The Transport Research Arena 2018 (TRA 2018) took place with great success in Vienna, Austria from 16 to 19 April 2018. More than 3.500 participants actively contributed to this major European Conference on Transport Research, which under the motto ‘A digital era for transport‘ explored new promising and innovative opportunities that the era of digitalization and of the internet of everything offers for transport. 
NTUA actively contributed with 16 innovative presentations:
Analysis of Driving Behaviour Characteristics on the basis of Smartphone Data- SafetyCube – the European Road Safety Decision Support System
- Safety effects of infrastructure road safety measures
- Can light engineering measures make a difference? An overview of the effect of delineation and signage on road safety
- Developing the African Road Safety Observatory
- Safety culture in maritime cargo transport in Norway and Greece: which factors predict unsafe maritime behaviours?
- Characteristics of single vehicle accidents in Europe
- Investigating which factors affect lateral position variability through a driving simulator experiment
- Compensatory driving behaviour of older drivers with Parkinson’s disease. Is it sufficient to counterbalance their driving difficulties?
- The impact of roadside advertising on safe driving behaviour in cities: A driving simulator approach
- Impact of mobile phone use on driving performance: findings from a simulator study
- Accident prediction In European countries – Development of a practical evaluation tool
- Demographic, behavioural, cultural and socioeconomic factors on transport sector workforce in Europe
- Innovative usage-based motor insurance for significant road safety improvement
- European Road Safety Policy: Towards Evidence-Based Decision Making, Especially for Vulnerable Road Users
A paper titled “Structural equation model analysis for the evaluation of overall driving performance: A driving simulator study focusing on driver distraction” authored by Panagiotis Papantoniou is now published in Traffic Injury Prevention, Volume 19, 2018 – Issue 3, pp. 317-325. 95 participants from all age groups were asked to drive under different types of distraction (conversation with passenger, cell phone use) in urban and rural road environments with low and high traffic volume in a driving simulator experiment. Then, a structural equation model is developed in which overall driving performance is estimated as a latent variable based on several individual driving simulator measures. The implementation of the structural equation model allows for the assessment of driving behaviour in terms of overall performance and not through individual performance measures, which allows an important scientific step forward from piecemeal analyses to a sound combined analysis of the interrelationship between several risk factors and overall driving performance.. 
Basic characteristics of road fatalities in Greece for the period 1991-2016 are summarised in a comprehensive Table prepared by the NTUA Road Safety Observatory (data source: ELSTAT). Since 2005, there are approximately 1.000 less road fatalities per year in Greece. According to these time series data a spectacular decrease in road fatalities for young people (70%) and in junctions outside built up areas (72%) is observed during the last decade. On the contrary, fatalities decrease during the last decade is quite limited for cyclists, older drivers, and women drivers.
The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) organised by the International Transport Forum (ITF) a meeting which took place in Paris, on 5-6 April 2018
NTUA presentations concerned:
The Department of Methodology in the Behavioural Sciences of the University of Valencia organised the CAMP-sUmp University Campus Sustainable Mobility Conference, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund of the Interreg MED Programme in Valencia, Spain, on 27 March 2018. Designed to improve sustainable mobility in the Mediterranean area universities’ campus, CAMP-sUmp promotes the advancement of low-carbon strategies and energy efficiency within safe and efficient transport policies. At the CAMP-sUmp Conference the Action Plans and the related Road Maps were presented aiming to support Universities to improve their sustainable mobility plans with emphasis on traffic safety. Presentations were given by the CAMP-sUmp Universities: Catanzaro, Athens, Valencia, Cyprus, Split, Malta and Bologna.
Studying Sustainable Mobility in University Campuses
A Diploma Thesis titled “Development of an Optimization Model of Resource Allocation for the Management of Urban Transport Buses” was presented by Ilias Laios in March 2018, aiming to estimate the optimal allocation of the financial resources of the Athens Urban Transport Organization aiming for the most desirable result of the more efficient replacement of bus fleet. A mathematical optimization model based on the principles of linear integer programming was developed and implemented to achieve the goal. The greatest reduction in the cost of bus fleet management results from favorable conditions for the purchase of innovative and more efficient types of buses, such as electric buses and compressed natural gas buses.
The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) launched a publication titled “Securing safe roads: the politics of change” which is an output of the project: The politics of road safety. Over the past 10 years, road safety has been escalated to an issue of international concern. Together with the World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, ODI undertook research in three middle-income cities: Nairobi, Kenya; Mumbai, India; and Bogotá, Colombia. In this report, ODI synthesizes the findings from these case studies concluding with a series of strategies to improve road safety.
POLIS, the European cities and regions network for innovative transport solutions released a discussion paper entitled: “Road Vehicle Automation and Cities and Regions”. Polis promotes the discussion about vehicle automation, focusing on the car as opposed to lorries and buses and on ‘personal mobility’ rather than logistics. The aims of this paper are among others: a) to raise awareness of AV developments and their potential mobility and safety impact among city and regional administrations and to assist them in setting transport policies and plans to deal with them and b) to raise awareness of city and regional transport policies among vehicle manufacturers and other automated vehicle players.
The European Commission has published the preliminary 2017 road safety statistics, which indicate for the second year in a row, a decrease in the number of fatalities of around 2%. 25 300 people lost their lives on EU roads in 2017, which is 300 fewer than in 2016 (-2%) and 6 200 fewer than in 2010 (-20%). While national authorities deliver most of the day-to-day actions, such as enforcement and awareness-raising, the Commission is working on a series of concrete measures to spur further substantial progress. This would be another step towards a “Europe that protects” as envisioned by President Juncker.
Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said: “25 300 people lost their lives on our roads last year, and many more were left with life-changing injuries. Behind these figures are as many stories of grief and pain. Road safety is of course a responsibility shared with the Member States, but I believe that the EU can do more to better protect Europeans. The Commission is currently working on a series of concrete measures that we plan to announce in the coming weeks. The ambition is clear: saving more lives on our roads.”
A Diploma Thesis titled “Analysis of the impact of autonomous vehicles to travel behaviour” was presented by Panagiotis Papalymperis in March 2018, aiming to analyse the effect of autonomous vehicles on the mobility behaviour as well as to identify the main characteristics that affect this behaviour. For this purpose, data collected from 235 travelers who participated in a stated-preference survey with a questionnaire were analyzed. Through the multinomial and binary regression models the impact of cost, time and safety on the choice of an autonomous vehicle or of a shared-use autonomous vehicle were examined.
The International Conference on Road Safety: A Commitment to the Present and a Challenge for the Future, organized by the World Road Association (PIARC), with Infraestruturas of Portugal (IP) and the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT), will be held on 19-20 April in Lisbon, Portugal and it will bring together international and national experts working on road safety to share experiences and results. It will address in particular, the Safe Approach System and the Politics of Safety, as well as the role of the infrastructure in safety mobility.
2018 NETS’ Strength in numbers Annual Conference will be held in Frisco, Texas on October 10 & 11, 2018. The conference convenes each year to review the results of NETS’ annual Strength in numbers Fleet Safety Benchmark Report, as well as to hear about featured road safety case studies, new research, emerging issues, and projects that are underway. This year the conference include: keynote presentations by industry leaders, road safety case studies, new research & technology solutions, emerging issues, ongoing projects, 2017 STRENGTH IN NUMBERS® Fleet Safety Benchmark Report, opportunity to network with other road safety professionals.
La Prévention Routière Internationale (PRI) in collaboration with the Tunisian Ministry of Education, the Tunisian Road Prevention Association (ATPR) and the Arab Road Safety Organization (AROSO) are organizing an International Conference on: “Traffic Education: Modern Educational Approach / Experiences & Good Practices” in Tunis, Tunisia on 26 – 27th, April, 2018. This conference aims to define a strategic choice to for the improvement of road safety in Tunisia, with emphassis on traffic education, requiring the synergic contribution of all stakeholders.
The International Road Traffic and Accident Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report “Speed and Crash Risk”, with the active contribution of NTUA. After reviewing the current knowledge on the relationship between speed and crash risk, this report analyses eleven cases from ten countries that have recently changed speed limits or introduced a large-scale automatic speed control. The analysis confirms the very strong relationship between speed and crash risk and that higher speed is associated with increased occurrence and severity of road crashes.
The SafetyCube European Conference on Better Decision Making for Road Safety took place with great success on 22-23 March 2018, in Vienna. The results of the SafetyCube EC Horizons 2020 research project were presented, with special focus on the European Road Safety Decision Support System (DSS) (www.roadsafety-dss.eu) The SafetyCube DSS is expected to enable policy-makers and stakeholders to select and implement the most appropriate strategies, measures and cost-effective approaches to reduce casualties of all road user types and all severities in Europe and worldwide.
- SafetyCube – the European Road Safety Decision Support System
- Linking road safety risk factors and measures
- The SafetyCube DSS inventory of assessed infrastructure risk factors and measures
- Road User related risk factors and countermeasures in the European Road Safety DSS
- The safe system approach in evidence-based road safety policy making
- Vehicle safety analysis – Risks, Safety measures and accident categories
The workshop ‘Together we are road safety’, organised by the European Road Safety Charter and the Road Safety Institute ‘Panos Mylonas’ is going to take place on 21 March 2018 in Athens. The purpose of the workshop is to promote best practices and explore new ideas in relation to awareness and education of young people on road safety issues.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published a Position Paper titled “EU Funds for Road Safety in the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027“. In this paper, ETSC presents recommendations for funding for road safety initiatives within the next long-term EU budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). These recommendations should support work towards meeting the EU’s current target to reduce road deaths by 50% by 2020 and the new targets for 2030 as well as the long-term Vision Zero.
The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) and the Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre at Chalmers (SAFER) are organising the 7th International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology (ICTTP) which is going to be held on August 25-27th 2020 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference philosophy is Taking the Vision Zero Initiative into a New Decade. The Swedish Vision Zero Initiative on road safety is an ethical standpoint that no-one should die or be seriously injured in traffic. The key focus of this conference will be on the role that traffic and transport psychology can play in reaching the ethical standpoint that no-one should die or be seriously injured in traffic by providing a common ground for future interdisciplinary research.
A paper titled “Driving in Mild Cognitive Impairment: the role of depressive symptoms” authored by Ion N. Beratis, Nikos Andronas, Dionysia Kontaxopoulou, Stella Fragkiadaki, Dimosthenis Pavlou, John Papatriantafyllou, Alexandra Economou, George Yannis and Sokratis G. Papageorgiou is now published in Traffic Injury Prevention. Previous studies indicate a negative association between depression and driving fitness in the general population. This paper aimed to cover a gap in the literature and to explore the link between depressive symptoms and driving behavior in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) through the use of a driving simulator experiment. Results indicated that depressive symptoms could be a factor explaining why certain patients with MCI present altered driving skills. Therefore, interventions for treating the depressive symptoms of individuals with MCI could prove to be beneficial regarding their driving performance.
Road fatalities in Greece in 2017 presented a significant decrease (10%) compared to 2016 figures, according to recently published ELSTAT data. This significant decrease could be attributed not only to the fact that Greece is still under economic crisis but also and mainly due to the fact that in the first semester of 2017, more than 500 km on new or upgraded motorways have been opened, replacing national roads with high road fatalities rates.
During the last decade, Greece presents one of the most significant road safety performances in the European Union, with a decrease of road fatalities of 54% and a decrease of serious injuries of 62%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 59% since 2007.
