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The EU institutions have reached a provisional political agreement on the revised General Safety Regulation. As of 2022 new safety technologies will become mandatory in European vehicles
to protect passengers, pedestrians and cyclists. Key new technologies
include intelligent speed assistance, lane-keeping assistance, advanced
emergency braking, warning driver drowsiness and distraction, reversing
safety with camera or sensors and data recorder in case of an accident
(black box). Advanced safety features will reduce the number of
accidents (90% of which are due to human error), pave the way towards
increasingly connected and automated mobility, and boost the global
innovation and competitiveness edge of the European car industry. 
The full list of the new mandatory safety features:
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NTUA Professor George Yannis was recently awarded the prestigious Francqui Chair 2019, as proposed by Hasselt University. The Francqui Chair is awarded every year by the Francqui Foundation to eminent academics which are promoting the development of higher education and scientific research in Belgium.
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Latest Developments
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The European Commission adopted recently new rules stepping up the deployment of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) on Europe’s roads.
The new technology will allow vehicles to ‘talk’ to each other, to the
road infrastructure and to other road users – for instance about
dangerous situations, road works and the timing of traffic lights,
making road transport safer, cleaner and more efficient. The new rules
are in line with the proposals on clean mobility introduced by the Juncker Commission, are a further step for modernising the European mobility sector, preparing it for climate neutrality in the second half of the century and contributing to the EU’s long-term goal of moving close to zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050 (“Vision Zero”).
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Our Publications
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On March 27, 2019 in Ljubljana, the Interreg funded RADAR
project organised the first Road Safety Expert Group meeting focusing
on Safer Roads Investment Plans. Special emphasis was given into optimisation of using limited road investment
and road safety investment funds, by supporting most cost-benefit
effective engineering solutions at the most appropriate locations / road
sections. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Key points for Road Sections Safety in Greece
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A paper titled “ The European road safety decision support system on risks and measures” authored by the Horizons 2020 SafetyCube project team is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. The European Road Safety Decision Support System is
an innovative system providing the available evidence on a broad range
of road risks and possible countermeasures. This paper describes the
scientific basis of the DSS. The structure underlying the DSS consists
of (1) a taxonomy identifying risk factors and measures and linking them to each other,
(2) a repository of studies, and (3) synopses summarizing the effects
estimated in the literature for each risk factor and measure, and (4) an
economic efficiency evaluation instrument (E3-calculator). 
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A Diploma Thesis titled “ Combined impact of road and traffic characteristics on driver behavior using data from smartphones”
was recently presented by Virginia Petraki. High resolution driving
behavior data were collected using sensors of smartphones which were
combined with traffic and road geometry characteristics and subsequently
were depicted spatially using GIS. From the application of these models
it is observed that in road segments there is an increase in the number
of harsh events if average traffic volume per lane increases in the
respective segments. Furthermore, in junctions as the average occupancy
increases, there is an increase in harsh accelerations, and as average speed increases more harsh decelerations occur. 
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Point of View
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The main difference between roads and the other transport modes, is that most road vehicle drivers are not professionals,
not having received heavy training and not following the very high and
strict behaviour standards of the professional drivers and pilots of all
the other transport modes. Furthermore, the road environment,
especially in urban areas, is much more complex than the railways,
waterborne and air routes. Consequently, both the problems and the
respective remedial measures for road safety present focused attention
and particularities, which usually cannot be addressed by best practice
in the other modes.
Read the whole article...
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Events
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The Sixth Global Meeting of Nongovernmental Organizations Advocating for Road Safety and Road Victims will take place in Chania, Crete, Greece, from 8–13 April 2019.
This Global Meeting will be the biggest gathering of Road Safety NGOs
and Stakeholders in 2019 and the most important event leading up to the
end of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020. It will bring
together NGOs, global road safety stakeholders, funders and decision
makers and will feature training sessions, workshops, networking
opportunities and, for the first time, a High-Level Symposium on road
safety.
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The UN Road Safety Collaboration is organizing the global campaign for the Fifth UN Global Road Safety Week, 6-12 May 2019, under the theme “leadership for road safety”.
The goal of the global road safety week, is to generate a demand from
the public and the civil society to generate demands for strong
leadership for road safety, especially around concrete, evidence-based
interventions which will save lives and to inspire leaders to take
action by showcasing examples of strong leadership for road safety
within governments, international agencies, NGOs, foundations, schools
and universities, and private companies.
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The 2019 Polis Conference will take place on 27 and 28 November 2019, in Brussels, Belgium, organised by POLIS, the European Cities Network, celebrating the network’s 30 th anniversary.
The conference will provide an opportunity for cities, metropolitan
areas and regions to showcase their transport achievements to a large
audience, and for the wider transport community to engage with
representatives of local and regional authorities on innovative
transport solutions. Modern road safety problems and solutions in urban
areas constitute a key focus area of the Conference
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TRAVisions concerns two competitions for transport research awards to be announced in a prestigious award ceremony at the Transport Research Arena Conference on 27-30th April 2020 in Helsinki (abstract submission deadline: 30/06/2019): 
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TRAVisions 2020 Young Researcher Competition, an
academic student competition with the goal of stimulating the interest
among young researchers and students in the field of sustainable surface
transport
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TRAVisions 2020 Senior Researcher Competition, a
competition for senior researchers in the field of innovative surface
transport concepts based on results only from EU-funded projects
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The next edition of 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), will take place in Helsinki, Finland from 26-30th April 2020, themed “Rethinking transport – towards clean and inclusive mobility”.
Since 2006, TRA is the major European bi-annual transport research
event bringing together experts, authorities, industry and all
stakeholders to discuss on the newest innovations and the future of
mobility and transport and to foster a Europe-wide transformation in all
transport modes.
The deadline for paper submission is set for April 30th, 2019:
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Manage road risk. Prevent crashes. Reduce pollution.
