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, are organising an Online Technical Workshop on “Role of Road Safety Audits in Improving Traffic Safety”, which will be held on 8-10 November 2020.  The Workshop aims at building the understanding of the importance and benefits of RSAs. Furthermore, it provides basic information on the scope and procedure of RSAs as well as the role and skills of the RSA team.  

IRF is organising an online conference titled “Roads to Recovery: a Sustainable Mobility for a Sustainable Future” which will be held on 12 November 2020. The main objective of the conference is to discuss priorities for the road sector going forward. The conference will be 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. 

POLIS in cooperation with the LEVITATE and CoEXist projects is orginising a webinar titled “Mobilising Mobility: Impact assessment of automated vehicles” which will be held on 15 October 2020, from 16:00-17:00 CET. The LEVITATE and CoEXist projects are developing knowledge and tools to help cities prepare for and steer the introduction of automated vehicles. The webinar will specifically provide 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 organised an executive seminar titled “Speed and Speed Management in Road Safety Policy” which was held online and in Brussels, on 8 October 2020. This seminar brought together academics and practitioners from across the EU to discuss all aspects of the “factor speed”: vehicles and technology, infrastructure design, speed limits and enforcement, as well as links with sustainable mobility (emissions, air quality, noise).     NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Measuring Speeds

The Forum of European Road Safety Research Organisations (FERSI) is organising the FERSI conference 2021 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, 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. The conference will allow for discussion of promising ways to facilitate the decision making and implementation process of proven (cost-)effective but politically sensitive road safety measures. 

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 titled “Vehicle Roadworthiness Package Implementation Report“. The European Commission is in the phase of preparing the EU roadworthiness package implementation report. The EU roadworthiness package was last revised in 2014 and consists of Directive 2014/45/EC on Periodic Roadworthiness tests, Directive 2014/47/EC on technical roadside inspections of commercial vehicles and Directive 2014/46/EC on the requirements for issuing registration certificates with implementation in May 2018. ETSC has prepared this updated position paper to feed into this process including priorities not taken onboard 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 a new Document titled “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) is organising a series of twelve Global Road Safety Dialogues on current issues in road safety which will be held on 20 October – 5 November 2020. Each dialogue features an expert on the subject who will be in conversation with an interlocutor on issues facing us in road safety interventions and research around the world.  

The European Union Road Federation (ERF) is organising a Roadside Safety Event which will be held on-line on 5 November 2020. Topics for this event include, but are not limited to: EN 1317 & CE Marking, CPR and Road Restraint Systems, Barrier installation, BIM, Simulations, Motorcyclist Protection Systems.  Deadline for submission: 14 October 2020

International Cycling Safety Conference (ICSC2020) is organising a webinar titled “Single bicycle crashes as a rising problem” wich will be held on 5^th November 2020, 15:00-17:00 CET (9:00-11:00 EST). 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 will highlight 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) is organising the 6th Global Interactive Forum on Traffic & Safety which will be held on-line on 26 November 2020. Researchers and practitioners at this symposium will clarify the definition and measurement “traffic culture” and explore its relationship with road user behavior and traffic safety stakeholder actions. By supporting common language and understanding of traffic safety culture, different countries will be better to work together to reduce traffic crashes globally. The results of these discussions are expected to pave the way for implementing more effective traffic safety measures in order of importance and urgency. 

The European Union Road Federation  (ERF) is organising a conference titled “Shaping the Future of New Mobility” which will be held on-line on Wednesday  14 October  2020, 15.00 – 17.00 CET. The ERF, FIEC, the French Road Federation, the FNTP and the CICA initiated in March 2019 an international study to identify the impact of the new mobility revolution and how road infrastructure should address it. The final outputs of the study will be unveiled and debated during the conference. The event will bring together stakeholders from different sectors to break down existing silos and promote constructive dialogue for the benefit of all road users, and thus shape the future of the road infrastructure.  

A new book titled ‘Highway Safety Analytics and Modeling‘ authored by Dominique Lord, Xiao Qin, Srinivas R. Geedipally, is going to be published in March 2021. 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. 

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 split into 11 sections, such as Road Network, Road Traffic, Road Expenditures & Revenues. This year a variety of new packages are offered comprising the WRS Book, the WRS Excel file and the IRF Data Warehouse, an online platform allowing data visualisation and comparisons between countries/ indicators. 

The Institute of Communication & Computer Systems within the EU funded Horizon 2020 project L3Pilot orginised 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. It invited researchers, PhD students, developers, technicians and other professionals to learn more about the progress of the largest European pilot-testing of SAE Level 3 driving functions implemented by L3Pilot partners as well as to discuss the latest findings and main challenges in the areas of Automated Driving Technology.    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 welcomed papers and presentations in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems, dealing with 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

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.  

A paper titled “Meta-regressions of exposure parameters used in spatial road safety analyses, September 2020” authored by Apostolis Ziakopoulos, and George Yannis, is now published in Advances in Transportation Studies. The objective of this paper is to obtain quantitative estimates that several study characteristics impose on the values of their coefficients applying meta-regression techniques to three common exposure parameters (traffic volume/AADT, roadway length and vehicle distance traveled). Results indicate that the impact of traffic volume on crash counts was positively correlated with taking speed limit and road user age into consideration in spatial analyses, while the impact of road length on crash counts in spatial analyses was found to be higher in studies considering only fatal crashes. 

KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence (KIOS CoE) of University of Cyprus organized the 23rd EURO Working Group on Transportation EWGT 2020 which took place with great success in Paphos, Cyprus, on 16-18 September 2020. The sessions focused on various themes including advanced methodologies for road safety analyses.   NTUA actively contributed with the following paper and presentation:  European Countries’ Road Safety Evaluation by Τaking Ιnto Account Multiple Classes of Fatalities

The International Transport Forum (ITF) is organising 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 will take place on 17, 24 September and 1 October 2020, respectively. The webinars will explore 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.   

ActTravelWise orginised a webinar titled “The Emergency Active Travel Fund: Plans and Implementation at the Local Level” which was held with great success on 14 September 2020.  Authorities who received funding under the Emergency Active Travel Fund, shared their plans and how they intend to implement them on the ground to benefit local residents. Athens took the opportunity to introduce a step-change in active travel infrastructure. Lastly, a panel discussion took place, with the opportunity for other local authorities to share their plans and any issues or challenges. Presenters: George Yannis, Laura Wells, Ambrose White, Lynsey McGarvey, and Sian Fox.   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Athens Great Walk transformation project

The Slovenian Traffic Safety Agency organized the periodical training course for Road Safety Auditors which took place with success on September 14-16, 2020 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. NTUA actively contributed with a lecture on the innovations in Road Safety Audit practices in the European Union and internationally. 

The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report titled “Best Practice for Urban Road Safety”, in which seven case studies of cities that are implementing data-driven road safety policies are presented. It highlights relevant experiences aimed at reducing the number of traffic casualties and protecting vulnerable road users in Barcelona, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Fortaleza, London, New York and Rotterdam and illustrates the diverse approaches to better understand road crashes and to prevent road traffic deaths and serious injuries.  

Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety is organising an online Q&A session with Dr. Etienne Krug, Director of the Department of the Social Determinants of Health, WHO which will be held at 3pm CEST/9am EDT Tuesday 22 September 2020. This webinar will give an insight on the new UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/74/299 on improving global road safety answering questions like what the resolution is, why it matters, and how it can help you to advocate for safer roads.  

The International Road Federation (IRF) and the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) organised a free webinar which was hosted on 9^th September at 14:00 under the frame of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC). The Ten Step Plan for Safer Road infrastructure has been produced by the UNRSC partners to support countries seeking to implement initiatives in relation to the improved safety of road infrastructure and broader transport networks, the UN Convention on Road Traffic and Road Signs and Signals and the achievement of UN Member States Agreed Global Targets 3 and 4 for safer new and existing roads. The webinar provided to the participants the opportunity to learn about the Trust Fund and this new pilot project.  

The chair of Transportation System Engineering of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is organising the 7th IEEE International Conference on Models and Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems (MT-ITS 2021) to be held on the 16-18 June 2021 in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Two Special Issues will be organised following the conference in the IEEE Open Journal on Intelligent Transportation Systems, and the Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems: Technology, Planning and Operation.  

 Paper submission deadline: October 1st, 2020

The International Road Federation (IRF), together with Qatar University, Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center, National Traffic Safety Committee of Qatar Government and World Conference on Transport Research Society, are organising a Webinar on “Global Trends on the Status of Traffic Safety under the Covid-19 Pandemic”, which will be held on 29 September 2020 at 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM CEST. This webinar aims to discuss the potential impacts of the current Covid-19 Pandemic and the associated mobility restriction policies on road traffic safety status.  

The International Road Federation (IRF) is organising the first IRF Executives Talks with Florent Menegaux, CEO, Michelin, which will be held on 11 September 2020 from 14:00 to 14:30 CEST (UTC+2) by Webinar. The ‘IRF Executives Talks’ is a series of 30 min talks with high-level executives from the transportation sector highlighting the challenges the sector faces, innovative programmes & ideas and a lot more.  

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), The World Bank Group, Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the International Transport Forum (ITF) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) recently established the Asia Pacific Road Safety Observatory (APRSO). APRSO is the regional forum on road safety data, policies and practices to ensure the protection of human life on the roads across Asia and the Pacific. Member countries of APRSO are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.