The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published a short video supporting that it’s time for the EU to move from dozens of different drink driving limits to one that everyone can remember easily: Zero, despite the fact that every individual responds to alcohol differently. 

The third edition of Road Safety Manual (RSM) which was announced by the World Road Association (PIARC) is designed to help countries at every stage of infrastructure development to fulfill road safety objectives. It is aligned with key pillars for the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020: Pillar 1: Road Safety Management, Pillar 2: Safer Roads and Mobility, Pillar 4: Safer Road Users. This comprehensive resource builds on the broad range of knowledge and experience provided by PIARC in the first edition. It includes new thinking on road safety and offers a clear argument on why adopting a Safe System approach is crucial for all countries. 

The American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) are organizing Safer Roads 2020 International Conference which will take place in Virginia, USA, on 12-14 May 2020.  The Safer Roads 2020 International Conference is a triennial event for roadway safety professionals and transportation officials from around the world. The conference brings together industry leaders, government officials, corporate roadway department personnel, and others in the roadway safety industry, with a focus on working better together. 

A paper titled “A review of spatial approaches in road safety” authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, and George Yannis is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. The aim of the present research is to critically review the existing literature on different spatial approaches through which researchers handle the dimension of space in its various aspects in their studies and analyses. Specifically, the use of different areal unit levels in spatial road safety studies is investigated, different modelling approaches are discussed, and the corresponding study design characteristics are summarized in respective tables including traffic, road environment and area parameters and spatial aggregation approaches. 

The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is observed on the third Sunday of November each year (this year on 17 November 2019) by an increasing number of countries on every continent around the world. From 1995, FEVR observed this day, as European Day of Remembrance, that was adopted by the United Nations in 2005, and is dedicated to remembering the many millions killed or injured in road crashes and their families and communities, as well as to pay tribute to the dedicated emergency crews, police and medical professionals who daily deal with the traumatic aftermath of road death and injury. The slogan of 2019 is: “LIFE IS NOT A CAR PART”.   

The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) organised a Workshop on Micromobility Safety, as part of the ITF Corporate Partnership Board, which took place with great success in Lisbon, Portugal, on 18 October 2019. The workshop focussed on the safety questions arising with the rapid development of electrically powered personal mobility devices and framed policy recommendations (including safety regulation and road space allocation) to best manage the safety of all micromobility vehicles and services, from e-scooters to e-bikes, whether privately owned or hired.

NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  The effect of experience on injury risk across various modes of transport

The NTUA Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering contributed actively at the 9th International Congress on Transport Research (ICTR) themed: “Transportation 4.0: The Smart Evolution” and organised with great success on 24-25 October 2019, in Athens, Greece, by the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) and the Hellenic Institute of Transport (H.I.T.). Special focus was given to innovative research and technological developments and solutions for the improvement of traffic safety in Greece and worldwide.  NTUA contributed actively with several traffic safety papers and presentations:

•   Methodology for the the economic assessment of road safety interventions
•   Tourism and Road Accidents in Greece
•   Road Safety Culture Among Car Drivers and Motorcycle Riders in Greece: Examining Influencing Factors
•   Impaired cycling and crash involvement in OECD countries
•   Thematic Fact Sheets on Road Safety Risk Factors in Africa – A Knowledge and Management Tool
•   A Review of the Impact of Driver Distraction on Driving Behavior and Road Safety
•   Identification of Critical Driving Parameters Affecting Speeding Using Data from Smartphones
•   Greek driver attitudes towards aggressive driving
•   Self-assessment and Road Behavior
•   What is your driving identity? Some empirical findings using large-scale smartphone sensors’ data
•   Mapping Risky Driving Behavior in Urban Road Networks
•   Techno-Economical Evaluation of Accidents’ Preventing Measures and Remedial Measures in Intersections on Existing Rural Two-Lane Highways

The National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) of the University of Iowa organized the Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2019 (RSS2019) which was held with great success on 14-17 October 2019 in Iowa City, Iowa, USA. The conference theme focused on Transformations in Transportation, and conference topics included, but were not limited to: Automated Vehicles Technology, Connected Vehicles Technology, Vulnerable Road Users, Roadway Infrastructure Design, and Distributed Simulation Technology.   NTUA actively contributed with the following papers and presentations:

•   A review of the interactions between Autonomous Vehicles and Vulnerable Road Users
•   Can structural equation models assess overall driving performance in driving simulator experiments?
•   Association of Expressed Driving Anger with Driving Performance Combining Simulator and Survey Data
•  To which extent the driving behavior of older drivers with neurological diseases affecting cognition is different after an unexpected incident?
•  Does driving at night affect the driving performance of young drivers? A driving simulator study
•  Interaction between autonomous vehicles and vulnerable road user
•  Driving Simulator of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory
•  Driving anger: Emerging issues and opportunities to advance the safety science

The 5th Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems and related developments in Greece, which is organised by “Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems – ITS Hellas, will take place on 17 & 18 December 2019 at the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Athens, Greece.  The conference aims to discuss the broad deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) as a tool to achieve economic growth and prosperity and ensure the effectiveness, efficiency and safety of transport for the benefit of the respective industry, the end-users and the environment. During this important for the Hellenic transport sector event, prominent Greek and foreign speakers will thoroughly discuss and present a number of key-topics, through several sessions and a number of Round-Table discussions. 

RSI Panos Mylonas organised a Workshop for the European Commission (Connecting Europe Facility – CEF) co-funded project “SLAIN” (Saving Lives Assessing and Improving TEN) -T Road Network Safety), which took place with great success in Athens on 10-11 October 2019. SLAIN Project aims at the implementation of the European Road Infrastructure Safety Directive (2008/96/EC) and the preparation of the European Road Network to receive automated traffic. 8 partners from 5 countries (Belgium, Greece, Italy, Spain and Croatia), along with Eurorap met in Athens for this 2-days workshop. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published a Report titled “Briefing: EU Strategic Action Plan on Road Safety”. In June 2019, the European Commission adopted the EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021-2030, outlining specific policy measures planned for 2021-2030 and developing on the EU Strategic Action Plan on Road Safety published in May 2018. This briefing reflects ETSC’s first assessment of these initiatives with suggestions for further development and implementation. This document refers mainly to the measures addressed by the European Commission in these latest documents.  

European Commissioner for transport Violeta Bulc announced the six winners of the European Road Safety Charter – Excellence in Road Safety Awards 2019 at a ceremony at the prestigious Vaudeville Theatre in Brussels on October 2019. Every year several initiatives of the European Road Safety Charter are rewarded for their contribution to safer roads across Europe. Violeta Bulc said: “Road safety is our common concern and priority. All of you are role models in your local communities, but also now acknowledged on the European scene. I wish to thank you wholeheartedly for your contribution to the improvement of the road safety culture in Europe.   You are making a real difference in your community and you are inspiring others to do the same.”  

Twelve EU Member States are joining forces to share smart ideas for improving road safety, as part of a new EU-funded project: “Road Safety Exchange”, launched in Brussels in October. There are important differences in the road safety performance of the different EU Member States. The three-year EU Road Safety Exchange project aims to tackle these disparities and will link up experts from Austria, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden. Transport experts from the twelve participating countries will work together to share best practice on reducing speed, building safe infrastructure and improve enforcement, data collection, as well as the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in urban areas. 

The Final Conference of Interreg MED REMEDIO took place with great success in Treviso, Italy, on 01-02 October, 2019. Two different events were organised to promote the dissemination of our project’s results, along with discussion about strategies to improve sustainable and safe  mobility in MED cities. The first day was dedicated to the International Conference “Horizontal Condominium as a Living Lab for Urban Renewals” and on second day the Workshop/Capacity Building event “Paving the way to new ideas: the Horizontal Condominium of West Road” was held.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Sustainable Urban Mobility and Safety

ERTICO – ITS Europe is organizing the ITS European Congress, the largest event entirely dedicated to smart mobility and digitalisation of transport, which will take place on 18-20 May 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal. The Congress Programme offers delegates an unparalleled opportunity to learn about the latest ITS technologies and new mobility concepts. Experts from the mobility sector are invited to submit contributions for various types of sessions to share innovative ideas, discuss mobility challenges that cities are facing today and how they can be addressed through ITS solutions. 

The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published the full version of the Road Safety Annual Report 2019, which provides an overview of road safety performance for 41 countries. The report outlines the most recent road safety developments there and provides comparative data for the main road safety indicators. It also offers detailed analysis by road user, age group and types of road. It describes the crash data collection process in IRTAD countries, the road safety strategies and targets in place and information on recent trends in speeding, drink-driving and other aspects of road user behaviour.  

The Horizon 2020 research project LEVITATE is organising an Experts and Stakeholders Workshop on Impact Assessment of Connected and Automated Transport Systems which will take place on 26 November in Brussels.  Public authorities, road users, researchers and industry players will discuss how the Levitate Policy Support Tool (PST) could assist Cities identifying the potential societal level impacts of connected and automated transport systems. Emphasis will be given to the prediction of the impact of transport systems automation (forecasting tool) and the identification of (policy) interventions to help achieve certain long-term mobility goals and/or to mitigate the potential negative effects of transport systems automation (backcasting tool).  Programme is now available here 

On September 25, 2019, in Prague, Czech Republic, the RADAR project together with the General Automotoclub of the Czech Republic (UAMK) organised a Road Safety Expert Group (RSEG) Workshop on the safety provisions for vulnerable road users (pedestrians and cyclists). This Workshop focussed on optimised provisions for vulnerable road users (pedestrians and cyclists) and the assessment of the potential for dedicated infrastructure provisions and policy attitudes towards VRU safety in the Danube region.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  RSEG Expert contribution to TA 2 Draft report – Key points for Greece