Month: September 2024
The 24th International Walk21 Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities was held with great success in Lisbon, Portugal, on 14-18 October 2024. Key topic areas that were discussed concerned pedestrian safety and included positive public space, inclusivity, investing in walking and good governance. 
The European Commission together with 2Zero, ERTRAC, CCAM and BATT4EU organized with great success the Road Transport Research Results Conference (RTR Conference) which took place in Brussels, on 11-13 February 2025. For the past seven years, the RTR Conference has been a unique entry point into the achievements of EU-funded projects in road transport. This year, the Conference attracted its largest audience to date, with more than 500 participants on-site and 400 participants joining online, emphasizing the importance of pre-competitive collaborative research in road transport at the European level.
The I-Sense Group of the Institute of Communications & Computer Systems (ICCS) organised with great success the “Hi Drive International Summer School 2024“, which was held in Athens, Greece, on 25-26 September 2024. This Summer School session with theme “Navigating the Future with Advanced and Safe Automated Driving” aims to delve deeper into the latest advancements, challenges, and opportunities in the dynamic field of Automated Driving (AD), which is a major component of road safety.
A paper titled “Detection of dangerous driving behaviour with wide-scale data from smart systems and machine learning techniques” authored by Hector Kamvoussioras, Thodoris Garefalakis, Eva Michelaraki, Christos Katrakazas and George Yannis has been published in Advances in Transportation Studies. Specifically, four classification models: Ridge Classifier (RC), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Random Forests (RF), and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) – were developed. These models were utilized to categorize driving behaviour into three defined levels of “Safety Tolerance Zone (STZ)”. The results revealed that the RF and XGBoost models achieved high accuracy, reaching 95% in prediction accuracy. By identifying the factors that influence risky driving behaviour, this framework offers valuable insights for guiding safety interventions , ultimately contributing to enhanced road safety. 
ERTICO and Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) co-organised with great success the 30th ITS World Congress which was held in Dubai, on 16-20 September 2024, under the theme: “Mobility Driven by ITS”. ITS World Congress is the forum to make meaningful connections, experience inventive conference program presented by industry experts, and see cutting-edge technology in the Exhibit Hall. ITS World Congress allows the smart mobility community to come together to explore the deployment of intelligent transportation technologies that saves lives, improves mobility, promotes sustainability, and increases efficiency and productivity. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
Exploring the benefits from 30 km/h speed limit to enhance urban sustainability- Examining Factors Affecting Takeover Time in Automated Driving using Machine Learning Algorithms
- Enhancing Road Safety: Insights from Delivery Drivers’ Perspectives in Attica Region
- Investigation of the Impact of Eco-driving on Fuel Consumption Using Smartphone Data
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and the Unipolis Foundation organised with great success in the framework of the European Mobility Week, the City Flows 2024 event which was held in Trento, Italy, on 20 September 2024. This year’s hybrid event with theme “Shared public space” focused on the promotion of a space in which people, different transportation modes and activities should contribute to social equity, road safety, pollution reduction and improved quality of life. 
NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following presentation:
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) in cooperation with the Slovenian Traffic Safety Agency organised with great success the PIN Talk “Improving the safety of vulnerable road users”, which was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 19 September 2024. This event focused on improving the safety of vulnerable road users. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) in cooperation with the Latvian Ministry of Transport and the Latvian Road Traffic Safety Directorate organised with great success the PIN Talk “Speed and improving the safety of vulnerable road users”, which was held in Riga, Latvia, on 11 September 2024. This event focused on speed and improving the safety of vulnerable road users. Invited guests from Greece, Lithuania and France also shared work that they have done nationally to this direction. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
A paper titled “Modeling and Sustainability Implications of Harsh Driving Events: A Predictive Machine Learning Approach” authored by Antonis Kostopoulos, Thodoris Garefalakis, Eva Michelaraki, Christos Katrakazas and George Yannis has been published in Sustainability. This study addresses the complex task of predicting dangerous driving behaviors through a comprehensive analysis of over 356,000 trips, enhancing existing knowledge in the field and promoting sustainability and road safety. Findings indicate that Gradient Boosting and Multilayer Perceptron excel, achieving recall rates of approximately 67% to 68% for both harsh acceleration and braking events. The application of machine learning algorithms, feature selection, and k-means clustering offers a promising approach for improving road safety and reducing socio-economic costs through sustainable practices.
The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is observed on the third Sunday of November each year (this year on November 17), launched in 1995 by the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR) and since 2005 adopted by the United Nations 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.
According to the E-Survey of Road Users’ Safety Attitudes (ESRA3) results, 21% of car drivers report to have driven while having trouble keeping eyes open in the past 30 days. The highest self-declared rates of fatigue while driving correspond to Luxembourg (31%), while the lowest are recorded in the United Kingdom (13%). 
According to the E-Survey of Road Users’ Safety Attitudes (ESRA3) results, mobile phone use is more frequent self-declared among car drivers (28%) compared to PTW riders (21%) and cyclists (21%). Furthermore, 69% of pedestrians declare to text or check social media, while walking in the streets, while the highest rates of mobile phone use for car drivers are found in Luxembourg (41%).
According to the E-Survey of Road Users’ Safety Attitudes (ESRA3) results, PTW riders declare to drink and drive more often (20%) compared to cyclists (17%) and car drivers (12%). The highest self-declared drinking and driving rates for PTW riders were observed in Ireland (36%), while the highest respective rates for car drivers were recorded in Luxembourg (24%).
According to the E-Survey of Road Users’ Safety Attitudes (ESRA3) results, cyclists report higher non-helmet use rates (63%) compared to PTW riders (29%). The highest self-declared travelling without helmet rates for cyclists were recorded in the Netherlands (88%), while the highest respective rates for PTW riders were observed in Bosnia and Herzegovina (52%).
The International Road Federation (IRF) released the 61th edition of the IRF World Road Statistics 2024 (WRS2024), with data now open to all for free through the IRF WRS Data Warehouse platform, thanks to the generous support of the TotalEnergies Foundation and Michelin Corporate Foundation. The IRF WRS 2024 continues to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport, including traffic crashes. This year the WRS 2024 includes the latest data covering years 2017 to 2022, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. It includes over 200 road and transport-sector related indicators across 11 sections, covering more than 200 countries and territories.
According to the E-Survey of Road Users’ Safety Attitudes (ESRA3) results, car passengers in the back seat report higher non-seat belt use rates compared to car drivers. The highest self-declared travelling without wearing seat belt rates both as car driver and as car passenger in the back seat correspond to Bosnia and Herzegovina (48% and 84% respectively), while the lowest self-declared rates of non-seatbelt use both as a car driver and as a car passenger were observed in Luxembourg (5% and 16% respectively).
According to the E-Survey of Road Users’ Safety Attitudes (ESRA3) results, car drivers report speeding more often (61%) than PTW riders (45%). The highest self-declared speeding rates were observed in Luxembourg for car drivers and in Latvia for PTW riders, while the lowest self-declared rates of speeding for car drivers correspond to the United Kingdom (40%) and for PTW riders to France (25%).
According to the E-Survey of Road Users’ Safety Attitudes (ESRA3) results, 21% of car drivers report to have driven while having trouble keeping eyes open in the past 30 days. Self-declared fatigue rates were higher in Asia-Oceania than in Europe and America. Moreover, the highest self-declared rates of fatigue while driving correspond to Luxembourg and Panama (31%).
According to the E-Survey of Road Users’ Safety Attitudes (ESRA3) results, 67% of pedestrians declare to text or check social media while walking in the streets. Mobile phone use is more frequent self-declared among car drivers (31%) compared to PTW riders (23%) and cyclists (23%). Furthermore, the highest rates of mobile phone use for car drivers and cyclists are found in America (31% and 23% respectively), while Europe recorded the highest rates for pedestrians (64%) and Asia-Oceania for PTW riders (25%).
