Author: Mathilde Bouka
The Transportation Public Health Link (TPH Link) is organising the International Conference on Transport & Health (ICTH2022) which will be held in Cardiff and online, on 13-30 June 2022. The theme for ICTH 2022 is “Looking upstream to identify downstream Social Determinants of Health” in order to analyse the impact of transport (and urban/rural) planning and design on quality of life, health and well-being in communities. 
Abstract submissions deadline: 14 February 2022
Abstract submissions deadline: 14 February 2022
Boussias Communications is organising the Connected Vehicle Conference 2022, that will be held online, on 22 February 2022. The Conference, thought many interesting presentations, aims to cover all innovative steps taken towards vehicles’ inteconnected services and to exlplain how telematics and connectivity add value the vehicle fleet management. Registration is open
Registration is open 
The International Transport Forum (ITF) is organising the ITF 2022 Summit, that will be held in Leipzig, Germany, on 18-20 May 2022. The theme of the 2022 Summit is Transport for Inclusive Societies and transport experts will explore silo-breaking measures that boost inclusiveness and debate over all modes and diverse geographic levels and show the importance of inter-sectoral and multi-level governance.
The European Commission together with 2Zero, ERTRAC, and CCAM are organising the 5th European Conference H2020RTR21, which will be held in Brussels, on 29-30 March 2022. 65 H2020 projects will present their new discoveries and achievements, how they tackled hurdles and resolved challenges, and what are the next research steps in different important areas for road transport: Green Vehicles, Urban Mobility, Logistics, Intelligent Transport Systems, Safety, Automated Road Transport. 
Registration is open
Registration is open 
The European Platform on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans of Eltis recently published a Topic guide on Safe Use of Micromobility Devices, which proposes best practice and key recommendations on the integration of micromobility in urban mobility planning, with the goal to support cities in achieving a safer use of micromobility devices in urban areas. The guide also highlights the need to urgently integrate e-scooters into cities’ Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs).
The Forum of European Road Safety Research Organisations (FERSI) is organising the 2022 Road Safety Conference which will take place on 6-7 October 2022 in Hague, Netherlands. This highly interesting Conference focuses on the exchange of national and regional experiences and implemented evidence-based road safety measures, both positive and negative ones. There will be a specific focus on the road to successful implementation, including overcoming the barriers encountered along the way. Contribution submission deadline: 13 February 2022
Contribution submission deadline: 13 February 2022 
The International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published the Road Safety Annual Report 2021 focusing on the Covid-19 pandemic impact on road safety performance in 2020, identifying how the pandemic affected both mobility patterns and road fatalities. The analysis draws on data on road deaths from 34 member countries of the IRTAD Group and it also contains the IRTAD Country Reports highlighting the latest road safety developments in each country.
The European Commission presented its ‘Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy’ together with an Action Plan of 82 initiatives as a guide for the next four years. This strategy lays the foundation for how the EU transport system can achieve its green and digital transformation and become more resilient to future crises. Traffic safety is a major component of the EU Mobility Strategy. As outlined in the European Green Deal, the result will be a 90% cut in emissions by 2050, delivered by a smart, competitive, safe, accessible and affordable transport system.
The Horizon 2020 project LEVITATE (Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles) released a video explaining the LEVITATE Policy Support Tool, which is expected to be an open access, web-based Decision Support System that will allow users to explore the impact assessment, forecasting and backcasting of different CCAM development scenarios in cities. 
The Horizon 2020 project i-DREAMS (smart Driver and Road Environment Assessment and Monitoring System) recently released its 4th Newsletter, presenting the main accomplishments of the project, through creative solutions and risk mitigation strategies. The Newsletter presents team’s and participant’s view on the Belgian field trial, seven new technical reports submitted in 2021 and several i-DREAMS dissemination activities.
The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 3rd Newsletter. The Newsletter provides information on latest achievements and upcoming activities of the project. Also, there is an open call for follower sites, which will allow all cities in Europe to endorse and replicate SHOW activities.
The International Transport Forum (ITF) published a Report titled Artificial Intelligence in Proactive Road Infrastructure Safety Management, reflecting the discussions at a Round Table of Experts from 33 Organisations and 15 Countries, chaired by NTUA Prof. George Yannis. This Report examines and determines the most relevant cases for Artificial Intelligence (AI) use in a transport planning context for accident prevention on an entire road network and it explores the possibility of using computer vision to acquire relevant information and the capability of modelling and mapping high-risk locations. It also offers recommendations to stakeholders on the development and appropriate use of lifesaving AI solutions.
In the framework of the development of the National Road Safety Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2030, the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport has launched a wide and organized Open Consultation with all road safety stakeholders. This Plan is being developed with the scientific support of the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of NTUA and aims to reduce the number of road fatalities and serious injuries by 50% by 2030. 
Any citizen or stakeholder can be informed and actively participate in the Open Consultation through the dedicated website:
Any citizen or stakeholder can be informed and actively participate in the Open Consultation through the dedicated website: 
The Chambre de Commerce et d’ Institute France-Grece (CCIFG) organised with great success the Sustainable Transport Infrastucture Forum, which was held in Athens on 15 December 2021. Several topics where discussed such as Sustainable Cities with Smart Transportation and Sustainable Public Transport. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The Editorial Board of the Accident Analysis & Prevention organised with great success the 2nd International Symposium on Accident Analysis & Prevention (ISAAP2021), which was held online, on 29 November 2021. The Symposium principally focused on the road safety under the environment of intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs) and approximately 300 attendees participated from twenty different countries. All videos, posters, and related publications are available.
The Network of regional Road Safety Observatories (RSO), namely the European (ERSO), Ibero American (OISEVI), African (ARSO), Asia and Pacific (APRSO), Western Balkans (WBRSO) and the about to be formalized Easter Parnership (EaPRSO) and Arab (AIRSO), organised with great success the 2nd Meeting of Western Balkans Road Safety Observatories, which was hed in Skopjie on 30 November – 1 December 2021. This meeting discussed the integration of the 2nd Decade for Action Plan into the observatories´ work plans and reached agreement from RSO members on proposed indicators, policy goals, and procedures. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
CIVINET organised with great success the 1st CIVINET Greece-Cyprus Forum under the theme “Greek Society Towards the Challenge of Sustainable Mobility on the horizon of 2030”, which was held in Athens, on 9-10 December 2021. The Conference was an opportunity for scientific organisations and researchers all over Europe to share their research results, tools, studies, and innovative solutions, with the rapidly growing Greek-speaking sustainable mobility community. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS Hellas), organised with great success the 7th ITS Hellas Conference which was held in Athens, on 8-9 December 2021. This hybrid Conference was held under the theme “Transportation & Logistics 4.0: Exploring Innovation”, focusing on the challenges, the needs and the benefits that will be brought by the progression in the area of transportation in Greece. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
A paper titled “Modelling self-reported driver perspectives and fatigued driving via deep learning” authored by Alexandros Zoupos, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis is published in Traffic Safety Research. A binary logistic regression model was trained to provide causal insights on which variables affect the likelihood that a driver engaged in driving while fatigued, whereas a Deep Neural Network (DNN) was subsequently trained on the data, slightly outperforming the binary logistic model. Results demonstrate that drivers reporting driving under the influence of drugs, fatigue, or alcohol, as well as speeding, safety, and texting while driving or drivers who were more acceptable of fatigued driving were more likely to have recently driven while fatigued, and from the results of this paper it was concluded that declared fatigued driving behavior can be predicted from questionnaire data, providing new insights to fatigue detection. 
A paper titled “Quantifying the implementation impacts of a point to point automated urban shuttle service in a large-scale network” authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Maria Oikonomou, Eleni Vlachogianni and George Yannis is published in Transport Policy. The results of this paper indicate that the AUSS operation has a significant effect on cumulative travel time per segment and CO2 emissions per segment only during the scenario of mixed operation with traffic during off-peak hours. Road traffic density was found to be positively correlated with both travel time and CO2 emissions, while the penetration of both cautious and aggressive CAVs was found to be negatively correlated with both indicators.
A paper titled “Effect of Apolipoprotein E4 on the Driving Behavior of Patients with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment or Mild Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia“, authored by E. Stanitsa, A. Economou, I. Beratis, D. Kontaxopoulou, S. Fragkiadaki, V. Papastefanopoulou, D. Pavlou, P. Papantoniou, C. Kroupis, J. Papatriantafyllou, L. Stefanis, G. Yannis and S. Papageorgiou is published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. The results of this paper indicate that the lower speed variability of APOE4 carriers in the absence of neuropsychological test differences indicates reduced speed adaptations, possibly as a compensatory strategy. Simulated driving may be a sensitive method for detecting performance differences in the absence of cognitive differences.
A paper titled “Analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on collisions, fatalities and injuries using time series forecasting: The case of Greece“, authored by Marios Sekadakis, Eva Michelaraki, Christos Katrakazas and George Yannis is published in Accident Analysis & Prevention. Three different Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) time series models were implemented on road casualties data for the period 2010-2020 in order to compare the observed measurements to forecasted values intended to depict assumed conditions; namely, without the appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results demonstrate that fatalities and slightly injured rates were significantly increased during the lockdown period and the subsequent months. Overall, it can be concluded that a worse performance was identified in terms of road safety. Since subsequent waves of COVID-19 cases and other pandemics may reappear in the future, the outcomes of the current study may be exploited for the improvement of road safety from local authorities and policymakers.
The European Commission adopted a supplementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2144 of the European Parliament and of the Council by laying down detailed rules concerning the specific test procedures and technical requirements for the type-approval of motor vehicles with regard to their intelligent speed assistance systems and for the type-approval of those systems as separate technical units. The Regulation also includes a list of road speed limit signs used in each Member State.
POLIS, the European Cities Network, organised with great success the 2021 Annual Polis Conference, which took place on 1-2 December 2021 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Conference provided an opportunity for cities and regions to showcase their transport achievements to a large audience of mobility experts, practitioners and decision makers. With a focus on innovation, sustainability and co-creation, Gothenburg hosted one of Europe’s most dynamic clusters within the field of mobility and safety. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
Based on the new interactive map of EUROSTAT which concerns the road safety performance of European Union regions (NUTS 2), the incidence rate for road fatalities in the EU fell by 32% between 2009 and 2019. The most rapid declines were recorded in Ciudad de Melilla in Spain (-100%), while two regions in Greece (Sterea Ellada and Anatoliki Makedonia, Thraki), Wien in Austria, Västsverige in Sweden, and Luxembourg also recorded falls of more than 60%. For 2019, the highest incidence rates were recorded in Prov. Luxembourg in Belgium (171 road fatalities per million inhabitants), Região Autónoma da Madeira (165) and Alentejo (156) in Portugal. On the other hand, the lowest incidence rates were recorded in Wien in Austria (6), Stockholm in Sweden (9) and Berlin in Germany (11).
The European Commission published a breakdown of fatalities in the EU by road user and (other) “main vehicle” involved in the crash. The matrix shows clearly that fatalities overwhelmingly occur in collisions involving cars and trucks, and the need to increase the protection of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. EU policies are already evolving in this direction with the new mandatory safety measures introduced by the General Safety Regulation focussed on VRUs.
The European Commission published the final figures on road fatalities for 2020, following the publication of the preliminary figures in April 2021. These figures show that an estimated 18.800 people were killed in a road crash last year, an unprecedented annual fall of 17% on 2019, largely due to the effect of the COVID pandemic on mobility; however this fatalities drop being proportionately less than the sharp fall in traffic levels across the EU. The Commission has also published the Country Profiles which provide a detailed statistical analysis of the road safety situation in each country.
The Commission has also published the Country Profiles which provide a detailed statistical analysis of the road safety situation in each country. 
The European Commission hosted the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards on 18 November 2021, recognising the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter‘s community of members towards the common goal of improved road safety across Europe. Fundatia Siguranta Auto Copii (Romania) was the winner for its National Children Care Safety Caravan initiative, Interpolis (the Netherlands) for its hip-hop film and PhoNo app targeting teenagers, Cork County Council (Ireland) for its Road Safety Virtual Reality Education and Fundacion Educatrafic (Spain) for its road safety training and education.
In the framework of three-year twinning program of the European Union Member States “EU Road Safety Exchange“, a delegation from the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport together with representatives of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) participated in the 2nd two-day study visit that took place in Madrid on 10-11 November 2021. This study visit was hosted by the Directorate for Traffic (DGT) of the competent Ministry of Spain and its topic was powered two wheelers (PTW) safety. The participants heard among others about the Spanish strategic approach to improving the safety of powered two wheelers.
A paper titled “Did the COVID-19 pandemic influence traffic fatalities in 2020? A presentation of first findings” authored by Fred Wegman and Christos Katrakazas was recently published online in IATSS Research. The results of this research show that the number of fatalities in 2020 was 17.3% lower in the 24 participating countries compared with the baseline period and the reduction is almost seven times higher than annually in these countries in the period 2010–2019. The reduction in the number of fatalities is associated with less mobility, but a comprehensive analyses should take into account more crash and injury risk factors.
