The International Transport Forum (ITF) published recently a new Report titled The Safe System Approach in Action with the active participation of NTUA. Road crashes kill over 1.3 million people every year worldwide and seriously injure millions more. A Safe System approach to road safety can drastically reduce road deaths – but how can it actually be put in place? This Report provides experience-based guidance on implementing the Safe System approach worldwide.    

The 6th International Symposium for Highway Geometric Design (ISHGD) took place with great success in Amsterdam on 29 June 2022. The Symposium managed to encourage the continuous improvement of highway geometric design and focused on the latest breakthrough practices relating to highway engineering in their different life phases, including daily operational effects and safe highway designs.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations and papers :

•   Development and implementation of a methodology for the economic appraisal of road infrastructure safety schemes (Best Paper Award)
•   Superelevation Transition Assessment on Rural Roads with Reverse Consecutive Horizontal Curves
•   Impact of Road and Traffic Characteristics on Driver Behaviour and Safety Using Data from Smartphone
•   Urban Street Network Upgrade for the New Intercity Bus Terminal in the City of Athens
•   Pavement Grooving Pattern Direction Investigation as a Countermeasure of Hydroplaning
•   Passenger Cars Safety Assessment on Interchange Ramps
•   Passing Sight Distance -Regulations Vs Reality

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 16th edition of PIN Annual Report , with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2022 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Award event which took place online with great success on 15 June 2022. The EU27 collectively reduced the number of road deaths by 31% over the period 2011-2021, from 28,865 in 2011 to 19,823 in 2021. There were 57,095 fewer deaths on EU roads over the last decade than there would have been if deaths had continued at the same level as in 2011. 

The Civil Engineering School of the National Technical University of Athens was ranked this year 18th in Europe and 50th worldwide among all Civil Engineering Schools. This ranking is produced by the QS Organisation (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022) based on the following criteria: Research, Teaching, Employability, Facilities, Internationalization, Innovation, Engagement and Access. NTUA road safety activities have contributed to this ranking. 

The European Commission has added to its library of European Road Safety Observatory road safety data and analytical resources with the publication of Thematic Reports on the use of seatbelts and child restraint systems, serious injuries through road crashes and on driver impairment due to alcohol, drugs and medicines. The aim of these Reports is to aid understanding of the causes and impacts of road crashes, with the ultimate aim of achieving “vision zero” of zero road deaths or serious injuries in Europe’s roads by 2050. 

The European Commission has launched EU pilot projects to assess safety of infrastructure. These pilot projects are carried out to test methodologies for the network-wide road assessments developed with the active contribution of NTUA, required under the Road Infrastructure Safety Management Directive (RISM). The Network-wide road assessments allow national authorities to identify those sections of road where the opportunities to improve safety are the greatest and where targeted investment should deliver the biggest improvements. 

The European Commission marked the International Level Crossing Awareness Day. Almost 300 people per year die in crashes at level crossings, representing around 30% of all railway deaths. The Commission has published a thematic report on this issue, setting out the situation regarding collisions at level crossings and measures the that could be taken to prevent them. In the Western Balkans region, the Transport Community has launched an awareness campaign to try to reduce the number and severity of collisions at railway crossings. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organised with great success the EU Road Safety Exchange – Final Event which was held in Brussels, on 18 May 2022. Dutch-inspired improvements to cycling infrastructure in Lithuania, harmonised day and night-time urban speed limits in Poland and major new national road safety strategies in Greece and Portugal are some of the changes inspired by the EU-funded Road Safety Exchange project. The recordings of the Final Event are now available. 

The World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) organised the 16th World Conference on Transport Research which was held in Montreal, Canada, on 17-21 July 2023.  For the last 40 years, WCTR has been organised every three years by the WCTR Society. WCTR allowed sharing cutting-edge research and advanced state-of-practice and provides a unique opportunity for experts to exchange ideas in all areas of transport research.  

The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Report titled Detecting Urban Clues for Road Safety: Leveraging Big Data and Machine Learning Report. The Report presents opportunities to use new technologies to improve current methods for data collection and analysis for various road safety assessments. This guidance note provides a practical guide for using new data sources and analytical methods for road safety analysis in different types of projects that may impact road infrastructure or risk-related factors.  

The World Health Oganisation (WHO) recently published the revised edition of the Manual on Drink-Driving: A Road Safety Manual for Decision-Makers and Practitioners. The Manual provides guidance for decision-makers and practitioners to reduce the prevalence of drink driving and associated road trauma. It draws on experience from countries that have succeeded in achieving and sustaining reductions in alcohol-related road trauma, and includes recommendations for developing and implementing drink driving legislation, and advice on how to monitor and evaluate progress.  

The 8th Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2022 (RSS2022) took place with great success on 08-10 June 2022 at Zappeion Megaron in Athens organized by NTUA and HITE under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the City of Athens. NTUA actively contributed with the following papers and presentations:

•   Exploring the development of an open data platform for road safety KPIs
•   Which driving performance parameters affect speeding? A naturalistic driving experiment
•   Investigation of accident modelling data in Greece
•   A state-of-practice review on Crash Prediction Modelling
•   A state-of-the-art Review on Crash Occurrence Analysis and Hazardous Location Identification
•   Road Safety Audit Implementation – an international inquiry
•   Methodological framework of creating the Levitate Policy-Support Tool for Connected and Automated Transport Systems
•   Discovering the influence of feedback on driver behavior through a multiphase experiment based on a smartphone application
•   Modeling the concept of a Safety Tolerance Zone: State-of-the-art and proposed alternatives
•   Methodology for the Evaluation of Safety Interventions
•   Real-Time Monitoring of Driver Distraction: State-of-the-art and Future Insights
•   A review of risk factors associated with elderly, truck and office worker drivers for automated driving applications
•   The role of values in road safety culture: Are motorcycle riders’ higher accident risk a result of their appreciation of freedom to take risk?
•   How environmental charging policies affect urban road safety?
•   The Demands of Road Environments as Perceived by Vulnerable Road Users
•   Identifying crucial factors of the impact of COVID-19 on driving behaviour using feature analysis on naturalistic driving data
•   Design of an on-road driving experiment on assessing driving behavior of older drivers
•   Assessing Driving Performance of Older Drivers – A Literature Review
•   Correlation of declared and revealed driver behaviour using smartphone sensors
•   Exploring critical driving parameters affecting speeding using data from smartphones
•   Factors contributing to safety-critical events in urban areas: A driving simulator study
•   Identification of safety-critical events on rural roads using a driving simulator
•   Investigation of traffic and safety behavior of pedestrians while talking on mobile phone
•   The Role of Traffic Speed Range in Road Safety – The Case of Two-Lane Rural Highways
•   Investigating the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on Eco-driving behavior
•   Defining Vehicle Passing Trajectories utilizing GNSS Data
•   Retroreflection Performance of Urban Road Signs
•   Overtaking Trajectory Assessment Utilizing Data from Driving Simulator
•   Vehicle Data Collection for Predicting Driving Behavior on Interchanges
•  Road Safety and Digitalization

The International Commission for Driver Testing (CIECA) organised with great success the 54th CIECA Congress, which was held in Naples, on 8-9 June 2022. With this congress, titled “Driver training and testing: finding the balance between mobility and safety through the use of innovative technology, improved curricula and data analysis”, CIECA focused on how advancing the importance of driver training and testing can help reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on roads every year. 

The 8th Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2022 (RSS2022) took place with great success on 08-10 June 2022 at Zappeion Megaron in Athens organized by NTUA and HITE under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the City of Athens. 320 road safety scientists from 28 countries joined this first post-pandemic global road safety in-person major event, to discuss on current and future challenges of Road Safety in the Digital Era. Conference proceedings and presentations are now available:

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport developed the National Road Safety Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2030, with the scientific support of the Department of Transport Planning and Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). The National Road Safety Strategic Plan 2021-2030 exploits state-of-the-art international experience and good practice, adjusted to the Greek reality and contains a set of 44 actions and 200 measures with concrete budget and timeplan addressing the key road safety problems in Greece: speeding and motorcycle traffic; aiming to meet the quantitative targets set for the reduction of the number of fatalities and serious injuries in road crashes by 50% by 2030. Within the current final open consultation process you are welcome to submit your remarks and comments. 

The 10th Symposium of European Association for Research in Transportation (hEART2022), co-organized by KU Leuven and the University of Luxembourg took place in Leuven, on 1-3 June 2022. The Symposium offered an opportunity for in depth discussion in all scientific methods and analyses in transport including safety, in plenary, in focus groups and in a summer school for PhD students on 31 May 2022.