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) is organising the 16th World Conference on Transport Research which will be held in Montreal, Canada, on 17-24 July 2023.  For the last 40 years, WCTR has been organised every three years by the WCTR Society. WCTR allowes 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 a Manual titled 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 11th Symposium of European Association for Research in Transportation (hEART2023) will take place in Zurich, on 6-8 September 2023.  The Symposium will offer an opportunity for in depth discussion in all scientific methods and analyses in transport. Event details such as registration and programme are going to be announced in due course. 

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. 

The International Transport Forum (ITF) is organising the 7th Meeting of the Safer City Streets Network, which will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, on 18-19 October 2022. The Meeting’s agenda will reflect key issues such as Monitoring Progress in Urban Road Safety – Release of new data and report and Inclusion, Equity, Gender, Sustainability and Participatory initiatives. Abstract submissions deadline: 21 June 2022   

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) is organising the Road Safety Performance Index Annual Conference (PIN conference) which was held online, on 15 June 2022. This year’s PIN Conference we’ll be assessing how improving road safety can help countries reach the 2030 target to cut road deaths and serious injuries by 50% and it will also present the 2022 PIN Award to a country that has made outstanding progress on improving road safety. 

The World Road Association (PIARC)  is organising the XXVIIth World Road Congress, which will be held in Prague, on 2-6 October 2023. PIARC launches a call for papers on 49 topics to contribute to the programme of this Congress, wich will be held under the theme “Together on the road again”, presenting  a unique opportunity to discuss in depth all subjects related to road infrastructures and road transport. Abstract submissions deadline: 26 August 2022   

HUMANIST is organising the “HUMANIST Summer School 2022“, which will be held in Vienna, Austria on 14-16 September 2022. The main topic of this Summer School session will be “Human Factors, Automated Driving and Active Mobility” with 2 focusses: Psychological fitness to manage automated driving & Changing mobility behaviour towards more active travel: measuring ‘experience’ and cultural factors.  Registrations are open 

The EU-funded Horizon 2020 project Levitate (Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles) is organising the Project’s Final Conference, which will be held in Brussels, on 25 May 2022. The LEVITATE partners are looking forward to sharing the results achieved and the tools developed to assess the potential societal impacts of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) on the mobility system and wider livability goals, including safety, the environment, the economy and society. A focused presentation of the Levitate CCAM Policy Support Tool is also foreseen.  Registrations are open 

The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 4th Newsletter. The Newsletter shares very interesting times for the project, with the first pilot sites progressing with their large-scale trials in public, allowing citizens to experience their automated solutions in public transport. 

Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) together with environmental and road safety organisations, has written to the European Commissioners responsible for Climate Action, Energy, Environment and Transport, calling for recommendations on lower speed limits as a way of tackling dependence on Russian oil, as well as emissions and road deaths. The six organisations say that with the catastrophic invasion of Ukraine, European reliance on Russian oil has become a strategic threat and the current crisis requires bold action. 

The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD), the Université Gustave Eiffel, CEREMA, ONISR and ENTPE are co-organising the 7th IRTAD Conference: Better Road Safety Data for Better Safety Outcomes, which will be held in Lyon, on 27 – 28 September 2022. The Conference aims to discuss improvements in the quality of data systems and data analysis in IRTAD and other countries as an essential way to build and monitor strong road safety policies in the Decade 2021-30. 

The European Commission and the Agência Nacional de Inovação (ANI) together with the European Transport Research Platforms ACARE, ALICE, CEDR, ECTP, ERRAC, ERTRAC, ETRA and Waterborne, are organising the Transport Research Arena Conference (TRA2022) which will be held in Lisbon, on 14-17 November 2022. The pillars of the Conference will be the scientific excellence, research and innovation challenges, the latest technological and industrial developments and innovative policies regarding the European Transport Research and Innovation and the cooperation of Europe with other continents.  TRAVISIONS 2022 will run a Young Researcher Competition for BSc, MSc and PhD students from all over Europe with innovative transport concepts. Submissions deadline: May 31st 2022 

The European Commission announced the winners of the European sustainable mobility Αwards, where Rethymno (Greece) won the EU Urban Road Safety Award. The jury was impressed by Rethymno’s inclusive approach to road safety, which targets three main pillars: upgrading the public transport system, increasing and encouraging behavioural change through a variety of activities, and the establishment of integrated cooperation with local stakeholders. The awards were presented at a hybrid ceremony in Brussels hosted by Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Transport and Mobility. 

The Third Meeting of the Road Safety Governmental Committee was held on 31 March at the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The main priorities of the Government Road Safety Committee are the new National Road Safety Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2030, the new Road Safety Law and the improvements of the Road Traffic Code, the National Road Safety Repository and the National Road Safety Observatory. Participants in the committee were: the Minister of State Akis Skertsos, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Michalis Papadopoulos, the Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection Eleftherios Oikonomou, the Deputy Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Zeta Makri, the Alternate Minister of Health Mina Gaga, the Alternate Minister of Interior Stelios Petsas, on behalf of the Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Theodoros Livanios the General Secretary of Digital Governance and Procedures Leonidas Christopoulos and the General Secretary of Transport Giannis Xifaras. 

The Intertraffic Exhibition 2022 was held in Amsterdam, on 29 March – 1 April 2022.  The Exhibition offered mobility proffesionals the ability to experience the latest solutions for today’s challenges with all the experts in the field and to discover the latest trends in infrastructure, traffic management, smart mobility, road safety and parking.  NTUA contributed actively with the following presentations:

•  Safer Mobility with Artificial Intelligence
•  Big Data for Sustainable and Innovative Roads

The European Commission published preliminary figures on Road safety in the EU, showing that  road fatalities in 2021 remain well below pre-pandemic level. EU-wide, road deaths in 2021 rose by 5% on the previous year, although comparisons with 2020 are strongly influenced by the traffic level patterns in each country during the course of the pandemic. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of road fatalities fell by 17%.  

The Road Safety Institute “Panos Mylonas” (RSI) in cooperation with the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) presented the Digital Platform DRIVE IN THE MOMENT, on March 21, in the context of the 15th Panhellenic Road Safety Week, March 21-27, 2022. The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Costas Karamanlis, who attended the event, referred to the National Plan for Road Safety, which extends to four main axes: Safe Roads – Responsible Drivers – Traffic Education – Fair Rules for All and welcome the initiative of the “Drive in the Moment” program, which aims to raise awareness, especially among young people, about the serious issue of distraction by using a mobile phone while driving.   

The European Commission published a Study titled Prevention of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Among its conclusions, the Study argues in particular that taking steps to mitigate drink driving, such as lower permitted blood alcohol levels or alcohol interlocks, would be particularly relevant for young or novice drivers and for drivers of heavy goods vehicles. However, it also finds that there is a lack of data on drug-driving fatalities and a need to develop more accurate and usable drugs screening devices. 

The European Platform of Transport Sciences (EPTS) is organising the 20th European Transport Conference under the theme “After pandemic – before autonomous transport”, which will be held in Gyor, Hungary, on 9-10 June 2022. This Conference will be special, as it will be a joint event with the European Transport Congress organized by the European Platform of Transport Sciences. 

The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published 4 Reports on Road Safety in Africa: Road Safety Data in Africa, Africa Status Report on Road Safety in Africa, Road Safety Strategies for African Cities and Road Safety Culture in Africa (with the active contribution of NTUA), analysing findings for road safety on the African continent. The main goal of these Reports is to support the quest for reaching the target of a 50% reduction of road fatalities in the Africa by 2030.    

World Bank published a Knowledge Report titled Saving Lives Through Private Investment in Road Safety. This Report examines the enabling environment for structuring investable road safety projects in a sample of countries, looking at the barriers and opportunities, and proposing risks and mitigation strategies, like blended finance mechanisms and stable revenue sources, for long-term sustainability of road safety investments. 

The EU-funded Horizon 2020 project Levitate (Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles) organised with great success a Webinar under the theme “Building a dialogue with the LEVITATE cities” which was held online, on 7 April 2022. The participants had the opportunity to learn about the principles of backcasting, how a dialogue with city authorities led to valuable qualitative inputs for the research, and how the final results of the impact assessment relate to the backcasting approach. 

Road fatalities in Greece in 2021 presented a slight increase (4%) compared to 2020 figures, according to the provisional ELSTAT data. This slight increase is mainly attributed to the returning back to normal traffic from the pandemic period. During the last decade, Greece presented an impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of 38% in road fatalities since 2012 and a decrease of serious injuries of 60%. The rate fatalities per million vehicles has decreased by 42% since 2012.