Eurocities recently published the results of a Survey on 30 km/h speed limits in European cities, based on responses from 38 cities in 19 European countries. 75% of cities report clear positive results, with fewer road deaths and injuries, while 91% report at least one positive impact on urban life, such as a lower number of accidents and fatalities, a decrease in air and noise pollution, and an increase in active mobility modes. Cities report reductions in accidents, fatalities and serious injuries for all road users, alongside lower vehicle speeds and reduced noise pollution. Crucially, these gains come without trade-offs: respondents report no overall negative effects on congestion, traffic volumes or journey times, and only limited, manageable impacts on public transport. 
Engineers Australia is organizing the Transport Conference 2026, which will be held on 9-10 June 2026 in Cairns, Australia under the theme “Access all areas”. This Conference will bring together engineers, leading professionals, innovators and decision-makers from across the transport sector, championing the creation of inclusive, equitable, and resilient transport systems. The Conference will feature a dynamic program of invited speakers, thought-provoking discussions, gala dinner and real-world insights into the challenges and opportunities shaping Australia’s transport future. Programme is available here. Registration is available here.
The Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of NTUA organized with great success a Workshop titled “Emerging Challenges in Road Geometric Design” which was held on 7 May 2026 in Athens, Greece. This Workshop explored emerging challenges in road geometric design in the context of rapidly evolving mobility systems and user needs. It brought together insights from three complementary perspectives: the integration of lane support systems supported by machine learning, international experience with turbo roundabouts based on Polish practice, and innovative approaches from Japan addressing pedestrian–vehicle coexistence.
The Sustainable Mobility and Road Safety Committee of the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK) organized with great success a Meeting on Sustainable Mobility and 30 km/h speed limit in cities, which was held online on 5 May 2026. This Event focused on relevant policy recommendations, supporting Cyprus cities to adopt 30 km/h speed limits. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 50th PIN Flash Report titled “Improving the safety of cycling in Europe“. This Report analyses recent trends in cyclist deaths and serious injuries across Europe and identifies the key risk factors affecting cyclists on European roads. Furthermore, it examines the policies and measures that can help improve cycling safety while supporting the continued growth of cycling as a safe, healthy and sustainable mode of transport such as the introduction and enforcement 30 km/h speed limits on urban roads. The European Union has committed to reducing road deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030, as part of its Vision Zero ambition. Ensuring that cyclists benefit from progress towards these targets is essential, especially as cycling levels continue to grow. 
The International Road Federation (IRF Global) is organizing the 9th IRF Global R2T Conference which will be held in San Francisco, USA on 3-6 November 2026. This year’s Theme is “Transforming the Future of Mobility”. This Event will offer a dynamic platform for learning, collaboration, and forging influential partnerships—ensuring you stay at the forefront of a rapidly changing industry. Programme is available here. Early Bird registration is available until 3 September 2026.
Virginia Petraki has successfully defended her PhD thesis titled “A Multilevel Integrated Assessment of Safe and Green Mobility”, under the supervision of NTUA Prof. George Yannis. Sustainable mobility is a multidimensional phenomenon encompassing road safety, as well as economic and environmental impacts. This doctoral dissertation develops a data-driven framework for the multilevel assessment of safe and green mobility, spanning from individual trips to the road network, by fusing road infrastructure, traffic, and weather-related data with high-resolution naturalistic driving behavior data. The developed framework is structured around three complementary analytical modules, including (i) the identification of safe and green mobility patterns, (ii) the joint modeling of safe and green driving outcomes, and (iii) the assessment of sustainable driving efficiency. The results reveal that safe and green mobility are strongly interconnected yet context-dependent, exhibiting both synergies and trade-offs across levels of analysis, while highlighting the critical role of driving behavior and external conditions in shaping these interactions. Overall, the dissertation provides a comprehensive and interpretable analytical framework that supports informed and targeted interventions towards more sustainable mobility for all. 
The European Commission is organizing the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards which will be held on 23 November 2026 in Brussels, recognizing the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter’s community of members 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. Submissions are available until 10 June 2026.
The Horizon Europe research project IMPROVA has recently released its 4th Newsletter, focusing on enhancing road safety by addressing the complexities of long-term consequences (LTC) caused by road traffic crashes. This version of the Newsletter focuses on WP updates and advancements, as well as two IMPROVA papers presented during the IRTAD 2026 Conference in Athens. Key WP updates include the launch of the Functional Capacity Index and the integration of European crash data into a new head-injury metamodel. Furthermore, the Newsletter announces the upcoming IMPROVA General Assembly in Athens.
The Horizon Europe research project CulturalRoad is hosting a Webinar titled “Co-Creating Mobility Solutions with Local Communities: Insights from the CulturalRoad Demo Sites” which will take place online, on 13 May 2026. This webinar will explore how CulturalRoad is working with local stakeholders across its five demonstration sites — in Catalonia, Karlsruhe, Eilat, Ljubljana and the United Kingdom (West Midlands and Oxfordshire) — to better understand expectations, challenges and opportunities related to automated mobility. City representatives, mobility planners, public authorities and stakeholders from the sector are welcome to join the discussion and contribute with their perspectives. Participation is free upon registration. 
The EU co-funded research project GreCO successfully participated in a direct dialogue with the European Commission and in a Focused Policy Lab of the European Urban Initiative on Sustainable Tourism, held on 22–23 April 2026 in Copenhagen. GreCO Project in collaboration with the Municipality of Elliniko-Argyroupoli, actively contributed to the discussions focused on the green transition, digitalization, inclusion and balanced tourism management, as well as the promotion of sustainable behaviours and experiences, directly contributing to the shaping of the upcoming European Strategy for Sustainable Tourism. This participation was an important opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and experience with representatives from the European Commission, policymakers and professionals from across Europe.
A paper titled Tram or Bus? A Stated-Preference Analysis of Road User Mode Choice in Larissa, Greece authored by Athanasios Theofilatos, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Apostolos Anagnostopoulos, Georgios Georgiadis, Ioannis Politis and Nikolaos Eliou has been published in Systems. This Paper aims to investigate Public Transport (PT) preferences in the city of Larissa, Greece. To this end, a SP survey was designed and implemented, resulting in 972 observations that were collected for further statistical analysis. Survey results show a slight preference for trams over buses, with 54.63% selecting the tram and 45.37% favoring the buses. The findings also indicate that passengers place a high value on the quality of infrastructure related to access and waiting times, underlining the need to improve the overall user experience beyond the vehicle itself. In summary, the present research offers valuable insights into how the introduction of a tram system could possibly reshape PT usage patterns when compared with the legacy existing bus services. 
Micro-Mobility for Europe (MMfE) recently published its latest incident data, covering more than 450 million trips across the EU27, Israel, Norway, Switzerland and the UK. The data confirms that injury risk for shared e-scooters and e-bikes continued to decline for the fifth consecutive year, with shared e-bike injuries per million trips falling by 18.4% compared to 2024, and a 24% reduction in shared e-scooter injury risk per million trips since 2021. MMfE is currently working together with NTUA on a more detailed analysis of micro-mobility safety trends, aimed at further strengthening the evidence base for policymaking and infrastructure improvements. Despite the positive trajectory, reductions in serious injuries and fatalities are not yet happening fast enough to meet European Commission targets under its Vision Zero objective.
The Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) is organizing the Australasian Road Safety Conference 2026 (ARSC), which will be held in Sydney, Australia on 26-29 October 2026. This Conference under the theme “From Evidence to Action: Shaping a Brighter Future” will bring together road safety stakeholders and decision-makers from Australasia and international jurisdictions to facilitate collaboration and share information. Early Bird registration is available until 24 July 2026.
The President of the United Nations General Assembly recently submitted the Draft Resolution “Scope, modalities, format and organization of the high-level meeting on improving global road safety“. Τhe Draft Resolution decides to convene a High-Level Meeting on Improving Global Road Safety in New York, on 20-21 July 2026, under the theme “Scaling up and accelerating implementation of commitments to halving road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030”, in line with the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. It also calls for a multi-stakeholder hearing as part of the preparatory process, bringing together governments, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector.
Τhe African Road Safety Charter has recently been ratified by 15 African Union Member States, which is the minimum threshold required for it to come into force. This marks an important step towards stronger accountability, coordinated action, and safer roads across the continent. To support members in understanding this development, the Alliance recently held a capacity building session focused on the Charter and its implications.
The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD), the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) co-organized with great success the 8th IRTAD International Conference: Better Road Safety Data for Better Safety Performance which took place in Athens, Greece, on 15-17 April 2026, with the support of FERSI and ECTRI, under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The objective of the Conference was to explore improvements in the quality of data systems and related analyses globally, achieved through three days of vivid discussions with more than 330 road safety experts from 45 countries and 146 road safety Organisations, with focus on human factors, speeding behaviour, safety of vulnerable road users, automation, artificial intelligence, big data, and advanced modelling to support evidence-based policies and measures for safer roads everywhere and for all.
The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD), the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) co-organized with great success the 8th IRTAD International Conference: Better Road Safety Data for Better Safety Performance which was held in Athens, Greece, on 15-17 April 2026, with the support of FERSI and ECTRI, under the auspices of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. NTUA actively contributed with the following papers and presentations:
- Development of a road safety impact tool for policy assessment
- Attitudes and Self-Declared Behaviours Among Greek Road Users: Evidence from the ESRA3 survey
- Probabilistic Modeling for Node-Based Partitioning of Telematics-Informed Road Networks
- Transformer-Based Driver Behavior Recognition Using the UAH-DriveSet Dataset
- Temporal Modeling of Heart Rate Variability for Driver Drowsiness Detection with LSTM Networks
- Comparative assessment of speed characteristics in the European Union
- The European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO): Supporting evidence-based policy for safer EU roads
- A Cross-City Survey on Personal Protective Equipment Use in Vulnerable Road Users
- A method to estimate the number of people suffering from long-term consequences
- Integrating Telematics and Video-Based Recognition for Vehicle Behavior Analysis in Athens
- Assessing public opinions on city-wide 30 km/h speed limits: The case of Athens
- Do Key Performance Indicators really measure road safety performance?
- Towards a Traffic Sustainability Culture: Integrating Safety and Sustainability in Line with the Stockholm Declaration
- Development of a conceptual model for traffic safety culture
- Evaluating Self-Reported and Attitudinal Indicators as Proxies for Observed Road Safety Behaviour
- Subjective Safety of Vulnerable Road Users from a European Perspective – Insights from the ESRA3 Survey
- Examining Driver Behaviour along Motorway Exit Ramp Terminals
- Opening Speech
The Horizon 2020 research project PHOEBE has recently released the PHOEBE 7th 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. Final PHOEBE consortium meeting took place in the West-Midlands, where PHOEBE partners planned the upcoming final conference and focused on the topics of systems integration, transferability, and exploitation of PHOEBE results. Additionally, this edition of the newsletter announces the Final PHOEBE Workshop at RSS 2026 Conference.
Road fatalities in Greece in 2025 presented a significant decrease (22.3%) compared to 2024 figures, according to the provisional ELSTAT and Traffic Police data. This is the result of the intensification of enforcement of helmet wearing and drink-and-drive by the Police, together with the new Road Traffic Code in Greece (voted in June and in force since September) which led to an astonishing improvement of driver behaviour and consequently to this very significant reduction or road crash fatalities.
These highly successful initiatives of the Greek Authorities led to a record saving of 148 lives: 517 in 2025 in comparison to 665 in 2024. With these results (49,7 fatalities per million population), Greece is leaving the zone of lowest performance EU countries (63,8 fatalities per million population in 2024), and is approaching the EU average road safety performance (43 fatalities per million population).
We are proud having contributed actively through our systematic advocacy interventions to the Authorities and the media, for prioritizing motorcycle safety and helmet wearing as the catalysers for significant reduction of road casualties in Greece. 
