The Editorial for the Special Issue Emerging Solutions and Technologies for Smart Mobility and Vehicle Safety in Transportation authored by Eva Michelaraki and George Yannis has been published in Vehicles. This Special Issue was conceived to explore how emerging technologies contribute to safer, more efficient and more sustainable transportation systems. Particular attention is given to AI-driven decision-making, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), intelligent transportation systems (ITS), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, connected and autonomous vehicles, and data-centric approaches to traffic safety and mobility management. The papers published in this Issue reflect the multidisciplinary nature of modern transportation research, addressing topics such as driver behaviour analysis, crash prediction and prevention, automated driving, adaptive traffic management, smart infrastructure, and predictive analytics. Although diverse in their specific application domains, these contributions collectively demonstrate that the future of transportation safety and smart mobility will be shaped by the convergence of artificial intelligence, connectivity, automation, human-centred design, and evidence-based operational strategies.  

The European Road Safety Charter of the European Commission recently published an article titled “Reduce speed to save lives” highlighting that an estimated 10% to 15% of all road crashes and as much as 30% of fatal crashes are directly linked to speeding. The article underlines that speed not only increases the likelihood of a crash but also makes its consequences far more severe for vulnerable road users: when a pedestrian is struck by a car at 30 km/h, their chance of survival is about 90%, while at 50 km/h this drops drastically to approximately 20%. Scientific evidence shows that implementing a city-wide 30 km/h speed limit can reduce fatalities by an average of 37%, while also contributing to an 18% reduction in emissions, a 2.5 dB decrease in noise pollution and a 7% reduction in fuel consumption, with minimal impact on travel times. 

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) of the European Commission is organizing the Connecting Europe Days 2026, which will take place in Brussels, on 28 September to 1 October 2026. This Event will bring together politicians, financial institutions, industry representatives, transport stakeholders and the European Commission to discuss concrete measures and exchange good practices on creating a competitive, resilient, safe and sustainable transport sector in Europe. Programme is available here. Participants can register here. 

The European Commission is organizing the EU Road Safety Conference which will take place on 23 November 2026 in Brussels. This flagship event marks the halfway point in Europe’s 10-year strategy to halve road deaths and serious injuries by 2030 and will bring together policymakers, researchers, employers, and civil society leaders to explore the future of safe mobility. At this EU Road Safety Conference will also be presented the Excellence in Road Safety Awards, recognizing the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter’s community 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. 

The World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) is organizing the 17th World Conference on Transport Research which will be held in Toulouse, France, on 6-10 July 2026.  For the last 40 years, WCTR has been organized every three years by the WCTR Society, uniting specialists from the transportation sector worldwide. Topics for discussion at the World Conference on Transport Research are grouped into nine distinct themes, with road safety being a key research topic. Researchers can register here. Programme can be found here. 

The NTUA research team will contribute actively by presenting 8 papers and a key note speech.

At a recent podcast in Break It Down, NTUA Professor George Yannis discusses how the traffic system works, congestion, private cars and public transport. The discussion highlighted that congestion is the norm in modern cities and that improving mobility requires better alternatives to private cars, including faster buses, expanded metro networks, cycling and walking. Special emphasis was given to traffic management, bus lane enforcement, the implementation of 30 km/h speed limits and the role of education and enforcement in changing road safety culture. The discussion also highlighted that the significant reduction in road fatalities in Greece during 2025 demonstrates that consistent enforcement can save lives. Full article and related video-podcast are now available.   

The 10th Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2026 (RSS2026) hosted by the University of Naples Federico II was held with great success in Naples, on 23-26 June 2026, under the theme “Advancing Towards the Safe System Approach“. The Conference aimed to explore how the Safe System Approach has been embraced by the transportation community as an effective way to prevent fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways.  

NTUA actively contributed with 17 innovative presentations:

• Imbalanced Learning Analysis for Driving Behaviour Prediction Using Naturalistic Driving Data
• Investigating User Acceptance and Safety Perceptions of Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) Systems in Greece
• The impact of nighttime driving on young drivers’ behavior and safety in cities using a driving simulator
• Machine Learning–Based Analysis of Driving Behavior and Road Safety Using Connected Vehicle Data
• A Systematic Review of Traffic Safety Culture Definitions
• A Graph Transformer Approach for Modeling Crash Occurrence at Intersections using Telematics-Informed Road Networks
• Conflict detection and analysis in urban arterial roads of Brasília, Brazil, using HD-CCTV monitoring cameras and the YOLO model
• Are telematics-based harsh occurrences associated with street-level visual features? A case study of motorway intersections
• Video-Based Study of Pedestrian Compliance at Signalized and Non-Signalised Crossings in Athens
• Using the Impact Modification Factor to Link Road Safety and Environmental Performance under the Safe System Approach
• A stated-preference study on the acceptance of 30km/h speed limits in Greek cities
• Fatality Patterns in Attica: A Multi-Method Study of Trends, Clusters & COVID-19 Disruptions
• Interpretable Machine Learning for Municipal Road Safety: A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Crash Severity in Athens (2016–2020)
• Modeling and Forecasting Road Accidents and Fatalities in Greece
• Integrated Assessment of Passing Maneuvers Based on Road and Vehicle Characteristics
• Supporting Older Drivers through Intersection Design: A Human Factors Approach to Safer, More Inclusive Roads
• Towards a Safe System Design for Physical Infrastructure in the Era of CCAM

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has released the 20th Annual PIN Report during the 2026 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Conference which took place in Brussels, on 23 June 2026. According to this Annual PIN Report, in 2025, around 19,500 people were killed on EU roads, only a 2% reduction from 2024. At the halfway point of the 2020-2030 decade in which the EU has pledged to halve road deaths, road deaths are down just 15% from the pre-pandemic 2019 baseline, when a 31% reduction was needed to stay on course. ETSC also presented the PIN Award to Denmark for its long-term road safety performance.   

VIAS Institute organized with great success the Annual ESRA Partner Meeting for 2026 hosted by the Belgian Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport, which took place in Brussels, on 22 June 2026. This Event included 34 participants from across Europe, as well as Canada, Japan and Singapore, that exchanged experiences, discussed the latest developments in ESRA4, and explored how road safety data can help shape national policies.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

•  Supporting Road Safety Policy in Greece with results from the ESRA3 Survey

The Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS Hellas) in cooperation with the I-Sense Group of the Institute of Communications & Computer Systems (ICCS) organized with great success the 11th ITS Hellas Conference which took place in Athens, Greece on 23-24 June 2026, under the theme “Greece on the Move: Smart Transportation of People and Goods Today and Tomorrow“. The Conference focused on current challenges and opportunities in the transportation sector, highlighting the role of Intelligent Transportation Systems in shaping an efficient, safe, and sustainable mobility ecosystem for people and goods. Particular emphasis was also placed on the role of Artificial Intelligence in transportation and mobility, as a catalyst for the development of smarter, more adaptive, and more efficient systems.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

•  Leveraging AI capabilities for advancements across road safety pillars

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) of the European Commission recently published the third edition of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP) Guidelines, providing cities across Europe with improved support to plan, develop and implement sustainable urban mobility. The updated SUMP Guidelines are aligned with key frameworks such as the European Green Deal, the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the Road Safety Policy Framework, the new EU Urban Mobility Framework, and reflect the requirement under the revised TEN-T Regulation for 431 urban nodes across Europe to adopt a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan by end 2027. Related to the updated SUMP Guidelines, the SUMP Reference Document on Cycling and the Urban Vehicle Access Regulations were also published.

The Horizon Europe research project TRUST has recently released its 1st Newsletter, providing updates on the first year of activities of the project, which aims to grow a positive Traffic Safety Culture across Europe through a systematic transition towards shared responsibility for safe and sustainable mobility. The Newsletter highlights that TRUST project partners presented at two major road safety conferences: the IRTAD 2026 Conference in Athens and the TRA 2026 Conference in Budapest. It also announces the launch of the first episode of the TRUST Podcast, in which TRUST Advisory Board members discuss traffic safety culture, as well as upcoming pilot activities for testing TRUST interventions in secondary schools, exploring how different approaches can improve Traffic Safety Culture among young people. 

The EU funded research project DELPHI organized with great success its Final Event which took place in Athens, Greece on 18 June 2026. This Event brought together transport stakeholders, researchers, policymakers, industry representatives and mobility experts to discuss the future of multimodal, sustainable and intelligent transportation systems, and showcased the main achievements and results of the DELPHI project, highlighting innovative solutions for multimodal freight and passenger transport, AI-enabled traffic and mobility management, data interoperability, sustainable urban logistics, and collaborative transport ecosystems.    NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

• Artificial Intelligence & Mobility-as-a-Service

The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) organized with great success a Webinar titled “Bus Talks on Network Planning – Buses in 30km/h cities” which took place online, on 9 June 2026. This Event demystified the impacts of 30 km/h measures on bus networks through a combination of academic analysis and real-world operational outcomes. It explored how such environments influence bus performance, including commercial speed, reliability and overall service quality. By bringing together research insights and practical case studies, the discussion highlighted both the challenges and the opportunities that 30 km/h policies create for bus operations across different urban contexts.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

• Benefits of the 30 km/h speed limit in cities

Engineers Australia organized with great success the Transport Conference 2026, which took place in Cairns, Australia on 9-10 June 2026, under the theme “Access all areas“. This Conference brought 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 featured a dynamic program of invited speakers, thought-provoking discussions and real-world insights into the challenges and opportunities shaping Australia’s transport future.   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

•  An international perspective on modern road safety and speed management

The Foundation VINCI Autoroutes recently published the results of the 16th Euro-Barometer for Responsible Driving by Ipsos BVA, in which representative attitudes of Europeans at the wheel are recorded, enabling also the monitoring of the evolution of risky driving and good practices to better target prevention messages in European countries. According to this Study, Greece has the highest rate of drivers (89%) that fear aggressive behavior from other drivers (EU average 82%), while 76% of Greek drivers admit exceeding the speed limit by a few km/h. Furthermore, 66% of Greek drivers admit talking on the phone while driving and 37% of Greek drivers do not always wear their seatbelt, more than double the EU average of 17%. 

NewsAuto organized with great success the Road Safety Forum 2026, which was held in Athens, Greece on 4 June 2026, under the theme “The Next Day of Road Safety in Greece“. The goal of this Event was to highlight best practices and recommendations that can contribute to safer travel for everyone. Government representatives, road safety organizations, automotive industry executives, transportation experts, and journalists discussed the challenges and solutions that can help reduce road crashes. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

• Road Safety Contemporary Challenges

The European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (ACEM) recently published a Guide titled “Rightsizing Urban Mobility: The L-Category integration guide for European cities“. This hands-on guide focuses on helping local authorities close that gap and reflect L-category vehicles: mopeds, motorcycles, tricycles and quadricycles, within their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). The Guide provides cities with evidence-based recommendations across three interconnected action fields: mobility, safety, recognizing riders as vulnerable road users,  and environment, and includes a comprehensive annex of actionable policy measures that cities can implement without major infrastructure investment. The evidence highlights that 10% shift from cars to L-category vehicles could cut congestion by nearly 40%, benefiting all road users, while four motorcycles fit in a single car parking bay, freeing space for pedestrians, businesses and greenery.  

The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission recently published a Report, assessing the current state of cycling within the European Union. This Study identified over 900,000 km of cycling paths and lanes network at EU level, providing a first comparable EU overview of the network accessible to cyclists, and found that almost 24% of EU residents cycle at least once per week, while bike sharing services are present in the vast majority of EU cities with over 150,000 inhabitants, corresponding to a fleet size of about 300,000 bikes. The study includes findings and recommendations on the methodology for the current and future collection of cycling data in the EU, as well as 27 country fiches with a detailed overview for each country.   

CIVITAS is organizing the CIVITAS Forum 2026 which will take place in Thessaloniki, Greece on 15-17 September 2026, under the theme “Roots & Routes: Moving Forward to Competitive, Connected and Resilient Urban Mobility”. Since 2003, the CIVITAS Forum has been a dynamic Conference for smart, inclusive and sustainable urban mobility, welcoming city representatives, policymakers, practitioners, planners, academics and mobility enthusiasts from across Europe and beyond. The programme structured around three umbrella topics: competitive, connected and resilient mobility, covering areas such as public transport innovation, shared mobility and micromobility, Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM), active mobility, Vision Zero and safe streets for all. Programme is available here. Registration is open until 15 September 2026.

The World Road Association (PIARC) is organizing with the XXVIIIth World Road Congress, which will take place on 4-8 October 2027, in Vancouver, Canada. The Congress will cover a wide range of topics, including Governance and Roads Administration, Mobility, Safety and Sustainability, Resilient Infrastructure, Cross-cutting issues, and Special and emerging topics. The event will bring together more than 4,000 transportation professionals from around the world to share knowledge, network and engage in business opportunities. This Event is perfect for professionals to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the road transport sector and to gain valuable insights from leading experts. Researches can submit their abstracts until 31 August 2026. 

Micromobility Industries organized with great success the Micromobility Europe 2026 Conference, which took place in Berlin, Germany on 2-3 June 2026. This Event was jam-packed with opportunities to ride the most innovative new electric scooters, bikes, boards, and buggies, as well as to explore the key issues that are redefining urban mobility. The Conference brought together industry-defining founders, funders, brands, manufacturers, cities, startups, operators, developers and influencers for two days of meetings, talks, demos and first looks at new products, featuring more than 75 world-class speakers and more than 1,200 attendees.  

The European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) is organizing the Velo-city Conference 2026 which will take place in Rimini, Italy on 16-19 June 2026, under the theme “Delivering the Urban Dream”. This Conference will focus on reshaping cities to improve quality of life and to strengthen climate resilience. Velo-city Conferences are now attracting about 1,600 delegates from more than 60 different countries. As the flagship Event of the European Cyclists’ Federation, Velo-city plays a vital role in promoting cycling as a sustainable and healthy means of transport for all. Programme is available here. Registration is available here. 

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) recently published a report titled “Mapping the Automated Mobility Ecosystem: Landscape and Key Developments“, drawing on data from the European CCAM Observatory. This Report presents a landscape analysis, covering 122 automated mobility services and mapping 1,940 component–supplier pairs across 937 unique companies operating in 12 technology categories, examining the geographic distribution of service deployments, the composition and sourcing patterns of technology stacks, and the structure of the industrial ecosystem underpinning automated driving. Furthermore, a dedicated assessment of Europe’s position reveals that EU-based suppliers account for approximately 18% of all mapped component–supplier pairs and 165 unique companies, with relative strengths in connectivity, cybersecurity, and V2X communication, but notable gaps in software-intensive categories such as AI and planning, cloud infrastructure, and ADS development. Moreover, the findings are intended to support evidence-based policymaking on the competitiveness and strategic autonomy of the European CCAM sector. 

The European Commission and the Hungarian Public Roads together with the European Transport Research Platforms ACARE, ALICE, CEDR, ECTP, ERRAC, ERTRAC, ETRA and Waterborne organized with great success the Transport Research Arena Conference (TRA2026) which took place in Budapest, Hungary on 18-21 May 2026. The Conference aimed to advance sustainable, inclusive, and innovative transportation solutions under the theme “ReGeneration in Transport“.   

NTUA actively contributed with 32 innovative presentations:

• Modeling Determinants of Sustainable Travel Behavior: A Multivariate Regression Approach
• Predicting driver behaviour in a cross-country naturalistic driving study using machine learning techniques
• Factors Influencing Speed Limit Violations on Athens Road Network
• Classifying and Predicting Urban Traffic States Based on Temporal and Weather Conditions
• Investigation of Illegal Pedestrian Crossings at Crosswalks in the Center of Athens, Greece
• Investigation of Non-Compliant Pedestrian Crossings at Signalized Intersections Using Computer Vision Techniques
• A Dual Graph Framework for Edge Embedding and Clustering in Road Safety Analysis
•   Lane Segmentation from Street-Level Imagery via Noisy Label Generation and Contrastive Self-Supervision
• Self-Supervised Detection of Harsh Cornering Events at Scale using Smartphone Sensor Data
• From Trend Observation to Risk Interpretation: A Machine Learning Analysis of Micromobility Injury Severity in 2022
• CulturalRoad: A Five-Pillar Framework for Equitable CCAM Implementation Across Europe
• Enhancing Risky Driving Behavior Classification Using Conditional GANs (cGANs): A Data Augmentation Approach
• Understanding speeding through Key Performance Indicators
• Testing of KPIs for the enforcement of traffic regulations
• Investigation of Traffic Safety Culture among Greek drivers
• Advancing Traffic Safety Culture: Developing a Conceptualisation of Cultural Maturity Among Traffic Safety Stakeholders
• TRUST – growing a positive Traffic Safety Culture in the EU
• Exploring the Complex Influences on Sustainable Driving: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach with Multisource Data
•   Fuel-based Trip-level Behavior Optimization Employing Metaheuristics
• Video-Based Analysis of Pedestrian Behaviour in Contrasting Greek Urban Environments Using Smartphone Cameras
• A Literature Review on Techniques for Describing and Modelling the Interaction Between Automated Vehicles and Pedestrians
• Assessing Traffic Safety of Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction at Intersections, Mid-Block Crossings and Jaywalking
• Structural equation model analysis for the identification of the Safety Tolerance Zone
• Predicting Conflict Severity and Safety Impacts of Automated Vehicles in Simulated Urban Networks
• Evaluating Safety Performance of Automated Shuttles Through Hard Braking Analysis in European Urban Pilots
• Analyzing Harsh Events with Spatiotemporal Machine Learning Techniques using Mobile Data
• Understanding Behavioral Relapse in Driving: A Trip-Based Survival Analysis of Risk Indicators Post Feedback
• Comparative Analysis of Liability Frameworks for Automated Vehicles: Legal Readiness in the EU, US and China
•   Investigating the Influence of Physical Fitness on Driving Performance and Road Safety
•   A Hybrid Extreme Value Theory Framework for Adaptive Pedestrian Crash Risk Estimation
• RSImpact: A global road safety impact model for policy assessment
• MetaCCaze – Flexibly adapted MetaInnovations to accelerate deployment of smart and shared Zero Emission mobility

The European Commission (DG Move) organized with great success the CARE Expert Meeting, that was held online, on 21 May 2026.  The Meeting was a great opportunity for an open discussion on data gathered on road crashes and fatalities.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

•  Recent developments of road safety in Greece

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the City of Athens organized with great success the 2026 UCI Mobility & Bike City Forum, which took place in Athens, on 10-11 May 2026. The programme covered a range of themes central to the development of cycling worldwide, including (1) Strengthening cycling tourism: emerging trends and successful approaches, (2) Urban mobility strategies: integrating cycling into city planning, (3) Cycling events as drivers of sustainable sport tourism and impact and (4)   Global road safety: collaborative approaches for safer cycling. NTUA actively participated and contributed in the panel discussion entitled “Global road safety: collaborative approaches for safer cycling”, showcasing experiences in holistic safety gained from the PHOEBE project.    NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

• The PHOEBE concept and methodology

A Paper titled Learning-based methods for spatial road safety analysis using in-vehicle telematics data: A systematic review authored by Simone Paradiso, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis has been published in Journal of Safety Research. This Paper presents a structured review of the existing literature at the intersection of learning-based methods, spatial analysis, and surrogate safety measures derived from in-vehicle telematics data, following PRISMA guidelines, where 44 studies were identified and analyzed. The studies were analyzed and narratively synthesized focusing on data collection methods, feature engineering processes, and their implications on the selection of the spatial scale, with methods ranging from traditional econometrics to cutting-edge deep learning techniques. The findings suggest that advancements in AI and telematics data are reshaping road safety research, providing new tools to interpret safety analyses and generate actionable insights, while clarifying the relationships among data sources, feature selection, and spatial scale would strengthen the analytical framework and improve understanding for safer mobility.  

A Paper titled Conflict angle analysis at multilane roundabouts using naturalistic vehicle trajectory data from UAVs authored by Apostolos Anagnostopoulos, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Fotini Kehagia, Athanasios Theofilatos, Pantelis Kopelias and Nikolaos Eliou has been published in Traffic Injury Prevention. This Paper aims to enhance current knowledge by employing Surrogate Safety Measures (SSMs) to investigate conflict angles at modern multilane roundabouts in Greece using naturalistic vehicle trajectory data collected via Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Detailed vehicle trajectory data from four modern multilane roundabouts in Thessaloniki, Larissa and Volos were collected through UAV video recordings and processed using vehicle tracking software, with a mixed-effects Beta-regression Model (BRM) with site-varying random intercepts applied to model conflict angles. The findings suggest that the location of conflicts within the roundabout significantly affects the conflict angle, and that site-specific characteristics have a substantial impact, emphasizing that roundabout safety performance can vary by location.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), in cooperation with DG RTD, recently launched the Global Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) Observatory.  The Observatory provides a science-based, neutral hub that monitors the global ecosystem of connected and automated road mobility, by mapping private-sector developments across the full technology stack, tracking Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) of key components, and producing evidence-based recommendations that inform EU-level and national investment decisions. It currently tracks 1,335 ecosystem participants, 937 suppliers, 123 services and 44 countries.