
The European Platform of Transport Sciences (EPTS) is oganising the 17th International Conference – ETC 2019 which will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia, on 13-14 June 2019. Since its first meeting in 2001 in Vienna the purpose of EPTS is the enhancement of the dialogue between politics, science and economy in the field of European transport. This is to be accomplished by organising scientific events, encouraging the exchange of opinions and experiences, joint PR efforts, the enhancement of scientific research and continuing education, cooperation with other scientific institutions and support of young scientists, especially through the Young Forum of European Transport Sciences (YFE).
