The 24th International Walk21 Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities was held with great success in Lisbon, Portugal, on 14-18 October 2024. Key topic areas that were discussed concerned pedestrian safety and included positive public space, inclusivity, investing in walking and good governance. 
The European Commission together with 2Zero, ERTRAC, CCAM and BATT4EU organized with great success the Road Transport Research Results Conference (RTR Conference) which took place in Brussels, on 11-13 February 2025. For the past seven years, the RTR Conference has been a unique entry point into the achievements of EU-funded projects in road transport. This year, the Conference attracted its largest audience to date, with more than 500 participants on-site and 400 participants joining online, emphasizing the importance of pre-competitive collaborative research in road transport at the European level.
The I-Sense Group of the Institute of Communications & Computer Systems (ICCS) organised with great success the “Hi Drive International Summer School 2024“, which was held in Athens, Greece, on 25-26 September 2024. This Summer School session with theme “Navigating the Future with Advanced and Safe Automated Driving” aims to delve deeper into the latest advancements, challenges, and opportunities in the dynamic field of Automated Driving (AD), which is a major component of road safety.
ERTICO and Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) co-organised with great success the 30th ITS World Congress which was held in Dubai, on 16-20 September 2024, under the theme: “Mobility Driven by ITS”. ITS World Congress is the forum to make meaningful connections, experience inventive conference program presented by industry experts, and see cutting-edge technology in the Exhibit Hall. ITS World Congress allows the smart mobility community to come together to explore the deployment of intelligent transportation technologies that saves lives, improves mobility, promotes sustainability, and increases efficiency and productivity. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
Exploring the benefits from 30 km/h speed limit to enhance urban sustainability Examining Factors Affecting Takeover Time in Automated Driving using Machine Learning Algorithms Enhancing Road Safety: Insights from Delivery Drivers’ Perspectives in Attica Region Investigation of the Impact of Eco-driving on Fuel Consumption Using Smartphone Data
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and the Unipolis Foundation organised with great success in the framework of the European Mobility Week, the City Flows 2024 event which was held in Trento, Italy, on 20 September 2024. This year’s hybrid event with theme “Shared public space” focused on the promotion of a space in which people, different transportation modes and activities should contribute to social equity, road safety, pollution reduction and improved quality of life. 
NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following presentation:
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) in cooperation with the Slovenian Traffic Safety Agency organised with great success the PIN Talk “Improving the safety of vulnerable road users”, which was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 19 September 2024. This event focused on improving the safety of vulnerable road users. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) in cooperation with the Latvian Ministry of Transport and the Latvian Road Traffic Safety Directorate organised with great success the PIN Talk “Speed and improving the safety of vulnerable road users”, which was held in Riga, Latvia, on 11 September 2024. This event focused on speed and improving the safety of vulnerable road users. Invited guests from Greece, Lithuania and France also shared work that they have done nationally to this direction. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The European Association of Operators of Toll Road Infrastructures (ASECAP), supported by the Asociación de Empresas Constructoras y Concesionarias de Infraestructuras (SEOPAN), organized with great success the ASECAP days conference, which was held in Madrid, on 26-28 May 2025. This conference with theme “Challenge of Future Mobility – The Role of Road Infrastructure” focused on various topics concerning road safety, such as how to reach zero fatalities, driving innovation, digital twin-based maintenance and monitoring for road infrastructure solutions and the impact of deployment of zero emission vehicles on road infrastructure.
The 9th Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2024 (RSS2024) hosted by the Kentucky Transportation Center took place in Lexington, Kentucky, on 28-31 October 2024, under the theme “Improving Decisions Through Safety and Simulation Tools”. The Conference aimed to improve upon the existing knowledge in the area of road safety and contribute to reducing the number of crash fatalities and injuries occurring worldwide, through the dissemination of innovative research and applications.
The 11th International Conference on Vehicle Technology and Intelligent Transport Systems (VEHITS) took place with great success as a hybrid event in Porto, on 2-4 April 2025. The purpose of this conference was to bring together engineers, researchers and practitioners interested in the advances and applications in the field of Vehicle Technology and Intelligent Transport Systems. This conference covered areas such as Connected Vehicles, Data Analytics, Intelligent Transport Systems and Infrastructure, Intelligent Vehicle Technologies and Smart Mobility and Sustainable Transport Services.
The Transport Community organised with great success a hybrid event about the Capacity Building on Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale 3+ in Belgrade, on 21 June 2024. During this conference, the conclusions of the SafetyCube project regarding the collection of serious injury data were presented. Furthermore, the MAIS3+ database and several best practices from EU Member States were discussed. NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following presentation:
The 12th Symposium of European Association for Research in Transportation (hEART2024) took place with great success in Espoo, on 18-20 June 2024. The Symposium offered an opportunity for in depth discussion in all scientific methods and analyses in transport. Several road safety topics were discussed, regarding micromobility, traffic management and transport policy .
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organised with great success the ETSC PIN Conference 2024, which was held in Brussels, on 19 June 2024. During this Conference, ETSC presented the findings of the 18th PIN Annual Road Safety Performance (PIN) Report looking at progress in reducing road deaths and serious injuries across Europe. Two key road safety issues were analysed in more detail: the safety of powered two wheelers and safety on rural roads. NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following presentation:
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 18th edition of PIN Annual Report, with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2024 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index event which took place with great success on 19 June 2024 in Brussels. According to this PIN Report, 20,418 deaths were killed on EU roads in 2023 representing a decrease of only 1% compared to 2022, falling far short of the 6.1% annual reduction needed to achieve the EU target of a 50 % reduction by 2030. The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has also awarded its 2024 Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) Award to Finland, recognising its long-term performance in improving road safety.
The Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS Hellas) together with the Research University Institute of Communication and Computer Systems of NTUA, co-organised with great success the 9th ITS Hellas Conference, which took place in Athens, on 5-6 June 2024. This Conference was held under the theme “Smart Transport & Logistics 2024: Explore. Innovate. Transform”, focusing on the developments in the field of Intelligent Transport Systems in Greece. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The 2024 International Research Council on the Biomechanics of Injury (IRCOBI) Europe Conference was held with great success in Stockholm, Sweden, on 11-13 September 2024. Through scientific conferences, training courses and other activities, the IRCOBI Council provides an academically rigorous forum for dissemination of the latest research into injury causation and protective systems.
The Università degli Studi di Brescia and the Friendly City Study Center (CeSCAΜ) are co-organising the LWC International Conference, which will take place in Brescia, on 11-12 September 2025. The LWC International Conference traditionally deals with the topics of urban mobility and quality of life in urban areas, with a specific focus on vulnerable road users. Τhis year’s LWC Conference focuses on defining smart mobility and shared urban spaces. Registrations are open until 31 August 2025.
ETSC and Fundación MAPFRE organized with great success the 2024 edition of the European Traffic Education Seminar, which was held as an online event, on 17 September 2024. The aims of the seminar were to equip young road users to become safe road users, given the appropriate education. This seminar features presentations on the latest traffic education projects from across Europe.
The Centre for EU Transport Projects (CEUTP) organized with great success the 20th Scientific and Technical Conference, which was held in Katowice, Poland, on 10-11 September 2024. This conference titled “Transport Systems. Theory & Practice” (TSTP 2024) aimed to show and discuss the issues in regard to the transport systems and allows presenting the most up-to-date solutions in the field, evaluating the current state and developing perspectives for the transport systems within the urban areas, regions, countries and the world. Among the main topics of this conference, road traffic safety assessment issues, such as strategies, programs and solutions, were included.
The Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) in cooperation with the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) organized with great success the Africa Road Safety Seminar, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 8-9 October 2024. This key regional seminar included leading topics in current road safety conversation and is designed to give participants a deeper understanding of effective, evidence-based interventions which can be applied towards the goals of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.
The International Transport Forum (ITF) organised with great success the Safer Micromobility – Ask the Author session which was held online, on 17 April 2024. During this question and answer session, Philippe Crist (ITF) together with George Yannis and Virginia Petraki (NTUA) presented the findings of the latest ITF Report titled Safer Micromobility. According to this Report Micromobility is becoming safer (per miles driven), but an increase in severe injuries from e-scooter crashes is cause for concern and a comprehensive set of recommendations in line with the Safe System Approach are proposed.
The European Commission organised with great success the EU Road Safety Conference which was held in Dublin, Ireland, on 16 April 2024. The Conference provided an opportunity to engage with EU Member States Authorities, Experts and all Stakeholders across the road safety community. In addition, it facilitated exchanging views and experiences on the efforts to reach Vision Zero.
NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following key-note presentation:
The European Commission and the An Roinn Iompair (ARI) together with the European Transport Research Platforms ACARE, ALICE, CEDR, ECTP, ERRAC, ERTRAC, ETRA and Waterborne organised with great success the Transport Research Arena Conference (TRA2024) which took place in Dublin, Ireland, on 15-18 April 2024. The pillars of the Conference were the safe & inclusive transport, the sustainable mobility of people and goods, the efficient & resilient systems and the collaborative digitalisation regarding the European Transport Research and Innovation and the cooperation of Europe with other continents.
NTUA actively contributed with 35 innovative presentations:
European Road Safety Observatory Road safety in Low- and Middle-Income Countries – Analysis and recommendations Monitoring National Road Safety Strategies in the EU Naturalistic Spatial Road Safety Analysis: The SmartMaps Project Traffic simulation and safety assessment requirements for enhancing road safety prediction tools Bicycle traffic analysis before and after mobility interventions using crowdsourced data Assessing the Impact of Athens Great Walk on VRU Volumes: A Temporal Analysis The HADRIAN Novel Human-Machine Interface Prototype for Automated Driving: Safety and Impact Assessment Safety evaluation via conflict classification during automated shuttle bus service operations Outcome Evaluation of i-Dreams (H2020 Project) Interventions: Comparison of Multi-Country Driving Behavior Unveiling driving behaviour patterns during a naturalistic driving experiment Investigating the effect of driver-vehicle-environment interaction with risk through naturalistic driving data Predicting risky driving behavior with classification algorithms: Results from a large-scale filed-trial and simulator experiment Unfolding the dynamics of driving behavior: A machine learning analysis from Germany and Belgium Investigating the Influence of Mobile Phone Use on Driving Behaviour with Machine Learning Analysis Exploitation of naturalistic driving data to estimate crash risk through machine learning techniques Examining the influence of traffic enforcement on the development of traffic safety culture Analyzing Acceptance of Reduced Speed Limits on Greek Motorways Economic Assessment of Free Public Transport in Athens Examining the impact of driver distraction on speeding through the exploitation of smartphone sensor data Impact assessment of governance models on the integration of connected and autonomous vehicles Assessing the Readiness of European Cities for Distributed Traffic Management: A Smart Infrastructure Readiness Index Does Eco-Routing Even Work? Some Experimental Findings Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to Prioritize Network Benefits When Applying Novel Traffic Management Strategies Comparing Random Forests and Multinomial Logit Models for Urban Travel Choice under Innovative Traffic Management Strategies E-Survey of Road Users’ Attitudes Optimising driver behaviour for safe, green and energy efficient mobility Injury Mitigation to Promote Vision-Zero Achievement CulturalRoad: Cultural, regional and societal factors to overcome barriers to connected, cooperative and automated mobility deployment SHOW simulation suite: A guide for simulating shared automated mobility metaCCAZE – Flexibly adapted MetaInnovations, use cases, collaborative business and governance models to accelerate shared Zero Emission mobility for passengers and freight Flexibly adapted MetaInnovations, use cases, collaborative business and governance models to accelerate shared Zero Emission mobility for passengers and freight Artificial Intelligence for Vision Zero in Road Safety Integration of road user behavior models to traffic safety analytic tools Artificial Intelligence boosting Road Safety
The Road Traffic Safety Agency (RTSA) of the Republic of Serbia in cooperation with several Serbian and international road safety Governmental, Academic and other organizations, organised with great success the 19th International Conference Road Safety in Local Communities (RSCL 2024) in Zlatibor, Serbia, on 17-20 April 2024. The Conference was organized within second Decade of Action for Road Safety (2021-2030) and the second national strategy for road safety (2023-2030) highlighting the significant changes in road safety regulations. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The International Road Traffic Safety Analysis and Data (IRTAD) Group and of the International Transport Forum (ITF) organised with great success the 37th Meeting which was held in Helsinki and online, on 10-11 April 2024. In this meeting, the latest international road safety developments were discussed. 80 members and observers from more than 40 countries enriched the discussion aimed to help improve road safety across the globe. Particular emphasis was given to safer micromobility and the evaluation of road safety measures. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
The Centro Nazionale per Mobilità Sostenibile (MOST) in cooperation with Politecnico of Milano organised with great success the G7 Transport Academic Workshop, which was held in Milan, on 10 April 2024. This workshop with theme “Planning for Resilient Transport Systems” consisted of 4 sessions, including issues related to road safety, such as principles and measures for network resilience, decision-making and trade-offs and policies and practices for mitigation and adaptation. The Workshop results were presented to the Meeting of the Ministers of the G7 world’s advanced economies. NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following presentation:
The European Association of Operators of Toll Road Infrastructures (ASECAP), supported by the Associazone Italiana Societa Concessionarie Autostrade e Trafori (AISCAT), organized with great success the 51st ASECAP Study & information days conference, which was held in Milan, on 13-15 May 2024. This conference with theme “Innovation as a key tool to reach safe, inclusive and green mobility solutions” focused on how to provide equal access to mobility services being a key point for social and economic developments.
AMRKS and Tempulli Academy co-organised with great success the 10th International Conference “AI – Cyber Security and Road Safety” which was held in Prishtina, on 7 May 2024. In this conference, the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was discussed, as an important potential in increasing road safety. IA’s road safety and mobility initiative aims to increase road safety using innovative technologies to complement the action plans of the UN General Assembly Resolution on improving global road safety.
The International Commission for Driver Testing (CIECA) in cooperation with the Roads & Transport Authority of Dubai organised with great success the 56th CIECA Congress, which was held in Dubai, on 5-8 March 2024. This congress, titled “Preparing drivers for smart mobility and road safety”, allowed for vivid discussion on key safety measures for driver testing and safer driving from across the world. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety and UK Aid have recently published the Guide for Safe Speeds Report: Managing Traffic Speeds to Save Lives and Improve Livability. This Report outlines interventions that work and provides guidance on how to select and implement speeds that are safe for all road users, including city-wide 30km/h speed limits. It also explains how barriers to changing traffic speeds can be overcome.
The European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) organized with great success the 7th ECTRI Safety Webinar, which was held online on 23 February 2024. The scope of the Safety Thematic Group concers safety culture, safe mobility for all, automation and digitalization safety implications, transport safety data collection and use and safety in junctions. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA Professor George Yannis made a key contribution to the vivid debate for the future of mobility & transport in Europe, organised by the European Commission – DG Move on 21 February 2024 in Brussels. He attempted to decode the slow deployment of vehicle automation, the role of artificial intelligence and digitalisation together with the necessary new business models for automated mobility in Europe stating that “Automation should be seen more as a social than a technology challenge“.
On the occasion, he also promoted strongly Public Transport as the only way to serve the increased urban and interurban transport demand in Europe and the 30km/h city-wide speed limits for safer, healthier and greener cities in Europe.
The Private Passenger Car Owners Association of Greece organised with great success the Vision Zero Road Crashes Conference which was held in Athens on 21 February 2024. This Association contributes to the improvement of the country’s road network safety, ensuring better traffic conditions for passenger cars. This conference focused on if and how it is possible to have zero road crashes in Greece. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences (IATSS) organized with great sucess the 12th International Cycling Safety Conference (ICSC2024) which was held in Imabari, Japan, on 5–7 November 2024. The ICSC is a forum for researchers and experts in the field of cycling safety to exchange their knowledge and bring up new research topics and safety solutions. This year’s conference focused on exploring cycling safety culture. The conference facilitated interaction between participants and offered a premium forum to share scientific results and ideas, and favours networking in the cycling safety community.
The Access Management Committee of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) organized with great success the 4th Access Management International Conference which was held in Boston, USA, on 24-26 June 2024. This conference with theme “Access Management: Safety and Design from the Curb to the Interchange for All Users” aimed to promote idea sharing and showcases practitioner-ready techniques and academic work on the interaction between transportation and land use. The focus topic areas that were discussed were design, safety, land use and legal issues.
The International Cooperation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic safety (ICTCT) in close co-operation with the Department of Transportation and Geotechnical Engineering of the University of Dar Es Salam organized with great success the 1st AfroSAFE conference in Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania, on 13-14 June 2024. This conference aimed to facilitate exchange of knowledge and experiences between international and African road safety scientists, professionals and policy makers, and provide a platform for a joint discussion on the future of traffic safety on the African continent.
The International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) organized with great success the 17th IFAC Symposium on Control in Transportation Systems in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, on 1-3 July 2024. The main scope of the Symposium refers to the development of automatic control methods and tools for the analysis, supervision and management of transportation systems. The increasing complexity of freight logistic networks, the technological developments in transportation systems, and the necessity of managing all the transportation modes in an efficient, synchronized and integrated way for a safe road environment were discussed.
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) organised with great success the 103rd Annual Meeting, which was held in Washington DC, on 7-11 January 2024. More than 600 workshops and sessions took place, covering all transportation modes and quite a few of them focussed on theory and practice of road safety worldwide. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations and posters:
Network-wide Road Safety Assessment: Methodology of the European Union Interactions between road environment and driver state for the identification of safety critical conditions Identifying the impact of Task Complexity and Coping Capacity on Driving Risk – Comparison among Different Countries and Transport Modes Leveraging Machine Learning Algorithms to Predict and Analyze Single-Vehicle and Multi-Vehicle Crash Occurrences on Motorways
The European Commission together with 2Zero, ERTRAC and CCAM organized with great success the Road Transport Research Results Conference (RTR Conference) which was held in Brussels on 5-7 February 2024. For the past seven years, the RTR Conference has been a unique entry point into the achievements of EU-funded projects in road transport. Once again this year, participants had the chance to learn about results and expected impacts of CINEA supported Horizon 2020 projects, and the next steps in key areas for road transport research. The conference delivered a holistic view of how the European research scene is moving forward in these areas, bringing benefits to the environment, economy, and European society overall.
The NTUA Laboratory of Geodesy of the Department of Topography organized with great success the RobPos4VApp Workshop which was held as a hybrid event in Athens on 18 December 2023. The results presented concerned the research project “A methodological framework for low-cost cooperative DGNSS/INS-based robust positioning in safety critical connected vehicle applications” carried out within the Research Programme of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.). NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) in cooperation with Austroads organized with great success the Australasian Road Safety Conference 2024 (ARSC), which was held in Hobart, Tasmania, on 30 September – 3 October 2024. This conference titled “Target 2030. What’s the pathway forward?” brought together road safety stakeholders and decision-makers from Australasia and international jurisdictions to facilitate collaboration and share information.
UNECE together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republic of Moldova organized with great success a workshop titled “Policy dialogue and How to move forward road safety system”, which was held in Chisinau, Moldova, on 13-14 December 2023. The objectives of the workshop were the launch of a policy dialogue with national road safety stakeholders on the main Road Safety Performance Review (RSPR) findings in Moldova and the capacity-building of the stakeholders on the preparation of a road safety strategy. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
The University of Thessaly, Department of Civil Engineering, Traffic, Transportation and Logistics Laboratory (TTLog), organized with great success the 7th Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility, which took take place in Plastira’s lake in Karditsa, on 4-6 September 2024. The theme of this year’s Conference was : “Climate Crisis and Resilient Transportation Systems” aiming at the dissemination of knowledge and the exchange of research and good practices among researchers and practitioners towards the adaptation of the transportation systems to climate change.
The Transport and Roads division at Lund University organized with great success the 26th Euro Working Group on Transportation Conference (EWGT 2024) which was held on 4-6 September 2024 in Lund, Sweden. EWGT is a premier international forum for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the field of transportation and logistics. The conference provided a platform for international experts from research, practice, and policy to exchange insights on transportation and logistics.
The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works of the Republic of Cyprus organised with great success a workshop on Cyprus’ experience and recent developments in CEF projects on 11 December 2023, in Nicosia, Cyprus. In this workshop, the results on the Cypriot Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for road safety from the Baseline project, as well as the developments of the Trendline project were presented. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The Saudi Traffic Safety Society organized under the patronage of His Royal Highness Governor of the Eastern Region the sixth International Traffic Safety Conference, which took place with great success in Dammam, Saudi Arabia on 4-6 December 2023. The theme of the conference was “Artificial intelligence and big data for transportation and traffic safety”. Experts, researchers, academics from internationally renowned research centers, institutions and international scientific organizations took part in this conference. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The European Commission adopted a series of proposals designed to improve the experience of passengers and travellers by strengthening their rights. These proposals focuse on stronger passenger rights, protection of package travellers, better multimodal travel information services and the creation of a common European mobility data space. The new rules will also provide for safer and smoother journeys, especially those involving different travel services or transport modes, ensuring that passengers have access to direct support, and enhanced real-time information, for example on delays and cancellations.
POLIS, the European Cities Network, organised with great success the 2023 Annual Polis Conference, which took place in Leuven, on 29-30 November 2023. The POLIS Annual Conference is Europe’s leading sustainable urban mobility event, providing an opportunity for cities and regions to showcase their transport achievements, including recent safety developments, to a large audience of mobility experts, practitioners, and decision-makers from both the public and private sector. Urban Road Safety is a key conference priority.
The NTUA Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering organised with great success a Scientific Workshop titled “Telematics boosting mobility behaviour” which took place at the NTUA Campus in Athens on November 22nd, 2023. The rapid spread of innovative technologies in the field of telematics creates new opportunities to monitor, evaluate and improve driver behaviour through feedback tools, providing incentives to drivers for safer and greener behaviour, with spectacular results. During this workshop, the new interactive SafeRoadsMap tool for safe and green travelling in Greece was released. 
Workshop Presentations:
Telematics and mobility behaviour – nrso OSeven application and improvement of mobility behaviour – SmartMaps Collection and processing of smart map data – SmartMaps Development of infrastructure, driving behaviour and fuel consumption maps – SmartMaps Development of algorithms for multiparametric analysis of driving behaviour and road segment risk– SmartMaps Fleet, traffic and mobility management in interconnected environments – Dit4tram Driver-vehicle-environment interaction and comparison by transport mode – iDreams Safety assessment of Athens Great Walk segments with telematics data – PHOEBE Artificial intelligence and safe mobility – Ivory Driver behaviour optimisation for safe, green and energy efficient mobility – OptiMo
The European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) celebrated the 20 Years of Achievements in Sustainable and Multimodal Mobility Research, in conjunction with the Annual Plenary Meetings of Members and of Thematic Groups, which took place with great success in Brussels, on 16 November 2023. Key achievements were highlighted and discussions focussed on how can research drive future green and inclusive mobility and the transformative impact of research on transport policy. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
The SWOV – Dutch Road Safety Research Institute organised with great success the 11th International Cycling Safety Conference (ICSC2023) which took place in Hague, on 15–17 November 2023, bringing the conference back to the Netherlands after 10 years. The ICSC is a forum for researchers and experts in the field of cycling safety to exchange their knowledge and bring up new research topics and safety solutions. This year’s conference focused on safer cycling for a better future. NTUA actively contributed with the following paper:
The Network of Regional Road Safety Observatories (RSO), namely the European (ERSO), Ibero American (OISEVI), African (ARSO), Asia and Pacific (APRSO), the Easter Parnership (EaPRSO) and Arab (AIRSO), organised with great success an informal meeting which was held in Paris and online, on 9 November 2023. The main topic discussed was the update on programme of Work and activities of Regional Road Safety Observatories. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The International Road Traffic Safety Analysis and Data (IRTAD) Group and of the International Transport Forum (ITF) organised with great success the 36th Meeting which was held in Paris and online, on 8-9 November 2023. In this conference, the latest international road safety developments were discussed. 45 road safety experts enriched the discussion aimed to help improve road safety across the globe. Particular emphasis was given to new mobility and the evaluation of road safety measures. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
The Hellenic Sleep Society organized with great success the 13th Panhellenic Congress on Sleep Medicine in Athens, on 3-5 November 2023. The aim of this conference was to investigate the effects of insomnia on an individual’s health, but also on driving performance. Through a driving simulator experiment, it was observed that patients with chronic insomnia drive at a higher speed than participants without insomnia, have a reduced ability to maintain a stable lateral position of their vehicle, and their reaction time to most events appears to be slower than participants without insomnia. NTUA actively contributed with the following poster:
Bar-Ilan University organized with great success the 8th International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology (ICTTP), which was held in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 19-22 August 2024. This conference is the 1st ICTTP conference in the middle East and is oriented towards the next generation of traffic psychology researchers. The aim of this conference was to provide a platform for communication between researchers, young and established, and between researchers and practitioners.
EPFL organized with great success an one-week program on 11-15 February 2024 that undertook an in-depth study of discrete choice models and their applications. It providef participants with the practical tools necessary for applying new discrete choice techniques. The course covered various topics such as fundamental methodology, data collection, model design and estimation issues, forecasting techniques, examples and case studies.
The International Cooperation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic safety (ICTCT) organised with great success the 35th Conference which took place in Catania, Italy, on 26-27 October 2023 under the theme “Challenges and actual opportunities offered by new technologies to improve traffic safety”. The conference was organized in close co-operation with the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture of University of Catania.
European Commission and the European Parliament launched with great success the EU Road Safety Exchange project for a second three-year phase with the active support of ETSC and NTUA. The project connects road safety experts from various European countries to tackle specific road safety challenges through twinning activities. A high-level event in Brussels marked the official launch of the project on 18 October 2023. The project and its launch event covered various themes, including the safety of infrastructure, effective enforcement, the protection of vulnerable road users and driver training.
The European Commission hosted with great success the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards on 19 October 2023 in Brussels, recognising the contributions of the European Road Safety Charter’s community of members towards the common goal of improved road safety across Europe. The award categories for 2023 included best use of data promoting road safety, best project promoting fitness to drive and supporting road safety in the e-commerce sector and best road safety project for road users with reduced mobility. Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) was chosen by the audience at the awards ceremony to receive the Jacques Barrot Award.
The International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences (IATSS) organized with great success the 9th GIFTS Symposium, which was held as a hybrid event (in Tokyo and online), on 1 December 2023. In this 9th forum, experts in transportation and safety as well as specialists from international organizations, had the opportunity to exchange opinions and discuss about the ideal traffic culture and sustainable society from the perspective of the “positive benefits”.
SAFER Vehicle and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) organized with great success the 9th International Conference on Driver Distraction and Inattention (DDI2024), which was held in Michigan, on 22-24 October 2024. DDI2024 is the primary international event on this topic, attracting delegates from more than 20 countries. It is designed to bring participants – from academia, industry and government – up-to-date on the developments and trends in the field of inattention and distraction in driving.
The World Road Association (PIARC) organised with great success the XXVIIth World Road Congress, which was held on 2-6 October 2023, in Prague. The theme of the congress was “Together on the road again” and provided a unique opportunity to discuss in depth all subjects related to road infrastructures and road transport, with safety being one of the Congress key topics. The program included ministerial sessions, 60 technical sessions covering all key aspects and topics of road infrastructure, valuable poster sessions, various specialised workshops and foresight sessions. A special workshop on “Boosting Sustainable Road Safety Solutions in LMICs” was also foreseen. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
Development and Pilot Testing of a European Methodology for Network Wide Road Safety Assessment Road Safety Audit of Ellinikon Urban Regeneration Project Traffic Modelling a Case Study for the Port of Chios Island AI for Safer Road Mobility Key Road Safety Management Practices
The National Safer Roads Partnerships Conference took place with great success in Manchester on 27-28 September 2023. Key topics discussed in this conference were science and technology within policing, a new way to measure traffic safety and road safety as a government priority. NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following key-note presentation:
The “Energy Save” Conference, organised with great success by Be best company, took place on 25 September 2023 at SNFCC in Athens. The theme of the conference was “How to reduce the energy footprint in traffic” by promoting electromobility, micromobility and road safety. NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following key-note presentation:
The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW project (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) organised with great success the 4th Pan-European Workshop, titled “Shaping Seamless AV Integration in Public Transport”, which was held in Düsseldorf, on 12 October 2023. The workshop provided a dynamic exploration of cutting-edge advancements in automated shared mobility, along with a field trip to nearby Monheim am Rhein to experience the real-life AV service fully integrated into public transport. The workshop combines concise presentations by industry leaders, experts, and project participants, followed by interactive panel discussions that delve deep into the heart of each topic.
The World Road Association – PIARC organised with great success two webinars which were held online on 5 and 15 September 2023, with the active support of NTUA. The topics of the Webinars were: Infrastructure, Tunnels, Speed, Data and Management, Behaviour, VRUs, Vehicles. The webinars provided solutions and recommendations to build road safety expertise in all countries with focus on Low and Middle Income Countries, in order to adopt effectively the Safe System Approach and reduce fatal and serious crashes on road network. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
The 8th International HUMANIST Conference took place with great success on 21-22 September 2023 in Berlin. The theme of the conference is “Accelerating the transformation towards sustainable mobility by human-centred design“. The Conference brοught together researchers, experts and stakeholders from several multidisciplinary communities that are active in the field of Human Factors in Transport. It was a unique and attractive forum to present current and planned activities as well as to share ideas and experiences.
The Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT/CERTH) and the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) co-organized the 11th International Congress on Transportation Research (ICTR 2023), which was held on 20-22 September 2023 in Heraklion, Greece. The spotlight theme of the 2023 Congress was “Clean and Accessible to All Multimodal Transport“. Special focus was given to innovative and sustainable traffic safety concepts in Greece and worldwide. NTUA contributed actively with the following 16 scientific papers and presentations:
Spatial analysis of telematics surrogate safety measures across road environments (Young Researcher Best Road Safety Paper Award) Road Safety Key Performance Indicators in Greece A novel methodology for crash hotspot identification and network-wide safety ranking Implementing traffic simulation for road safety assessment: A systematic literature review Evaluation of safety interventions on risky driving behavior using data from a novel naturalistic driving experiment Identification of safe driving behavior using an ensemble of machine learning algorithms and data from the i-DREAMS experiment How do task complexity and coping capacity influence risk? Findings from a novel naturalistic driving experiment in Greece Modelling the inter-relationship among task complexity, coping capacity and crash risk Impact Assessment of a novel Human-Machine Interface Prototype: A descriptive analysis from the HADRIAN project Impacts of automated driving vehicles on bus depot operation using naturalistic data Modelling the behaviour of automated vehicles when interacting with pedestrians in jaywalking Risk analysis of Western Greece road network using the Highway Safety Manual Can we predict safe driving for the elderly through a self-assessment of driving behaviour? Analysis of speeding characteristics in Greece Analysis of distraction characteristics due to mobile phone use in Greece Cost Benefit Analysis of reducing speed limits at the Greek interurban road network
The International Alcohol Interlock Symposium, organised by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF), took place with great success on 17-19 September 2023, in Oslo, Norway under the theme “Technology saving lives”. Since 2000, the Alcohol Interlock Symposium global forum has hosted leading experts to discuss ongoing research and development regarding alcohol and drug impaired driving, interlock programs, and road traffic safety. This year, international policy makers, criminal justice and health professionals, licensing authorities, researches, government officials, innovators, and industry representatives were part of a three day exploration of new ideas and innovative technological developments in the expanding field of alcohol interlocks.
The 11th Symposium of European Association for Research in Transportation (hEART2023) took place with great success in Zurich, on 6-8 September 2023. The Symposium offered an opportunity for in depth discussion in all scientific methods and analyses in transport. The topics of this year’s conference were: mobility, transport, logistics.
University of Cantabria organised the 25th Euro Working Group on Transportation Conference (EWGT 2023) which was held with great success on 6-8 September 2023 in Santander, Spain. There were 4 different topics discussed, including Transport Modeling and Control, Planning and Operation, Transport Economics and Policy and Innovative and Sustainable Solutions. This year the 25th EWGT, wanted to reward the excellent quality of all the papers received, therefore the organization had established the following 3 categories of prizes. 1. EWGT2023 Award for the best paper of the congress, 2. EWGT2023 Award to the best PhD poster, 3. Mention and diploma for the best papers in each of the congress topics.
The Università degli Studi di Brescia and the Friendly City Study Center (CeSCAΜ) co-organised the LWC International Conference, which took place with great success on 6-8 September 2023 in Brescia. The LWC International Conference traditionally deals with the topics of urban mobility and quality of life in urban areas, with a specific focus on vulnerable road users. Τhis year’s LWC Conference focused on defining the new challenges for sustainable urban mobility.
ETSC, Fundación MAPFRE and the Flemish Foundation for Traffic Knowledge (VSV) organised the 2023 edition of the European Traffic Education Seminar, which was held as an online event, on 12 September 2023. The aims of the seminar were to equip young road users to become safe road users, given the appropriate education. The seminar consisted of three distinct parts, focused on sustainable mobility with traffic safety, safe (pre-)driver and passenger behaviour and e-scooter education.
A paper titled “Star rating of driver’s behavior as a tool to prevent risky behavior” authored by Milan Tešić, Suzana Miladić-Tešić, Katerina Folla, George Yannis and Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios has been published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. Results were analysed regarding the following aspects: 1) star rating of driver’s behavior and 2) defining the stages of the periodic factors monitoring for each Police Administration Unit (PAU) examined. It was revelated that using a mobile phone while driving, not using child restraints system, alcohol drunk driving during the night and seat belt use at rear seats of passenger vehicles were identified as the most significant factors associated with risky driving behaviors. 
The 2023 International Research Council on the Biomechanics of Injury Europe Conference took part with great success in Cambridge, UK, on 13-15 September 2023. Through scientific conferences, training courses and other activities, the IRCOBI Council provides an academically rigorous forum for dissemination of the latest research into injury causation and protective systems.
NTUA Professor George Yannis contributed actively at the Scientific Workshop on: “Should we promote a 30 km/hr speed limit in cities?” organised by the Chair of Transportation Systems Engineering of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) which was held in Munich on July 6th, 2023. The Workshop hosted vivid discussions from Key – Experts on the different dimensions and perspectives of city-wide 30 km/h speed limit 
. Professor George Yannis contributed two key-note presentations:
ITS America, ERTICO and ITS Asia-Pasific are co-organising the 31th ITS World Congress which will be held in Atlanta, on 24-28 August 2025. ITS World Congress is the forum to make meaningful connections, experience inventive conference program presented by industry experts, and see cutting-edge technology in the Exhibit Hall. ITS World Congress allows the smart mobility community to come together to explore the deployment of intelligent transportation technologies that saves lives, improves mobility, promotes sustainability, and increases efficiency and productivity.
The Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS Hellas) in co-operation with the University of Patras, Department of Civil Engineering and TSS-Transport Simulation Systems: Aimsun & Aimsun Online, organised the International Conference ITS2023, which took place with great success in Patras on 2-3 November 2023. This Conference was held under the theme “Intelligent Systems and Consciousness Society” to ensure comfortable, fast, and safe movement of people and goods in smart cities and communities. NTUA actively contributed with the following paper:
The Vision Zero Conference organised by the Government Offices of Sweden, Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Administration) and Vinnova (the Swedish Innovation Agency), took place in Stockholm on 26-27 June 2023. High-level representatives of road road safety Authorities and Stakeholders discussed on Vision Zero, Agenda 2030, Private sector role and engagement, Knowledge transfer and capacity building, Safe modal shift including safety for powered two-wheelers and New technologies and innovations. The conference also provided an opportunity to link road safety to other global sustainability challenges.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 17th edition of PIN Annual Report, with the active contribution of NTUA, presented at the 2023 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Award event which took place with great success on 20 June 2023 in Brussels. The EU27 collectively reduced the number of road deaths by 22% over the period 2012-2022. The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has awarded its 2023 Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) Award to Poland for the first time, because the country cut road deaths by 47% between 2012 and 2022, a rate only bettered by Lithuania, last year’s winner.
The International Cooperation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic safety (ICTCT) organised with great success the 34th Conference which took place in Winneba, Ghana, on 8-9 June 2023 under the theme Enhancing traffic safety: prospects and challenges for Safe System approach on African continent. The conference was organized in close co-operation with the University of Education, Winneba.
The International Commission for Driver Testing (CIECA) organised with great success the 55th CIECA Congress, which was held in Vienna, on 23-26 May 2023. With this congress, titled “What do novice drivers need to know today, what skills do they need to perfect and how do we test them?“, the foundation stones of CIECA, especially knowledge, skills and testing are more in depth explored.
The European Platform of Transport Sciences (EPTS) organised the 21st European Transport Congress under the theme “The strengthening the resilience of smart cities”, which took place with great success in Prague, on 25-26 May 2023. This Conference was special, as it was a joint event with the Smart Cities Symposium and researchers with different background were encouraged to participate and share their findings.
NTUA Professor George Yannis has contributed actively at the ITF 2023 Summit held in Leipzig, Germany, on 24-26 May 2023, on key discussions on the design of safe and equitable future transport systems for all. In his presentation on Social Cost–Benefit Analysis of Key Urban Mobility Policies in Athens demonstrated the high usefulness of the social Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) for the promotion of key urban mobility and safety policies, including comprehensive appraisal of externalities (impact on safety, environment, congestion, etc.). The policies investigated concerned City-wide Speed Limit 30km/h, Congestion Charging Schemes, Ridesharing Services and Telematics Insurance Schemes, which were proved highly beneficial for the society welfare.
NTUA Professor George Yannis has contributed actively at the “Vision Zero for the Balkans” Road Safety Conference organized by IRF in Belgrade, Serbia, on 15 May 2023, with the presentation titled “Network Wide Road Safety Assessments to diagnose road safety risk”. Some of the key issues of this conference are to promote the uptake of “Vision Zero” policies and make a compelling case for safety investment, focus on risk factors and road deficiencies that lead to injuries among vulnerable road users and advance regional cooperation. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:
NTUA within the framework of the Seventh UN Global Road Safety Week organised with great success a Scientific Workshop titled “Road Safety Research Challenges” which was held in Athens (and online) on May 19th, 2023. The objective of this Workshop was to highlight through an intensive flow of presentations the main findings and challenges of key road safety research projects carried out within the NTUA Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering. 
Workshop presentations:
NTUA Road Safety Observatory – nrso National Road Safety Strategy – Greece 2030 – nrss Shared Automation Operating Models for Worldwide Adoption – Show Holistic Approach for Driver Role Integration into Automation – Hadrian Driver needs and behaviour in automated traffic – Drive2theFuture Driver-vehicle-environment interactions and safety tolerance zone – i-Dreams Smart city mapping for safer and eco driver behaviour – SmartMaps Smartphone applications for driver safety behaviour support – BeSmart Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environments – Phoebe AI for Vision Zero in Road Safety – Ivory E-Survey of Road users’ Attitudes – ESRA3 Support to the European Road Safety Observatory – ERSOnext Support of technical activities for the development and collection of Road Safety KPIs – Trendline National Access Point Coordination Organisation for Europe – Napcore A Methodology for Network-wide Road Assessment – NetSafety Modelling road infrastructure safety – i-SafeModels Global Road Safety Knowledge Exchange – Piarc Micromobility Safety: Back to the Future – Mimob Unsafe traffic events – Ute Promoting 30km/h speed limit in all Cities – 30 Marathons in 30 months
A paper titled “Comparing Machine Learning Techniques for Predictions of Motorway Segment Crash Risk Level” authored by Dimitris Nikolaou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Anastasios Dragomanovits, Julia Roussou and George Yannis has been published in Safety. The techniques considered were Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, and K-Nearest Neighbours. Among the five techniques, the Random Forest model achieved the best classification performance (overall accuracy: 89.3%). The findings of this study are particularly useful as the Random Forest model could be used as a highly promising proactive road safety tool for identifying potentially hazardous motorway segments.
A paper titled “From conflicts to crashes: Simulating macroscopic connected and automated driving vehicle safety” authored by Maria Oikonomou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Amna Chaudhry, Pete Thomas and George Yannis, has been published in Accident Analysis & Prevention. Analysis of the outputs along with traffic data and network geometry characteristics were conducted. The results indicated that in higher Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) market penetration rates (MPRs), crash rates will be significantly lower as well as when the following-vehicle in the occurred conflict is a 2nd generation CAV.
The Horizon 2020 project i-DREAMS (smart Driver Environment Assesment and Monitoring System) organised its Final Event which was held in Brussels, on 26 April 2023. In this i-DREAMS Workshop the main accomplishments of the project for the role of human factors in transport safety were discussed. Results indicated that the integrated treatment of task complexity, coping capacity and risk can improve behavior and safety of all travellers and all transport modes, through unobtrusive and seamless behaviour monitoring.
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
The Horizon 2020 project MEDIATOR organised its Final Event which was held in Hague, on 13 April 2023. The MEDIATOR Workshop combined speeches, discussion with perspectives from industry and policy and discussion of main scientific contribution and next steps.
The Eighth Global Meeting of Non-Governmental Organizations Advocating for Road Safety and Road Victims took place in El Salvador and online on 6-10 March 2023, co-hosted by the Vice-Ministry of Transport of El Salvador and WHO. It was a hybrid event, enabling wider participation of NGOs and other stakeholders. The Global Meeting featured capacity building opportunities, inspiration from well-known safe mobility and sustainability experts, a high-level symposium with key influencers from government, multilateral organizations, private sector, and academia, as well as extensive networking opportunities.
A paper titled “Analysis of mobile phone use engagement during naturalistic driving through explainable imbalanced machine learning” authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Armira Kontaxi and George Yannis has been published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. Results indicate that the decision of drivers to use a mobile phone while driving is governed by a number of complex, non-linear relationships. Total trip distance is the most significant predictor variable by a wide margin, with mean SHAP values of 0.79 towards affecting the model decisions for the probability of mobile phone use of each driver. Fuel consumption had a particularly strong non-linear effect, as higher values of this variable lead to both higher and lower probability of drivers using a mobile phone, deviating from the safer average.
The UN Road Safety Collaboration organised the global campaign for the 7th UN Global Road Safety Week, which was held on 15-21 May 2023. World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with partners, organized periodic UN Global Road Safety Weeks. This 7th edition focused on sustainable transport, in particular the need to shift to walking, cycling and using public transport. Road safety is both a prerequisite for and an outcome of this shift.
The UK Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) organised the PACTS spring Conference 2023, which was held online, on 28 March 2023. The main theme of the Conference was Micromobility, Safety and Sustainability. Speakers from government, industry and user groups set out the landscape and particularly address safety and sustainability, both which remain key priorities for the Government.
The Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue (ICE-SAR) and the European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (EuroSafe) co-organised the EU-Safety 2023 Conference which was held with great success in Reykjavik, on 5-6 October 2023. Road Safety with focus on vulnerable road users was one of the main topics of the conference.
The HADRIAN Symposium was held in Graz, Austria, on 9-10 May 2023, under the theme “Shaping automated driving for human mobility needs“. The Horizon 2020 project HADRIAN (Holistic Approach for Driver Role Integration and Automation Allocation for European Mobility Needs) evaluated an holistic approach to shape automated driving to meet societal mobility needs. Over the last three years, the HADRIAN consortium investigated innovations within this scope and tested and demonstrated them in driving simulators and in real vehicles on test tracks and open roads. Results revealed that the “Integrated fluid HMI” had a great improvement in takeover performance and distraction prevention as well as outperformed with less mental or cognitive effort, higher comfort in use, and control feeling.
NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:
A paper titled “Exploiting Surrogate Safety Measures and Road Design Characteristics towards Crash Investigations in Motorway Segments” authored by Dimitris Nikolaou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Katerina Deliali, Yannis Handanos, Christos Karadimas, Giorgos Kostoulas, Elina Frantzola and George Yannis has been published in Infrastructures. For this analysis, a database containing data on injury and property-damage-only crashes, road design characteristics, and SSMs of 668 segments was compiled and utilized. The results of the developed negative binomial regression model revealed that crash frequency is positively correlated with the average annual daily traffic volume, the length of the segment, harsh accelerations, and harsh braking.
AMRKS and Tempulli Academy co-organised with great success the 9th International Conference “Road Safety Assessment-Challenges and Opportunities” which was held in Prishtina on 25 January 2023. This year’s conference came as a result of fruitful cooperation in several activities for road safety with the Kosovo Insurance Bureau BKS and with other institutions in this field in the country and abroad. It managed to serve as a powerful discussion platform to address the challenges and opportunities related to the road factor, which, along with the other two factors (the human factor and the vehicle factor), constitute the basic triangle of the causes of road accidents. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation :
The EU Methodology for Network Wide Road Safety Assessment
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) organised with great success the 102nd Annual Meeting, which was held on 8-12 January 2023 in Washington DC. The meeting program covered all transportation modes, addressing topics of interest to policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. More than 600 workshops and sessions were presented. NTUA actively contributed with the following papers and presentations:
