Author: Virginia Petraki
The Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center, Qatar University (TTSC) and the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC) are organising the International Traffic Safety Conference (ITSC2022) which will take place in Doha, on 21-22 March 2022. The Conference theme is: “Towards A World-Class Safe and Sustainable Transport and Traffic System for Developing Countries” and the main objectives are to recognize the transportation needs for the developing countries and to introduce, improve and strengthen arrangements for monitoring serious injuries from road traffic accidents to facilitate action to meet the new targets for the Decade of Action for Road Safety. Abstract submissions deadline: 31 December 2021 
The 2020 International Research Council on the Biomechanics of Injury Europe Conference took place with great success online, on 8-10 September. The focus of IRCOBI was on the avoidance and reduction of the severity of traffic accidents, with special emphasis on advanced safety technologies and the biomechanics of injury.
The Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals (CARSP) and La Prévention Routière Internationale (PRI) in partnership with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) and Desjardins, organised with great success the 2020 Joint Conference which was held online on 22-25 August 2021. The theme of the conference was “Equitability: Road Safety for all through Vision Zero and Sustainable Safety” and it will integrate two events, the 30th CARSP Conference and the 14th PRI World Congress. Equitability was chosen to highlight the need for “road safety for all” across road users, while road safety deficiencies are experienced universally. This year’s conference offered the Students Paper Competition, the Vehicle Safety Enhancement Special Student Award and the Student Poster Competition whereby students presented their work on a road safety topic.
Urbanism Next, New Urban Mobility alliance (NUMO), POLIS, TNO, Gemeente Rotterdam, and Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management organised with great success the Urbanism Next Europe which took place online on 9-11 June 2021. The sessions at Urbanism Next Europe featured in-depth presentations exploring how technological, societal and economic mobility trends will change land use, urban design, transport, real estate, environment, equity, health, economy and governance. The conference gathered 350 decision-makers and urban professionals from Europe and beyond.
The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), in cooperation with the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) organises the 8th Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2022 (RSS2022) which will be held on NEW DATES 08-10 June 2022 in Athens, Greece. The Conference’s theme this year will be: “Road Safety and Digitalisation” aiming to capture all recent trends in road safety emerging technologies, surrogate measures, augmented and virtual reality, big data, modeling and simulation, which are expected to boost global road safety in the coming years. Road safety experts and scientists from all over the world will join forces for a widely open and vivid discussion on both traditional and innovative solutions with high potential for traffic safety improvement. Selected papers will be published in key international scientific journals and special awards will be granted to best papers.
The 9th International Expert Symposium on Accident Research (ESAR) took place online on 23-24 March 2021. ESAR was organised by the Medical School of Hannover and it was a platform for exchanges of information on accident research issues. The conference focused on accident research general, accident causation, pre-crash analysis, accident reconstruction, new data sources for accident research such as video observation and EDR, injuries, regulation and consumer information.
A new book titled ‘Highway Safety Analytics and Modeling‘ authored by Dominique Lord, Xiao Qin, Srinivas R. Geedipally, has been recently published. This book covers the key elements needed for making effective transportation engineering and policy decisions based on highway crash data analysis. It covers all aspects of the decision-making process, from collecting and assembling data to making decisions based on the results of the analyses. The book discusses the challenges with crash and naturalistic data, identifying problems and proposing best methods to solving them. It examines the nuances associated with crash data analysis, showing how to develop countermeasures, policies, and programs to reduce the frequency and severity of traffic crashes
The European Union Road Federation (ERF) has organised a Roadside Safety Event which was held with great success online on 15 December 2020. The conference was a unique opportunity for road safety experts around the globe to exchange information concerning the latest trends and developments in the area of roadside passive safety and road safety design. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
POLIS, the European Cities Network, has organised with great success the 2020 Annual Polis Conference which was held online from 30 November to 3 December. Cities and Regions showcased their transport achievements and get connected with up to 600 committed transport innovation professionals who work in local and Regional Governments and related public and private sector Organisations. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
On 16 November 2020, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and nine other multilateral development banks (MDBs) signed a high-level joint statement on road safety, under the auspices of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration. The statement highlights the MDBs’ aim to provide further access to safe, affordable and sustainable transport systems for all and to improve road safety, with special attention to the needs of vulnerable road users. 
The 7th International HUMANIST Conference was hosted on 26-27 October 2021 in Rhode Island, Greece. The theme of the conference was “Human Perspective in an Evolving Transport Era“. The 2021 conference brought together researchers, experts and stakeholders from several multidisciplinary communities that are active in the field of human factors in transport. Topics for this year’s symposium included, but were not limited to: C-ITS, driver monitoring, automation, electrification, new vehicle types, smart cities, towards effective MaaS and mobile transport apps, enhanching accessibility and inclusion ensuring the safety of VRUs, ergonomics (passive safety, new vehicles interior). NTUA contributed actively with the following presentations:
NTUA contributed actively with the following presentations:
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Monitoring and Improving Driving Behaviour of Motorcyclists Through an Innovative Smartphone Application - State-of-the-art Technologies for Post-Trip Safety Interventions
- A Review of Real-Time Safety Intervention Technologies
- Usability with a twist: A conceptual model for including emotions into User Interface evaluation
The International Road Federation (IRF), together with Qatar University, Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center, Khatib and Alami and World Conference on Transport Research Society, organised with great success an Online Technical Workshop on “Role of Road Safety Audits in Improving Traffic Safety”, which was held online on 8-10 November 2020. The Workshop aimed at building the understanding of the importance and benefits of RSAs. Furthermore, it provided basic information on the scope and procedure of RSAs as well as the role and skills of the RSA team.
IRF organised with great success an online conference titled “Roads to Recovery: a Sustainable Mobility for a Sustainable Future” which was held on 12 November 2020. The main objective of the conference was to discuss priorities for the road sector going forward. The conference was structured around three main sessions: High-Level Panel debate on Recovery for the Road Sector, Safer roads to save lives, Fostering innovation to accelerate road sector transformation.
Within the 18th European Week of Regions and Cities organised by the European Committee of the Regions, RADAR and SLAIN projects were featured in the session ”Modelling the future of Road Safety using Network-wide Risk Assessment”, which was held with great success on 14 October 2020. Key questions concerned: How do you design a safe road infrastructure? How can you identify risk on roads? How do you propose an economically viable crash countermeasure?
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation: Network-wide Road Safety Assessment
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation: Network-wide Road Safety Assessment
POLIS in cooperation with the LEVITATE and CoEXist projects organised with great success a webinar titled “Mobilising Mobility: Impact assessment of automated vehicles” which was held on 15 October 2020. The Webinar provided insights into the methods developed for assessing the impacts of automated vehicles across a range of mobility domains and the findings from their application in real-life scenarios and using policy options such as parking regulation, road pricing and dedicated AV lanes. 
European Commission DG Move together with the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation organised an important Executive Seminar on “Speed and Speed Management in Road Safety Policy” held online on 8 October 2020, with the active contribution of NTUA. Key Road Safety Experts contributed to a Synthesis Paper intended to guide policies in speeding globally together with the respective Key Conclusions highlighting the need for:
Key Road Safety Experts contributed to a Synthesis Paper intended to guide policies in speeding globally together with the respective Key Conclusions highlighting the need for:
- high quality communication on the centrality of speed and speed management at all levels of government;
- more efficient speeding enforcement, including the use of dynamic speed limits;
- promoting Intelligent Speed Assistance Systems in vehicles (ISA)
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on speeding to support evidence-based road safety policies;
- partnerships between all levels of government and with stakeholders and industry in order to make speed a central road safety issue for all
The Forum of European Road Safety Research Organisations (FERSI) is organising the 2021 Road Safety Conference which will take place on 28-29 October 2021 in Hague, Netherlands. The conference focuses on the exchange of national and regional experiences with implementing evidence-based road safety measures with specific focus on the road to successful implementation, including overcoming barriers and promising ways to facilitate decision making. Extended abstracts submission deadline: 15 February 2021
A paper titled “Car drivers’ road safety performance: A benchmark across 32 countries” authored by C. Pires, K. Torfs, A. Areal, C. Goldenbel, W. Vanlaar, M. A. Granie, Y. A. Stürmer, D. S. Usami, S. Kaiser, D. Jankowska-Karpa, D. Nikolaou, H. Holte, T. Kakinuma, J. Trigoso, W. Van den Berghe, U. Meesmann, is now published in the Journal of IATSS. This paper is based on the second edition of the E-Survey of Road Users’ Attitudes (ESRA), an online survey carried out in 2018 and includes data from more than 35,000 road users across 32 countries. The objective is to present the main results of the ESRA survey regarding the four most important risky driving behaviours in traffic: driving under the influence (alcohol/drugs), speeding, mobile phone use while driving, and fatigued driving. 
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published a Position Paper concerning the European Commission roadworthiness package implementation report for Directives 2014/45/EC on periodic roadworthiness tests, 2014/47/EC on technical roadside inspections of commercial vehicles and 2014/46/EC on issuing registration certificates. ETSC has prepared this updated position paper to feed into this process including priorities not taken on board last time and new developments such as eCall and automation.
The Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI), a program of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), in partnership with the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP) published recently the “iRAP Star Ratings of NACTO-GDCI’s Global Street Design Guide”. Released in 2016, the Global Street Design Guide has served as a blueprint for safer and higher-performing streets, and as a tool for addressing the 1.35 million road accident deaths and up to 50 million injuries that occur each year as a result of poorly-designed roads. As such, iRAP’s Star Rating methodology offers a useful framework for validating the tools and transformations featured in the publication.
The International Council for Road Safety International (ICoRSI) organised with great success a series of twelve Global Road Safety Dialogues on current key issues in road safety, which were held online on 20 October – 5 November 2020. Each dialogue features Key International Road Safety Experts on the subject who will be challenged by an Interlocutor on issues dealing with road safety interventions and research around the world. The recordings and the presentations of all the sessions are now available:
The recordings and the presentations of all the sessions are now available:
The International Cycling Safety Conference (ICSC2020) organised with great success a webinar titled “Single bicycle crashes as a rising problem” which was held online at November 5th 2020. The large majority of serious injuries among cyclists are due to single crashes and in a few countries the same applies to cyclist deaths. This special session highlights the size of the problem, trends, existing data and knowledge and provide a discussion about why so little is known about causes and measures to address single-bicycle crashes.
The International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences (IATSS) organised with great success the 6th Global Interactive Forum on Traffic & Safety which was held online on 26 November 2020. Researchers and practitioners at this symposium clarified the definition and measurement of “traffic culture” and explored its relationship with road user behaviour and traffic safety stakeholders actions. The results of these discussions are expected to pave the way for implementing more effective traffic safety measures in order of importance and urgency. 
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The European Union Road Federation (ERF) organised with great success a conference titled “Shaping the Future of New Mobility” which was held on 14 October 2020, gathering more than 160 participants. The purpose of the organisers (ERF, FIEC, the French Road Federation, the FNTP and the CICA) was to present the main findings of the international comparative study dealing with the impact of new mobility uses on road infrastructure and its equipment. The recordings and the presentations of the conference are now available:
Since 56 years, the International Road Federation (IRF) World Road Statistics (WRS) continues to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport, including traffic accidents. This year the WRS 2020 (data 2013-2018) covers over 200 countries, 100 indicators, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data. This year a variety of new packages are offered comprising the WRS Book, the WRS Excel file and the IRF Data Warehouse (in cooperation with Total Foundation), an online platform allowing data visualisation and comparisons between countries/ indicators.
The International Transport Forum (ITF) organised with great success three on-line webinars titled ‘Safe system in cities: multi-agency commitment for a Vision Zero agenda in London’, ‘Safe speeds in cities: street design, speed limits and law enforcement’ and ‘Safe streets in cities: identifying dangerous locations before a serious crash happens’ which took place on 17, 24 September and 1 October 2020, respectively. The webinars explored the policy toolkit for the elimination of serious and fatal crashes. This includes speed management, street design, predictive analytics, procurement and the engagement of a wide range of stakeholders.
The Institute of Communication & Computer Systems within the EU funded Horizon 2020 project L3Pilot organised a Summer School titled “Developing and Testing Automated Driving“, which was held on-line with great success, on 9-10 September 2020. The L3Pilot Summer School 2020 focused on the theory and practice of Automated Driving Implementation and Testing and in particular on the progress of the largest European pilot-testing of SAE Level 3 driving functions implemented by L3Pilot partners.
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation: A methodological framework from data collection to impact assessment of autonomous vehicles
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation: A methodological framework from data collection to impact assessment of autonomous vehicles
The IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (ITSS) organised the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC) which was held on-line, on 20-23 September 2020. The conference focused on new developments in theory, analysis, simulation and modeling, experimentation, demonstration, case studies, field operational tests, and deployments.
NTUA actively contributed with the following paper and presentation: Impacts of Autonomous Shuttle Services on Traffic, Safety and Environment for Future Mobility Scenarios
NTUA actively contributed with the following paper and presentation: Impacts of Autonomous Shuttle Services on Traffic, Safety and Environment for Future Mobility Scenarios
In the framework of the European Mobility Week, the ROADPOL Safety Days (formerly known as Project EDWARD) took place on 16-22 September, in Mainz, Germany. The aim of the ROADPOL Safety Days was to reduce the number of traffic fatalities, which is 70 per day across Europe, to zero at least in one day. Activities varied from additional roadside checks to awareness-raising initiatives, such as vehicle turnover simulations, exhibitions and debates.
The SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) project organised its 1st Pan-European Workshop, titled «How to make CCAM in Cities a reality» which was held on-line on 18 September 2020. In this workshop, a selection of high-level keynote speakers shared their views and experiences about Connected and Cooperative Automated Mobility, while interactive sessions about Use Cases for CCAV in Urban Mobility and Best Practices for Business and Operating Models in Europe and worldwide took place.
