NTUA participated actively in the Sixth UN Global Road Safety Week  by organising a key Scientific Workshop titled “Innovation in Road Safety Research” held online on 20 May 2021  , contributing at the Together for Safer Roads Vision Zero Fleet Forum  and several other workshops and endorsing the pledge of the UN Global Road Safety Week for speed limits of 30km/h in urban areas, together with the United Nations, World Health Organisation, International Road Federation, World Bank GRSF, ETSC/FEVR, RSI P.Mylonas, EFTHITA, Interamerican.

Together for Safer Roads organised with great success the Vision Zero Fleet Forum, which was held online on May 19th, 2021.  With focused contributions from key safety experts, this fleet-specific forum, focused on Vision Zero practices that maximize global learning and impact for fleet safety managers, city authorities, vision zero practitioners and city streets users.  NTUA actively contributed in the section Commercial Fleets, Vision Zero & Data Sharing.

NTUA within the framework of the Sixth UN Global Road Safety Week organised with great success a Scientific Workshop titled “Innovation in Road Safety Research” which was held online on May 20th, 2021. 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 and to open up the discussion in a round table with high-level experts on key innovations in road safety research in Greece, in Europe and worldwide. NTUA supports actively the UN Global Road Safety Week pledge for speed limits of 30km/h in urban areas. 

• Workshop Programme: 
• Team Photo: 
• Workshop Video: 

Workshop presentations concerned:

1.  The NTUA Road Safety Observatory
2.  Driver needs and behaviour in automated traffic – Drive2theFuture
3.  Societal impacts of connected and automated vehicles – Levitate
4.  Shared Automation Operating Models for Worldwide Adoption – Show
5.  Holistic Approach for Driver Role Integration into Automation – Hadrian
6.  Driver-vehicle-environment interactions and safety tolerance – i-Dreams
7.  Smart city mapping for safer and eco driver behaviour – SmartMaps
8.  Smartphone applications for driver safety behaviour support – BeSmart
9.  Development of the Road Safety Strategic Plan in Greece 2021-2030
10.  Collection of Road Safety KPIs in Greece – Baseline-G
11.  EU Methodology for Road Safety KPI Collection – Baseline-I
12.  Open science in road safety – BeOpen
13.  A Methodology for Network-wide Road Assessment – NetSafety
14.  Modelling crash modification factors globally – i-SafeModels
15.  Road Safety Audit of the Hellinikon Metropolitan Pole
16.  Monitoring road safety attitudes globally – Esra2
17.  Investigation of driver distraction effect using big data from smartphones
18.  Safety behaviour assessment of older drivers in real driving conditions
19.  Covid-19 impact on mobility and safety
20.  Model traffic and parking arrangements for the Athens Great Walk
21.  Electromobility as driver for sustainable mobility and safety – e-Mopoli
22.  Socio-economic impact of environmental transport charging – EcoCharge

Round table discussion:

1.   Safety Innovations in Automation and Connectivity, Prof. Andrew Morris
2.   How are Emerging Data Enabling Smarter Safety Applications?, Prof. Constantinos Antoniou
3.   Innovations for Safe Driver Behaviour, Prof. Tom Brijs
4.   Which Values for Future Safety Technologies, Ass.Prof. Eleonora Papadimitriou

The Province of Brescia, leader partner of the Interreg Europe project Electro MObility as driver to support POLicy Instruments for sustainable mobility (e-MOPOLI) organised with great success the e-MOPOLI Final Interregional Conference (phase 1) which was held online, on 19 May 2021. The meeting focused on presentation of project outputs, such as good practices, recommendations and on 9 partners regional action plan from Italy, Slovenia, Greece, Flanders, Finland, Norway, Romania and Latvia. It also presented key results and future scenarios of alternative fuel mobility.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:

•  Current Situation and Perspectives of e-mobility in Greece
•  Recommendations and Regional Action Plans
•  Attica Region Action Plan

The International Transport Forum (ITF) organised with great success the 2021 ITF Summit which was held online, on 17-28 May. ITF’s research unit supported the Summit with topical analyses and a pre-summit Research Day was organised with leading institutions to provide cutting-edge academic input to the Summit debate. Side events hosted by ITF partner organisations took place in and around the Summit thereby allowing greater opportunities for presentations of recent work and dialogue on key issues complementing the Summit theme.   

The Research in Mobility Committee of the UITP organised with great success an online event on 27 April, in which Road Safety and many other interesting topics were discussed.

NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Mobility and Safety Research Challenges in Public Transport

The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF) organised online the 32nd Meeting on 12-13 April in which the latest international road safety developments were discussed. NTUA contributed actively with the following presentations:

•  Review of Road Safety Strategic Plans Worldwide
• Artificial Intelligence in Road Traffic Crash Prevention

The EU-funded Horizon 2020 project Levitate (Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles) organised with great success a Webinar on Road safety assessment of automated vehicles, which was held online, on 27 May. The Webinar offered a discussion on which road safety impacts can be expected from Connected and Automated Transport Systems and how best the different types of impacts can be quantified. Key findings from the Levitate project analyses were presented including estimation of impacts using microsimulation and those focusing on Vulnerable Road Users. 

The International Commission for Driver Testing (CIECA) organised with great success the 53rd CIECA Congress, which was held online, on 26-28 May 2021. With this congress, entitled “Different drivers & vehicles. Safety for all”, CIECA focused on exploring the challenges that new trends in mobility, and the inclusion of modern technologies in vehicles present for driver training and testing. 

The European Commission together with ARCADE project organised with great success the third European Conference on Connected and Automated Driving (EUCAD 2021), which was held online on 20-22 April 2021. Participants enjoyed a blend of policy-oriented plenary sessions, as well as thematic breakout sessions to discuss specific R&I challenges. A virtual exhibition of projects was accessible throughout the three-day event. 

The European Commission organised with great success the EU Road Safety Results Conference which was held online on 20 April. The Conference was an opportunity to engage with EU Member State authorities and all stakeholders on the progress being made with implementing the Safe System approach. In particular, it allowed participants to learn how work towards the Key Performance Indicators set out in the Next Steps Towards Vision Zero policy framework is moving forward. 

The Road Traffic Safety Agency of Serbia (RTSA) together with several Serbian and international road safety Governmental, Academic and other organisations organised with great success the 16th International conference Road Safety in Local Communities, which was held on April 14 – 17, 2021. 

The Pioneer Alliance together with the NTUA Department of Transportation Planning organised with great success the PIONEERing Solutions for the Smart City Challenge, which was held online on 15 April 2021. Through this Workshop, students had the opportunity to learn about civil engineering for carbon-neutral smart cities, safety, security and risk management, technology enhanced solutions, service design, circular economy and sustainable urban life and tourism.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:

•  Pilot Assessment of Athens Great Walk
•  Conducting spatial predictions of driver behavior using multi-parametric data
•  Towards the development of an action plan for promoting electromobility

The Publications Office of the European Union  and the ISA² programme of the European Commission organised with great success the European Data Conference on Reference Data and Semantics (ENDORSE) which was held online on 16-19 March 2021. The Conference created an opportunity to link expertise to tackle current and future issues in the fields of interoperability and knowledge management including aspects of road safety.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation from the The Horizon 2020 project BeOpen (European forum and observatory for open science in transport):  FAIR Challenges in Transport Open Science

The Institute of Communication & Computer Systems (ICCS) together with the European Technology Platform ALICE organised with great success the 8th International Physical Internet Conference  (IPIC 2021) which was held online on 14-16 June 2021. The Conference aimed to provide an open forum for researchers, industry representatives, government officials and citizens to explore leading edge freight transport and logistics concepts, methodologies, projects, technological advancements and start-up initiatives for future interconnected logistics and the Physical Internet. Special sessions’ proposals deadline: 15 April.   

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organised with great success the Road Safety Performance Index Annual Conference and Award Ceremony 2021 (PIN conference) which was held online, on 16 June 2021. In June each year ETSC’s analysis of overall annual progress on tackling road deaths and serious injuries is published in the PIN Annual Report. The PIN conference is also the platform for the presentation of the PIN Award to the best performing country.  

The Region of Attica within the framework of the research project e-MOPOLI of the Interreg Europe program, organised with great success a Workshop on Εlectromobility which was held online on 23 March 2021. The workshop was hosted by the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of the NTUA and included presentations of key stakeholders of electromobility in Greece and a round table of experts.  Professor George Yannis opened the workshop with the key outputs of e-MOPOLI project as well as the status and next steps of electromobility in Region of Attica with the following presentation:  Interregional Learning Workshop of Region of Attica

The Horizon 2020 project BeOpen (European forum and observatory for open science in transport), organised with great success the TOPOS Observatory and Forum Webinar which took place on 26 March. The BeOpen partners presented the functionalities of the Transport fOrum/Observatory for Promoting Open Science (TOPOS), which aims to limit existing barriers in Open Science in Transport Research and align transport research with EOSC by following FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles.   A short feedback survey on improvement proposals on the current state of TOPOS is now available. 

The International Road Federation (IRF) organised with great success the 18th World Meeting & Exhibition, which took place in Dubai World Trade Center on 7-10 November 2021, under the theme Roads to Tomorrow: Innovative & Sustainable Solutions. This Meeting was a global summit & technology showcase that is both uniquely relevant to a wide cross-section of road mobility stakeholders, and focused on delivering solutions to the world’s pressing mobility questions.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

•   Driver Perception-Reaction Times in Level 3 Automated Vehicles

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.  

The International Road Federation (IRF) organised with great success three Webinars which were held online on 4, 9 and 16 March 2021. The topics of the Webinars were: COVID-19 Response and Recovery: The Global Transport Knowledge Partnership (gTKP), Sustainable Mobility: Policymaking for Data Sharing and Road Safety Management – Innovation and delivery in developing countries. Among others, the webinars offered insights on what is the reality of road safety on the ground, how to better engage at the country level and how to mobilise the resources needed to deliver.   

The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) organised with great success on 10-12 February 2021 an online Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence in Road Traffic Crash Prevention, chaired by NTUA Professor George Yannis. This roundtable examined several promising use cases of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the prevention of road crashes and explored the potential of computer vision to acquire relevant information and AI models to identify high risk locations and situations. The Full Report will be available soon.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

  Using AI for spatial predictions of driver behavior

Rhodes’ Rescuers Association have organised with great success a three-day Webinar titled “Road accidents: Don’t just observe – Act” which was held online on 18-20 December 2020.  The Webinar results are expected to bring significant value to road safety efforts at local, regional and national level. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

• Critical issues and priority actions for road safety in Greece
  

The “Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems – ITS Hellas, has organised with great success the 6th Intelligent Transport Systems and Developments in Greece Conference which was held online on 14-15 December 2020 with the support of the European Commission Representation in Greece, focusing on issues related to European goals and national aspirations and efforts for the transition to a sustainable and “green” mobility.  The recordings of the presentations are now available:  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:

•  SWOT analysis for electric mobility in Athens
•  New data for supporting Road Safety actions

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:

•  Impact of Median Jersey Barriers in the Design of Compound Alignments

Africa’s Road Safety Data Challenge (ARSO), Asia Pacific Road Safety Observatory (APRSO) and Ibero-American Road Safety Observatory (OISEVI) with the support of international development organizations, co-organised the Global Meeting of Regional Road Safety Observatories which was held online with great success, on 8-9 December 2020. This Global Conference helped in keeping the momentum created at the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, and contribute to strengthening collaboration and harmonization across these regional observatories. 

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:

•  Development of a Policy Support Tool to assess Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organising with great success an online PIN Talk titled “How to improve the safety of goods vehicles in the EU?“, which was held on 14 December. The event focused on the safety of goods vehicles in the EU, looking at goods vehicle safety but also the safety of goods vehicle drivers and all other road users.   

The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) organised with great success the 1st Ideathon, which was held online on 15 January 2021. Amongst others, the participants had the chance to contribute to the development of automated urban mobility solutions that address end-users’ real needs and get access to advanced knowledge on automated mobility and gain insights in the needs of different user groups. 

The Horizon 2020 project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption)  organised the 1st Concertation Workshop, which was held online on 16 December 2020. The workshop focused on discussions about the planning of demonstrations for fleets of Automated Vehicles around Europe, concerning mainly road transport for both passengers and goods.  

World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe has announced the first session in a series of webinars on Road Policing for Road Safety, titled: “Traffic Management vs Road Policing“. The session was held on 1 December 2020. As part of a wider series of topics on road policing and enforcement for road safety, Detective Chief Superintendent Andrew Cox, will present on the transition in operational thinking from traffic management to road policing.  

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) together with the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport under the auspices of the European Commission – DG Move, organised with great success the online EU Road Safety Exchange National Workshop for Greece on 24 November 2020. ‘EU Road Safety Exchange’ is a three-year twinning project (2019-2021) that supports improved institutional capacity and exchange of knowledge and best practice on road safety topics between EU Member States. Speeding and Powered Two Wheelers’ safety have been selected as priority road safety topics for Greece and best practices from France and Spain respectively on these topics were kindly presented by national experts, followed by thorough discussion.  

Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Ioannis Kefalogiannis stated that: “Serious effort and international cooperation on key road safety problems can bring  important reduction of road casualties in Greece”. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

•  Powered Two Wheelers Safety Greece – State of play

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) organised with great success the 100th Annual Meeting, which was held online throughout January 2021. 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. A number of sessions and workshops  focused on the spotlight theme for the 2021 meeting: Launching a New Century of Mobility and Quality of Life. This year’s meeting also featured dozens of sessions on how COVID-19 has impacted transportation and how transportation professionals and researchers are responding. 

The Laboratory of Health and Road Safety (LaHeRS) organised with great success an online Conference titled: “Road Safety Culture, Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow” on 20-21 November.  The Conference was addressed to teachers and all kinds of specialists who aim at promoting safe transportations.  New developments in the field of road safety culture were discussed followed by a fruitful discussion on innovative methods, modern tools and good practices in the education field.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:

•   Tourism and Road Accidents in Greece

The  European Federation of Road Victims (FEVR) together with the WHO Regional Office for Europe  and UNRSC members commemorated the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (#WDoR2020) on 15 November 2020, as an “appropriate acknowledgement for victims of road traffic crashes and their families”.  Some of the objectives of WDoR 2020 are to provide a platform for road traffic victims and their families to remember all people killed and seriously injured on the roads, to acknowledge the crucial work of the emergency services and to draw attention to the generally trivial legal response to culpable road deaths and injuries.   

In Greece, EFTHITA Rhodes is organising a special event on 15 November 2020, by presenting a poster on the west side of the building of the Greek Parliament, passing the message “Remember-Support-Act”  

The Pioneer Alliance organised successfully an open session for Viewpoints on Sustainable Cities, within the Internet of Things for Smart Cities School. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations: 

•  Automation and public transport
•  New Data for Urban Road Safety
  

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and DVR with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, organised an online PIN Talk, which was held on 19 November.  National experts from Germany shared their experience with international and private sector experts on how to involve stakeholders in road safety programmes. 

The 7th International HUMANIST Conference was hosted on 26-27 October 2021 in Rhodes, 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:

• 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 European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC), the European Green Vehicles Initiative Association (EGVIA) and the European Commission organised the 4th European-wide Conference dedicated to the presentation of results from road transport research in H2020 funded projects (H2020RTR), which was held on 30 November & 1 December 2020. The Conference aimed at presenting what the projects have discovered, how they overcame the hurdles and challenges and resolved them, and what were the next research steps in the fields covered by their research.  

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

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:

• 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) organised with great success the 2021 Road Safety Conference which took place on 28-29 October 2021 in Hague, Netherlands. The conference focused 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.  

The 27th ITS World Congress took place with great success in Los Angeles, CA, on 4-8 October, 2020. The conference focused on the New Age of Mobility and covered areas such as: 1) Seamless Mobility and Changing Behavior, 2) Fueling the Future: Alternative Fuels and Emission, 2) The Path to Vision Zerο, 3)Disruption on the Digital Highway: Data, 4)Technology from Entry to the Last Mile, 5)Connectivity or Spectrum / Networks, 6) Intelligent, Connected and Automated Vehicles, 7)Organizing for Success, Governance, Business Models, International Cooperation. This World Congress focused on these issues through the exchange of information and dialogue among attendees. 

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 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:

•  Global Diversity in Traffic Safety Culture

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:     

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

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

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.  

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

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 great success on September 14-16, 2020 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

NTUA actively contributed with the following lecture:  Innovations in Road Safety Audit practices in the European Union and internationally

Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety  organised with great success an online Q&A session with Dr. Etienne Krug, Director of the Department of the Social Determinants of Health, WHO which was held on 22 September 2020. This webinar gave 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 Department of Highway Engineering of the Gdansk University of Technology and the Foundation for the Development of Civil Engineering in Gdansk organised with great success the 13th International Road Safety Conference GAMBIT 2020.  The Conference has held online on 7-8 September 2020 focusing on challenges and requirements of improving road safety until 2030.  It covered topics such as challenges and opportunities for implementing Vision Zero, programmes and strategic actions for road safety until 2030, road safety innovation, from science to practice – an overview of road safety research projects, vulnerable road users, new technologies for road safety, road safety in road design guidelines, safe road surfaces, road safety management, safe public transport and urban mobility versus road safety.  

The chair of Transportation System Engineering of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) organised the 7th IEEE International Conference on Models and Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems (MT-ITS 2021), which was held online on the 16-17 June 2021. More than 80 state-of-the-art papers were presented boosting vivid discussion on future ITS challenges and opportunities. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:

•  Big Data and Artificial Intelligence for Vision Zero Road Fatalities (key note presentation)
•   Investigating the acceptance of an environmental transport charging policy. The case of Athens
•   Risk scenario designs for driving simulator experiments
•   Driving Behavior Safety Levels: Classification and Evaluation

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, organised with great success a Webinar on “Global Trends on the Status of Traffic Safety under the Covid-19 Pandemic”, which was held on 29 September 2020. This webinar aimed 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) organised with great success the first IRF Executives Talks with Florent Menegaux, CEO, Michelin, which was held online on 11 September 2020. The ‘IRF Executives Talks’ was 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 9th conference of European Association for Research in Transportation (hEART) organized by the Transport, Urban Planning and Economics Laboratory (LAET), took place with great success in Lyon on 3-4 February 2021. It covered relevant areas of transportation research with focus on methods, models and planning of transport systems. The aim of the conference was to connect researchers in transport modelling, transport economics, transport engineering and transport policy with advanced practice and state of the art, including road safety applications.  NTUA actively contributed with the following paper:  Exploring driving behavior as a latent variable in safety modeling. A preliminary analysis from a driving simulator study.

ESRA2 (E-Survey of Road Users’ Attitudes) project with the active contribution of NTUA is organising six on-line webinars under the theme “Measuring Global Traffic Safety Cultures to Support Effective Road Safety Policy Development” started in September 2020. The Webinar topics concern: Enforcement and traffic violations – Seat belt & Child restraint systems – Senior road users – Support for policy measures – Pedestrians – Cyclists – Moped drivers and Motorcyclists  (16 December 2020 by NTUA) – Gender Issues –  Young road users – Subjective safety and risk perception – Vehicle automation.  Registration is open. 

Vlaamse Stichting Verkeerskunde (VSV) in cooperation with Flanders, Road Safety GB, UHasselt, ETSC and Polis organized with great success a European Road Safety Summer School which took place online, on 24-28 August 2020, targeting road safety professionals. The schedule of the Summer School for these 5 days included key topics on:  road safety strategies, strategies in education and awareness raising, infrastructure, technologies, enforcement and technical site visits.    

The PRAXI Network and the General Secretariat of Research and Technology organised the “Climate-neutral & Smart Cities” webinar within the framework of Horizon Europe, on July 7, 2020. The webinar presented the mission and enrolled in a discussion between stakeholders from academia, research and public authorities.   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Sustainable Mobility in Smart Cities

The University of Thessaly, Department of Civil Engineering, Traffic, Transportation and Logistics Laboratory (TTLog), organised on-line the 5^th Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility (VirtualCSUM2020) on June 17-19, 2020. The theme of this year’s conference was “Advances in Mobility as a Service Systems” and its objective was the dissemination of knowledge and the exchange of good practices among researchers and practitioners in the domain of urban transportation.   NTUA contributed actively with several traffic safety papers and presentations:

The EU-funded Horizon 2020 project Levitate (Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles) organised with great success the 2nd Webinar on the impacts of automation in urban transport – featuring local urban strategies on 11 June, 2020.  This webinar provided an insight into the challenges that urban mobility is facing due to the COVID-19 crisis and into mid-term local mobility strategies. There were presentations from LEVITATE partners: NTUA, Transport for Greater Manchester, and Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.  The full recording of the webinar is available:  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Urban Transport Services

The Laboratory for Road Engineering and Sealing Components of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) organised the 9th International Conference on Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Pavements (MAIREPAV9) which took place with great success on 1 – 3 July 2020, in Zurich. The MAIREPAV series aims to promote and discuss the state-of-the-art design, maintenance, rehabilitation and management of pavements. MAIREPAV9 focused on sustainable design, testing and evaluation, and management of pavement infrastructures. The conference aimed to present and discuss current knowledge of the ever-changing challenges to researchers, engineers, managers and professionals from all over the world who are involved in design and management of pavements.  NTUA actively contributed with the following paper: 

•   Stochastic Prediction of Short-Term Friction Loss of Asphalt Pavements: A Traffic Dependent Approach

Within the framework of 15th International Conference Road Safety in Local Communities, UNECE together with the Serbian Road Traffic Safety Agency organised  with great success an online Workshop on 25 June 2020. The aim of the Workshop was to strengthen knowledge of representatives of the South‐East Europe member States on road safety management, evidence‐based decision making on road safety strategic goals and targets and the role of the Global Framework Plan of Action of Road Safety in development of road safety system.   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  EU Strategic Action Plan on Road Safety

European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published the 14th edition of PIN Annual Report , presented at the 2020 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Award event which took place on-line with great success on 17 June 2020. Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia and Portugal have reduced road deaths the most since 2010 while road deaths in Malta, the Netherlands and the UK were higher in 2019 than in 2010. Road safety progress is demonstrated but away from the decade targets. Estonia was awarded with the 2020 European Transport Safety Council Road Safety Performance Index Award.    

The 6th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology took place virtually with great success, on 23 – 26 May, 2020.  The theme of the congress was “Time for Action: Predict, Prevent, Repair”.  The sessions focused on showing the novel therapeutic interventions, designed to predict, protect and repair neurodegenerative diseases. Some sessions concerned cognitive impairment and road safety.  NTUA contributed actively with the following presentations:

• Driving behavior of patients with mild Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) or amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) carriers of the apolipoprotein e4 allele (APOE4)
•  The subjective perception of driving ability of patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia (AD)

The Hellenic Association of Driving Instructors together with Key Transportation Organisations in Greece organized an International Multidisciplinary Traffic Safety on-line Conference on 29-30 May 2020. The Conference aims concerned the evaluation of traffic and road safety in Greece, the identification of current and future pedestrians and vehicles traffic problems in Greece related to new technologies, the exchange of experiences from scientific studies, and current traffic safety actions and practices in Greece and internationally.     NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:

The 6th International Conference on Vehicle Technology and Intelligent Transport Systems (VEHITS) was held on 2-4 May 2020. The purpose of VEHITS 2020 is 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, Smart Mobility and Sustainable Transport Services. 

The Traffic Safety Agency of Republic of Srpska in cooperation with the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organized  with great success the 9th International Conference Road Safety in Local Community, in Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska on 29-30 October 2020.  The Conference  was aiming to strengthen and develop capacities at the local level and create synergies for significant road safety improvements in the country.   

NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Road Safety Strategy in Greece

The Transport Research Arena Conference (TRA 2020) organised by the European Commisison and the European transport research platforms (ACARE, ALICE, CEDR, ECTP, ERRAC, ERTRAC, ETRA, Waterborne), was scheduled to take place in Helsinki, Finland from 26-30th April 2020, themed “Rethinking transport – towards clean and inclusive mobility”. The conference was cancelled, though, due to the corona virus crisis.  Nevertheless, all scientific papers are scheduled to be published at the Conference Proceedings. NTUA’s TRA conference papers (full paper + presentation) are listed below:

•   Investigation of traffic and safety behaviour of pedestrians texting or web-surfing
•   Analysis of the impact of nighttime driving to drivers’ behavior in rural roads through a driving simulator experiment
•   Investigation of the impact of weather conditions to young drivers’ behaviour and safety in cities
•   Spatial analysis of driver safety behaviour using data from smartphones
•   Modelling the economic impacts of road crashes in Greece
•   Elderly drivers with brain disorders: Is their driving behavior the same before and after an unexpected incident?
•   Exploring the Establishment of a European Transport Research Cloud
•   Clash of cultures in Greek traffic? What happens when a Southern European road safety culture is mixed with a Northern European road safety culture?
•   Road user safety attitudes towards driver fatigue
•   Cycling under the influence of alcohol and drugs: current situation and risks
•   Identification of Road Safety Risk Factors in Africa
•   Road Safety Modelling: Macroscopic and Microscopic Approach
•   Development of a Platform for Global Road Safety Data Analysis
•   Advanced driver monitoring using smartphone applications: The BeSmart project
•   Driver feedback during naturalistic driving experiments: A review of types, methods and future challenges
•   Towards behavioral models for autonomous driving acceptance
•   i-DREAMS: an Intelligent Driver and Road Environment Assessment and Monitoring System
•   State of the art on measuring driver state and technology-based risk prevention and mitigation: Findings from the i-DREAMS project
•   Developing a Policy Support Tool for Connected and Automated Transport Systems
•   A Review on Societal Impacts of the Future Connected and Automated Transport Systems

The Horizon 2020 project Levitate (Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles) organised a webinar on the future impacts of automation in freight transport on 23 April 2020, 10:00-11:30 CET. This webinar gave an insight on autonomous solutions in freight, as well as their future impacts and potentials in the transport sector. It was presented an introduction of LEVITATE and its use case on freight transport, the project ALEES from VIL (Platform for the logistics sector in Flanders)  and an overview of ALICE on Autonomous Freight Transport Potentials.  

International Road Federation (IRF) – Geneva in collaboration with the European Union Road Federation (ERF) and the European Association of Tollway Operators (ASECAP) organised the IRF Virtual Workshop on “Unleashing road infrastructure potential for Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM)”, on 23 April 2020. This workshop session provided insights into the role, the vision and challenges of the road infrastructure sector in this transition period towards Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM). With an average audience of 200 international participants, 12 speakers from different backgrounds described how road infrastructure stakeholders will contribute to the new mobility ecosystem stressing the importance of mutual understanding and collaboration with other sectors. 

UNECE and the Ministry of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina organised the Transport-related SDGs and Road Safety System Workshop which took place with great success in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, on 4-5 March 2020. The aim of the Workshop was to strengthen the knowledge of competent institutions in the field of road safety in Bosnia and Herzegovina and experts on transport‐related SDG and how to define framework road safety strategy and improve road safety situation. NTUA road safety presentations concerned:

• The Road Safety Strategy in Greece
•  The European Road Safety Action Plan

The Universities’ Transport Study Group (UTSG) Executive Committee decided that the 52nd Annual UTSG Conference at the Loughborough University on the 6th to 8th July 2020 will not be a face-to-face conference due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, the Smeed competition will still take place with presentations being made in a virtual environment on Monday 6th July 2020 and  Annual Business Meeting of UTSG on Tuesday 7th July 2020 between 10am and 12 noon via the virtual conferencing facility webex. One key UTSG activity is an annual conference for staff, research students and other relative newcomers to transport research of member institutions and overseas universities, which is designed to discuss research needs, research in progress, and to give research students the opportunity to present papers on their work. 

The Mobility 2020 and Road Safety Conference (MOBILITET) organised by the Institute of Transport Economics (TØI), took place with great success on 4-5 February  2020, in Oslo, Norway. The MOBILITET 2020 gathered Norwegian and international scientists, politicians, key figures from the government and business community to discuss on climate issues, urbanization, innovation, technology, traffic safety and mobility trends.   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Skal den enkeltes frihet gå på bekostning av andres ulykke?

The “Innovation, Emerging Mobility Trends, and the Role of the Private Sector in Road Safety” event which was organised by the International transport Forum (ITF), the Volvo Group and the ITF Corporate Partnership Board (CPB), was held with great success on 18 February 2020, in Stockholm, Sweden. The event brought together top road safety experts, policymakers and other stakeholders which highlighted the importance of the ongoing innovative work of key global companies in improving road safety; with new technologies and data being the major catalysts.   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:   CPB Report: Safer Roads with Automated Vehicles?

The 3rd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety took place with great success on 19–20 February 2020, in Stockholm, Sweden marking the conclusion of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO). More than 1,700 participants from around 140 countries discussed extensively how the global targets for road safety can be developed, not the least in relation to the already existing goals for road safety in the 2030 Agenda.  During the Conference, the Stockholm Declaration focusing on global road safety efforts up to 2030 was presented, together with the recommendations from the Academic Experts Group. 

NTUA contributed actively in various sessions including:  The ITF/CPB Report: Safer Roads with Automated Vehicles? and reporting session on Developing New Technologies for Road Safety.

The ICoRSI International Symposium on Safety of Vulnerable Road Users co-sponsored a Workshop on “Globalising Vision Zero: Generating Scientific Evidence for the Road Ahead” on 18th February 2020 in Stockholm (A Pre-Conference event on the occasion of the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety).  At this event ICoRSI in association with Campbell Collaboration presented for discussion an Evidence and Gap Map for road safety interventions worldwide. This work enabled future research and discussions to be based on approaches and interventions which science shows can be effective in different parts of the world.  

iRAP in cooperation with ITF and the World Bank organized a workshop entitled: “Achieving the UN Road Safety Targets by 2030” which took place on 17-18 Febuary 2020 in Stockholm,  Sweden. The iRAP innovation workshop brought together leaders at the highest level of global and regional impact including government, policy, financing, technology, infrastructure management and data innovation. A number of sessions focused on the global structure needed to deliver the 2030 targets, big data for big life savings, lobal planning and design standards, international case studies of success and the business case for safer roads and investment innovation. 

The Greek Ministry of Development and Investment organised with great success the National Conference on Growth for the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027, which was held in Athens on 17 January 2020. The Conference for the upcoming period 2021 – 2027 marks the official launch of the dialogue of all productive forces, social and scientific bodies and policy makers. The aim is to formulate strategic choices at National and Regional level for all the critical development and socio-economic issues of the new period 2021-2027. Transport and road safety were key components of the discussions.  NTUA Professor George Yannis contributed  actively with the following presentation: Critical challenges for a Sustainable National Transportation System  

The Greek Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport in cooperation with the partners of the European program CIVITAS SUMPs-UP organized with great success a two-day event on 16 and 17 January 2020 on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP), in Athens. The purpose of the event was to provide support for the development of sustainable cities and to ensure accessibility for pedestrians, bike users and all citizens. Road safety was a key component of the urban mobility discussions. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation: Road Safety Measures for Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans 

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 99th Annual Meeting was held with great success in Washington, D.C., on 12–16 January 2020. The meeting program covered all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops, addressing topics of interest to policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions.  A number of sessions and workshops focused on the spotlight theme for the 2020 meeting: A Century of Progress: Foundation for the Future.   NTUA road safety presentations concerned:

•   Passing Sight Distance Assessment through the Interaction of Road-Vehicle Parameters
•   Investigation of Traffic and Safety Behavior of Pedestrians Texting or Web-Surfing
•   Economic Assessment of Road Infrastructure Safety Schemes in Greece Using Crash Prediction Methodology

The Horizon 2020 project Drive2theFuture is organising the 1st Drive2theFuture Workshop which was held in Brussels, Belgium, on 6 March 2020. Drive2theFuture’s mission was to prepare “drivers”, travellers and vehicle operators of the future to accept and use connected, cooperative and automated transport modes and the industry of these technologies to understand and meet their needs and wants. The Workshop focused on the discussion, exchange of ideas and learning about the future of user-centered automation.  

The Association for European Transport  organised with great success the 48th European Transport Conference, which took place online, on 9-11 September 2020.  The European Transport Conference (ETC) is the annual conference of the Association for European Transport. Each year the conference presents the opportunity to interact with a range of speakers across the Transport Industry, including several Road Safety Topics. The range of topics, the multi-seminar approach and the networking environment make ETC unique among transport conferences, making it the established premier event of its type.   

ARCADE Joint Connected and Automated Driving (CAD) Network and ERTRAC Working Group on “Connectivity and Automated Driving”  organised with great success the 3rd Stakeholder workshop of the joint CAD network which was held in Brussels, on 13 February 2020. The workshop targeted stakeholders from industry, scientific research, policy makers, public and road authorities, user associations and others with an interest in Connected and Automated Driving. 

The ARCADE with the support of the European Commission Directorate General for Research & Innovation (RTD) as well as the ERTRAC European Technology Platform organised the 2nd Interactive Symposium on Research & Innovation for Connected and Automated Driving in Europe which took place on 28-29  April 2020, in Helsinki, Finland. The event was held within the framework of Transport Research Arena conference (TRA2020) and  facilitated in depth discussions around specific topics for Research & Innovation in Connected and Automated Driving, in a three-hour workshop format. It was targeted at public and private stakeholders in road transport, interested in exchanging views on immediate next steps and future actions required for connected and automated mobility, while participation was only open to registered participants of TRA. 

The 2019 Urban Growth Conference tοοk place on 11 December 2019, in Athens, Greece, organised by Boussias Conferences. The conference brought together industry leaders, government officials, executives of public and private companies, engineers, academics and researchers with the aim of providing solutions for the design and implementation of sustainable cities. The themes of the conference focused on today’s urban development, sustainability in industrial production, infrastructure and eco-architecture, sustainable urban mobility, investment opportunities and public-private partnerships, circular economics, water use and digitalization of cities.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Sustainable Urban Mobility in Smart City

The 5th Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems and related developments in Greece, which is organised by the “Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems – ITS Hellas, took place with great success on 17 & 18 December 2019 at the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Athens, Greece.  The conference focused on the broad deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) as a tool to achieve economic growth and prosperity and ensure the effectiveness, efficiency and safety of transport for the benefit of the respective industry, the end-users and the environment. During this important for the Hellenic transport sector event, prominent Greek and foreign speakers thoroughly discussed and presented a number of key-topics, through several sessions and a number of Round-Table discussions.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  i-Dreams – Enhancing drivers safety by monitoring the behaviour through smartphones

The  Lund University and the Swedish Cycling Research Centre at the National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) organised  with great success the 9^th International Cycling Safety Confer ence (ICSC2021) which was held in Lund, Sweden, on 10-12 November 2021. 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 or safety solutions. The conference facilitates interaction between participants and offers a premium forum to share scientific results and ideas, and favours networking in the cycling safety community.