Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) of the World Bank is the host of the new Speed Management Hub, under the new BIGRS Program 2020-2025.  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. 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.  

Road fatalities in Greece in 2020 presented a significant decrease (16%) compared to 2019 figures, according to recently published ELSTAT data. This significant decrease is mainly attributed to the traffic restrictions due to the pandemic. During the last decade, Greece presented the most impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of 49% in road fatalities since 2011, achieving its target of halving road fatalities in 2020 compared to 2010. Serious injuries were reduced by 70% and the rate fatalities per vehicles was decreased by 52% since 2011. 

The 2020 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 continue to grow and excel, being active in 30 innovative research projects, succeeded to publish 65 scientific papers (23 in peer reviewed journals), and travelled around the world in hundreds of webmeetings to develop and promote road safety science. This year, besides intensive research in six Horizon 2020 and other projects, we were also lucky to contribute to the long waited Athens Great Walk large urban regeneration project and to the National Road Safety Action plan. During and after the pandemic, we are better than ever committed to our scientific quest for safer roads everywhere and for all. 

The School of Civil Engineering of NTUA recently published a Video with a Presentation of the School focusing on its History, Structure, Departments and Laboratories.  The activities and Laboratory infrastructure of the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering, including those on road safety are highlighted . 

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  

The European Platform of Transport Sciences (EPTS) is oganising the 19th European Trasnport Conference which will be held in Maribor, Slovenia, on 7-8 October 2021. The main themes of the Conference are smart urban traffic management for sustainable urban mobility and freight, digitalisation and automatization of urban mobility and freight, AI in mobility and logistics in urban areas and new organisational and business models for mobility and logistics. Abstracts submission deadline: 5 April 2021 

The International Road Federation (IRF) is organising three Webinars which will be held online on 4, 9 and 16 March 2021. The topics of the Webinars are: COVID-19 Response and Recovery: The Global Transport Knowledge Partnership (gTKP), Sustainable Mobility: Policymaking for Data Sharing and Road Safety Management – Innovation and delivery in developing countries. Registrations are open:   

The 2nd Newsletter of the Horizon 2020 project Drive2theFuture was recently released highlighting the 2nd Drive2theFuture Workshop, which will be held online on 12 March 2021, offering the best opportunity to present the so far achievements of the project. The Newsletter also includes an update of the project progress, with results and ongoing research, a survey identifying the current views and acceptance of automation in all modes which has been concluded with the participation of more than 11000 people from all over Europe and other interesting topics.  

POLIS, the European Cities Network, is organising the 2021 Annual Polis Conference, which will take place on 1-2 December in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Conference provides an opportunity for cities and regions to showcase their transport achievements to a large audience of mobility experts, practitioners and decision makers. With a focus on innovation, sustainability and co-creation, Gothenburg hosts one of Europe’s most dynamic clusters within the field of mobility and safety.  

The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) organised with great success on 10-12 February 2021 an online Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence in Road Traffic Crash Prevention, chaired by NTUA Professor George Yannis. This roundtable examined several promising use cases of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the prevention of road crashes and explored the potential of computer vision to acquire relevant information and AI models to identify high risk locations and situations. The Full Report will be available soon.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Using AI for spatial predictions of driver behavior  

The European Commission together with ARCADE project announced the third European Conference on Connected and Automated Driving (EUCAD 2021), which will be held virtually on 20-22 April 2021. Participants will enjoy a blend of policy-oriented plenary sessions, as well as thematic breakout sessions to discuss specific R&I challenges. A virtual exhibition of projects will be accessible throughout the three-day event. 

The Greek National Road Safety Action Plan was presented on 3 February 2020 by Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis, and Deputy Minister Yannis Kefalogiannis, with  the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and all competent Ministers and the active contribution of NTUA.  The Action Plan sets the target of reducing fatalities by 50% by 2030 and is composed by five main axes: High-quality Data, National Strategic Plan & Governance, Education & Communication, Effective Enforcement System and Safe Road Network.    

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 published on December 2020. 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. 

EuroRAP together with RSI Panos Mylonas, delivered to the Greek Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport two maps with the most dangerous roads in Greece. The maps were presented within the framework of the SLAIN project, which aims at enhancing Road Safety at the European Road Network. At these maps, Greek roads risk level is depicted in different colors, based on accidents frequency and quantitative risk assessment.   

The Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals (CARSP) and La Prévention Routière Internationale (PRI) in partnership with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) and Desjardins, are organizing the 2020 Joint Conference which will be held online on 22-25 August 2021. The theme of the conference is “Equitability: Road Safety for all through Vision Zero and Sustainable Safety” and it will integrate two events, the 30th CARSP Conference and the 14th PRI World Congress. Equitability was chosen to highlight the need for “road safety for all” across road users, while road safety deficiencies are experienced universally. This year’s conference will offer the Students Paper Competition, the Vehicle Safety Enhancement Special Student Award and the Student Poster Competition whereby students can showcase their work on a road safety topic. Abstracts submission deadline: 1 March 2021. 

The Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) and the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT/CERTH) co-organize the “10th International Congress on Transportation Research” (ICTR 2021), which will be held on 2-3 Semptember, 2021, in Rhodes, Greece. The spotlight theme of the 2021 Congress is: “Future Mobility and Resilient Transport: Transition to innovation”. Transport research is critical for achieving innovative solutions that will meet future challenges through synergies among the industry and public sector. Abstracts submission deadline: 19 February 2021.

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.