NRSO Road Safety Update - October 2018

Matthew Baldwin – the New European Coordinator for Road Safety – Exclusive interview at NRSO EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc recently announced the appointment of Matthew Baldwin as European Coordinator for Road Safety to help drive forward the new road safety strategy as set out under the key actions in the Commission’s third Mobility Package to modernise Europe’s transport system in May 2018. The role will involve the coordination of road safety efforts with Member States, the European Parliament, cities, regions and all stakeholders in the road safety community.    Matthew Baldwin gave an exclusive interview to the NTUA Road Safety Observatory: NRSO: Matthew, tell me a bit about this new role of the European Coordinator for the promotion of road safety in Europe and what will be your specific areas of focus? Read the whole interview...

Latest Developments

InDeV – Handbook on How to analyse accident causation, 2018 The Horizons 2020 research project InDev (In-depth Understanding of Accident Causation for Vulnerable Road Users) recently published a handbook with focus on vulnerable road users entitled: How to analyse accident causation? This handbook was developed to help road safety professionals diagnose road safety problems by gaining more insights into the mistakes by road users that lead to collision. It describes various road safety methods that can be applied for studying the safety of vulnerable (and other) road users, including: accident data analysis, conflict and behavioural observations, self-reporting and naturalistic studies and road safety audit and inspection.

European Commission – Paving the way for safer roads in Africa, 2018 European Commission – DG for Research and Innovation in their Success Stories Web-page recently published the SaferAfrica H2020 project, which has been taken place with the active contribution of NTUA. As a continent, Africa has some of the most lethal roads in the world. A lack of road safety protocols, wanting road conditions and poor post-crash emergency response systems make for alarmingly high fatality rates. To help turn this around, the EU-funded project SaferAfrica is driving policies aimed at improving road safety. “Europe can play an important role by supporting African countries in improving road safety and achieving the Action Plan targets [African Road Safety Action Plan 2011-2020],” says project coordinator Luca Persia. “In this view, the project aims at building favourable conditions and opportunities for the effective implementation of road safety actions in African countries by setting up a Dialogue Platform between Africa and Europe.”

UN Road Safety Trust Fund gears up for action, 2018 The United Nations Road Safety Trust Fund which launched in April 2018, took an important step towards becoming operational, with the first meetings of its Advisory Board and Steering Committee taking place in Geneva. The Trust Fund aims to catalyze efforts to address the critical global road safety situation by bridging the gaps in the mobilization of resources and ensuring the effective coordination of action at all levels.

Statistics Corner

IRF World Road Statistics 2018 Since 54 years, the  International Road Federation (IRF) World Road Statistics (WRS) continue to be the major comprehensive, universal source of statistical data on road networks, traffic and inland transport. Over the past years, the WRS have proved to be an invaluable and internationally accepted reference tool for governments, NGOs, investments banks, research institutes and anyone analyzing and reporting trends in key subject areas like traffic volumes and vehicle usage, road expenditure, road safety, energy consumption and emissions. This year, the WRS 2018 (data 2011-2016) features more than 205 countries, with data on over 45 road related topics, presented in nine substantive sections, with the active contribution of NTUA for the Greek data.

EU transport in figures 2018 The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission released the Statistical Pocketbook 2018 ‘EU Transport in figures‘. In this Statistical Pocketbook, key road safety Tables are contained, together with several other Tables on transport statistics, providing a complete picture of current trends in transport in Europe. Data on road fatalities for the EU member states and associate countries allow for time series comparisons and country rankings.

Our Publications

ETSS/AROSO/PRI/IRF – Safer Roads and Mobility Conference, Abu Dhabi, 2018 The Emirati Traffic Safety Society (ETSS) along with the Arab Road Safety Organization (AROSO), La Prevention Routière Internationale (PRI) and the International Road Federation (Geneva, Switzerland) co-organized an International Conference on: “Safer Roads & Mobility” which was held with great success in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on 24 – 25th, October, 2018. The conference program focused specifically on Pillar II “Safer Roads and Mobility” of the Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) due to its sensitive impact on reducing road traffic fatalities.

31st ICTCT Conference, Porto, 2018 The 31st ICTCT conference was held with great success in Porto, Portugal on 25-26th October 2018, under the main topic “On the track of future urban mobility: safety, human factors and technology”. The conference was organised in close co-operation with the Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal. The objective of the conference was to support the understanding of future trends in urban mobility and their implications for the safety of all road users.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Road Safety and Automation

27th Meeting of the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD), Belgrade, 2018 The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF) organised a Meeting in Belgrade, Serbia, on 17-18 October 2018, in which the latest international road safety developments were discussed.  NTUA contributed actively with 3 presentations: Comparing the safety culture in Norway and Greece Update on the SaferAfrica project National road accident statistics: worldwide practices for personal data protection

HITE/University of Thessaly – 7th Pan-hellenic Road Safety Conference, Larissa 2018 The Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) and the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly co-organized the 7th pan-Hellenic Road Safety Conference, which was held with great success in Larissa, Greece on October 11-12, 2018. The main objectives of the Conference were to investigate and evaluate the level of road safety in Greece, as well as the efforts and innovations that are designed and implemented to improve road safety of drivers, vehicles and pedestrians in the Greek road network.     NTUA contributed actively with the following 12 presentations (full papers with review and presentation). Read more...

Which factors affect accident probability at unexpected incidents? A structural equation model approach, 2018 A paper titled “Which factors affect accident probability at unexpected incidents? A structural equation model approach” authored by Panagiotis Papantoniou, Constantinos Antoniou, George Yannis and Dimosthenis Pavlou is now published in Journal of Transportation Safety & Security. A driving simulator experiment was carried out, in which 95 participants were asked to drive under different types of distraction (no distraction, conversation with passenger, cell phone use) in different road and traffic conditions. Then, in the framework of the statistical analysis, driving performance is estimated as a new unobserved (latent) variable based on several individual driving simulator parameters while a structural equation model is developed investigating which factors lead to increased accident probability at unexpected incidents. Regarding driver distraction, results indicate that cell phone use has a negative effect on accident risk confirming the initial hypothesis that when talking on the cell phone drivers find it difficult to handle an unexpected incident and as a result are more likely to commit an accident.

The effect of anger on driver behavior and safety, 2018 A Diploma Thesis titled “The effect of anger on driver behavior and safety” was presented by Orestis Gavalas in July 2018. In order to achieve this goal, a driving simulator experiment was conducted and a questionnaire including the DAX scale was filled in a sample of 125 drivers. The collected data were grouped into anger components using the factor analysis method. Subsequently, both linear and logarithmic regression models were developed. Valuable conclusions were reached including men demonstrating higher levels of driving anger as well as that anger decreases with increasing age. The presence of anger is related to the increase in average speed, the reduction of headway (measured in time) and the increase in the probability of being involved in an accident and a road traffic infringement. On the other hand, forgiveness and noble mindedness lead to fundamentally opposite effects.

Point of View

Why do we need an African Road Safety Observatory? Road casualties is a major burden to the society worldwide.  According to WHO statistics, road casualties in Africa are by far proportionally higher than in any other region of the world. However, do we know the real number of road fatalities and injuries in Africa? Do we know the real specific road safety problems in the various areas of Africa? Do we really know the necessary countermeasures and how to implement them with the current potential of the African society and Authorities? Read the whole article...

Upcoming Events

1st African Road Safety Forum, Marrakesh, 13-15 November Comité National de Prévention des Accidents de la Circulation and SSATP are organizing the 1st African Road Safety Forum which is going to take place on 13-15 November 2018 in Marrakech, Morocco. The main objective is to bring road safety to the political attention of the African continent to achieve the goals of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 and the UN Sustainable Development Agenda and to promote international cooperation in the field of road safety and sustainable mobility.

POLIS Conference – Transport innovation for sustainable cities and regions, Manchester, 2018 The 2018 Polis Conference on “Transport innovation for sustainable cities and regions” will take place on 22 and 23 November 2018, in Manchester, UK, organised by POLIS, the European Cities Network. 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. Road Safety is one of the key areas of the Conference, as is also the subject of the special joint POLIS–ITF workshop titled: From Safety Data to Safer City Streets.