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

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

A paper titled “A systematic cost-benefit analysis of 29 road safety measures” authored by Stijn Daniels, Heike Martensen, Annelies Schoeters, Wouter Van den Berghe, Eleonora Papadimitriou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Susanne Kaiser, Eva Aigner-Breuss, Aggelos Soteropoulos, Wim Wijnen, Wendy Weijermars, Laurent Carnis, Rune Elvik, Oscar Martin Perez is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. For the purposes of this study the authors collected and (re-)analyzed evidence in order to conduct cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) for 29 road safety measures. The information on crash costs was based on data from a survey in European countries.  A systematic procedure was applied including corrections for inflation and Purchasing Power Parity in order to express all the monetary information in the same units (EUR, 2015). Cost-benefit analyses were carried out for measures with favourable estimated effects on road safety and for which relevant information on costs could be found. Results were assessed in terms of benefit-to-cost ratios and net present value and are included also at the SafetyCube DSS. 

NACTO’s Guidelines for Regulating Shared Micromobility outline best practices for cities and public entities regulating and managing shared micromobility services on their streets. Its recommendations were developed to reflect the wide variety of experiences that North American cities have had in regulating and managing shared micromobility. Shared micromobility is still in its infancy and there are outstanding questions and option for which there is not yet a defined best practice, as highlighted within these Guidelines.  

ECTRI is organizing the first BE OPEN event, which will take place at the 47th European Transport Conference (ETC 2019) on October 11, 2019, in Dublin, Ireland. BE-OPEN is a 30-months Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action that started on 01 January 2019, and addresses the call MG-4-2-2018 Building Open Science platforms in transport research. BE OPEN aims to promote Open Science in transport research and assist in regulating and standardizing it. The overarching vision of BE OPEN is to create a common understanding on the practical impact of Open Science and to identify and put in place the mechanisms to make it a reality in transport research by the setting up and implementation of TOPOS, the Transport Observatory / fOrum for Promoting Open Science. 

The 20th International Walk21 Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities will take place in Rotterdam, on 7-10 October 2019, under the theme: “Smart, Healthy and For everyone”. The future city needs to be able to adapt to transitions with smart urban design and new mobility solutions. Measuring walking and walkability and integrating walking into traffic/transport management tools (e.g. modelling) and decision making, can assure a smart city will always be designed on a human level. At the conference you will hear about examples of evidence, tools, measures and systems that have delivered more walking or better walkability. 

The Hellenic Association of Toll Road Network (HELLASTRON) organised a Workshop on Road Safety on the occasion of the EDWARD – European Day without a Road Death 2019, which took place on October 10, 2019, in Athens, Greece. The theme of the Workshop this year was “The Greek motorways are changing the behaviour of the driver”. The detailed results of a pilot study for the estimation of Road Safety Key Performance Indicators can be found in the full presentation  .  HELLASTRON press release available here: 

The 2019 Polis Conference will take place on 27 and 28 November 2019, in Brussels, Belgium, organised by POLIS, the European Cities Network, celebrating the network’s 30^th anniversary. The conference will provide an opportunity for cities, metropolitan areas and regions to showcase their transport achievements to a large audience, and for the wider transport community to engage with representatives of local and regional authorities on innovative transport solutions. Modern road safety problems and solutions in urban areas constitute a key focus area of the Conference.  

The 3rd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety which will be held on 19–20 February 2020, in Stockholm, Sweden will mark the conclusion of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety and will be closely coordinated with the World Health Organisation (WHO). The aim of the conference is to discuss how the global targets for road safety can be developed, not the least in relation to the already existing goals for road safety in the 2030 Agenda. One important task will be to prepare a declaration focusing on global road safety efforts up to 2030. The conference will gather minister-led delegations from some eighty countries and their representatives from various sectors of society affected by road safety. In addition, representatives of business, research, organisations and relevant international institutions will attend. 

ERTRAC in the framework of the FUTURE-RADAR project is organizing a workshop titled: Road Safety R&I Workshop: from Challenges to Solutions – the Way forward, which will take place in Brussels on 15 November 2019. What is the European Commission’s perception of the safety situation on European roads? What is European R&I contributing to make our roads safer? Which safety research is needed in the coming years to overcome the challenges ahead of us and cover remaining “white spots”? How can a good coverage of road safety R&I needs be ensured in Horizon Europe? These are just some of the questions that will be discussed at this Road Safety Workshop, organized by the Working Group Road Transport Safety & Security of ERTRAC, the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council.  

Road traffic crashes are not just statistics, they affect real lives and real people. Many people have been affected by road traffic crashes, or know people whose lives and relationships have been torn apart by these needless tragedies. The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety launched a survey aiming to bring forth the voices of people to highlight the problem and call for governments to act urgently. The results will be released at the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety and disseminated through press releases, publications, mass and social media. They will provide evidence to show government leaders what needs to be done at local, regional, and global levels to save lives. 

The French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks (IFSTTAR) is organising the 7th International Conference on Driver Distraction and Inattention (DDI2020) under the theme “Disconnected drivers during manual, assisted, and automated driving”, which is going to take place in Lyon, France, on October 12-14, 2020. The conference topics include theory, measurement, effects, crash risks, and prevention/mitigation related to driver distraction and inattention. Moreover, DDI2020 will focus on the driver/occupant status. Participants are invited to present and discuss work covering disconnected drivers in assisted (drowsiness, out-of-the-loop, overreliance), and in autonomous vehicles (sleeping, take overs, etc). 

The AIIT 2nd international congress on  Transport Infrastructure and Systems in a changing world “Towards a more sustainable, reliable and smarter mobility” took place with great success on 23rd – 24th September 2019, in Rome. The objective of the Congress was to promote the knowledge of the new trends of development of mobility systems and transport infrastructures. The Congress aimed at providing a forum for discussion, interactions and exchange among researchers, scientists and engineers whose fields of interest concern transport and infrastructure engineering including traffic safety.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:

•   Improving road safety knowledge in Africa through crowdsourcing: the African Road Safety Observatory
•   Crest Vertical Curvature Safety Assessment through Variable Grade Stopping Sight Distance Control

SaferAfrica Final Conference “Results and future perspectives for road safety in Africa” took place with great success in Tunis (Tunisia) on 18^th of September. Prominent international institutions, African regional and national bodies’ representatives, policymakers, researchers and civil society organizations joined the dialogue for a better road safety management throughout the Continent. The most innovative results of SaferAfrica Project are the African Road Safety Observatory and the African-European Dialogue Platform on Road Safety which has linked policymakers, donors and professionals engaged in road safety to plan and design road safety actions.   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:   Road Safety Knowledge and Data

AISICO s.r.l. and ERF  jointly organized the International Conference on Road Safety for Motorcyclists that took place with great success at Pereto, Italy, on September 20, 2019. This successful event gathered more than 200 participants, with representatives from the industry, European Associations and Academics. The great variety of point of views generated a constructive dialogue and allowed to get different insights on the topic, not only technical and regulatory (like for example updates on the European Norm EN-1317), but also addressed health and biomechanical issues, thus covering a broad range of topics related to the safety of motorcyclist. 

During the European Mobility Week 2019, the European Commission and the EU Member States handed over to Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety the commitment of halving the number of fatalities and serious injuries on European roads between 2020 and 2030, within the way forward to the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Stockholm in February 2020.  On the occasion, Commissioner Violeta Bulc also announced an “Urban Road Safety Award” for cities, to be handed out next spring. 

Within the European Mobility Week 2019, the European Commission and the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety co-organised a Road Safety Roundtable in Brussels on 16 September. During this event, a commitment from European cities, coordinated by POLIS and Eurocities, entitled “The New Paradigm for Safe City Streets” was handed over including 10 principles to be recognized by the cities, as necessary for sound and effective action for traffic safety.