A Road Safety Conference for the International Business Traveler, organised by the Department of Public Health, University of Gothenburg in cooperation with the World Bank Group (WBG) and the Vehicle and Traffic Safety Center at Chalmers (SAFER) will take place in Gothenburg, on 30 May 2016. The aim of the conference is to review road safety from the aspects of the quality of roads, cars, and drivers with a focus on developing countries, and to discuss corporate travel policies and how they can be tailored to avoid collisions and serious injuries among business travelers. 

The Road Safety Unit of DG Move of the European Commission published recently the 2015 Edition of the EU Road Safety Country Overviews with the active contribution of NTUA, KFV and ERF. The EU Road Safety Country Overviews are based on most recent disaggregate data for all EU countries from theCARE Database of the European Commission as well as on structured information gathered from the EU Member States. These Road Safety Country Overviews consist of five analysis sections (Social costs, Number killed and injured, Safety performance indicators, Safety measures and programmes, Structure and culture) and one synthesis section providing a comprehensive picture of current road safety facts and challenges in each EU country.  

The World Road Association (PIARC) has recently launched the updated electronic encyclopedia called ‘Road Tunnels Manual‘ focusing exclusively on all the aspects linked to the use of road tunnels (geometry, tunnel equipment and maintenance, operations, safety, environment). The PIARC Road Tunnels Manual comprises two principal parts: the part ‘Transverse aspects‘ containing 5 chapters and considering general aspects of road tunnels and the part ‘Operational and Safety Requirements‘ containing 4 chapters and addressing particular elements of tunnels taking these requirements into consideration. The Manual ends with a Glossary which describes 200 terms and definitions translated into twenty languages. PIARC Road Tunnel Manual is available in 10 languages. 

The World Road Association (PIARC) has recently launched the electronic manual on Road Network Operations & Intelligent Transport Systems. The manual is a comprehensive, regularly updated handbook helping practitioners to alleviate road congestion, a major worldwide issue that directly affects the economies of many nations. Road Network Operations (RNO) concern the methods at the disposal of road authorities and highway infrastructure operators that contribute to safer and more efficient travel for road users and for society as a whole. Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) concern a wide range of services that use information and communications technology that can improve transportation and mobility. 

The NTUA Road Safety Observatory is now posting and sharing on Twitter (@nrso_ntua_gr) all new Greek, European and international road safety knowledge, information and data published at the nrso website (www.nrso.ntua.gr). Simply follow us on Twitter: @nrso_ntua_gr  

The Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) has recently launched a key new web resource centre to support advocacy efforts specifically for road safety policies and implementation. The new Advocacy Resource Centre is a one-stop resource for organizations campaigning for road safety policies or policy implementation. It features over 800 pieces of content, which have been specifically collated and created to be useful for both road safety organizations and other organizations that may be interested in addressing road safety. The Advocacy Resource Centre also holds a comprehensive Advocacy Toolkit, which is a a nine-part comprehensive guide detailing all aspects of constructing a successful advocacy campaign, focusing specifically on road safety.

The Second Serbian Road Congress organised by Road Association of Serbia “Via-Vita” will be held in Belgrade, on 9-10 June 2016. National and international experts shared their knowledge, experience and vision all topics of the forthcoming congress: – Planning and Design – Construction and Maintenance of Roads and Structures – Road Management – Transport, ITS and New Technologies – Road Traffic Safety – Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection  

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 95th Annual Meeting was held in Washington, D.C., in 10-14 January 2016. The meeting program covered all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops, addressing topics of interest to policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. More than 35 sessions and workshops focused on the spotlight theme for the 2016 meeting: Research Convergence for a Multi-Modal Future  and more than 75 sessions addressed one or more of three “hot topics”: Transformation Technologies, Resilience and Transportation and Public Health. 

NTUA presentations concerned:

  Development of a training course for road safety auditors in Greece

  Road, traffic and human factors of pedestrian crossing behaviour: integrated choice and latent variables models

  Modeling stopping sight distance on left-turn curves of freeways overlapped with crest vertical curves

SafetyCube – Safety CaUsation, Benefits and Efficiency

A report on the European facts and the Global status report on road safety 2015 has now been published by World Health Organisation (WHO). In 2013, almost85.000 people died from road-traffic injuries in the WHO European Region. Although the regional mortality rate is the lowest among WHO regions (9.3 deaths per 100 000 population), the rates of road traffic deaths vary widely in between European countries. More systematic efforts are needed if the global target of a 50% reduction in road crash deaths is to be achieved by 2020. NTUA contributed to the peer review of this Report. 

SafetyCube is a research project funded by the European Commissionunder the Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, in the domain of Road Safety. The project started on May 1st, 2015 and will run for a period of three years with primary objective todevelop an innovative road safety Decision Support System (DSS) that will 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. NTUA is actively contributing to all phases of the SafetyCube project.  The first SafetyCube newsletter with the latest project developments is now available. 

A Special Issue of the Journal of Transportation Safety & Security focusing on Driving Simulation Experiments and Behavior Analysis is now calling for papers.  Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

A Special Issue of Accident Analysis & Prevention focusing on Road Safety Data Considerations is now calling for papers that address issues related to road safety data and methods that can be applied at all stages of data handling (collection, processing and analysis). Moreover, the presentation of applications utilizing innovative road safety data analysis is encouraged, particularly in emerging regions (that typically lack detailed and updated crash and casualty information), focusing on methodological adaptations for tackling information scarcity, or other limitations of technology transfer. 

2015 was a very intensive year for the NTUA Road Safety Observatory as presented at the respective 2015-in-figures infographic highlighting nrso activities on research and web presence but also on work and sports. The intensive 2015 nrso activity is demonstrated by the active contributions to 12 research projects, together with the 54 papers in scientific journals and conferences and the more than 38.500 visits of the nrso website, whereas the 65.368 emails handled and the 3.088km run are proving the high nrso efficiency and fitness to perform!