NRSO Road Safety

NTUA within the framework of the Fifth UN Global Road Safety Week organized a Scientific Workshop titled “Digitalisation and Road Safety Research” which took place with great success on 17 May 2019 in Athens. This Workshop attempted to shed light into the role and the challenges of digitalisation on road safety, through an intensive flow of state-of-the-art presentations of key NTUA road safety research projects and a vivid Expert Panel discussion on new perspectives and horizons of road safety in the digital era in Europe and worldwide.   All twenty (20) presentations of the workshop are available here.

Latest Developments

ITF – New Directions for Data-Driven Transport Safety Report, 2019 The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published recently a new Report: “New Directions for Data-Driven Transport Safety”, with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report explores how seamless data collection, analysis and sharing can unlock innovations in transport safety. Very often most interventions to improve transport safety are reactions to incidents. However lately, connected vehicles, smartphone apps, ubiquitous sensors, data sharing and machine learning make proactive transport safety interventions possible and prevent crashes before they happen. Drawing on the Safe System approach, this Report examines how transport stakeholders can make better decisions by using more relevant and timely new safety data.

ETSC – How to improve urban road safety in the EU (PIN Flash 37), 2019 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 37th PIN Flash Report “How to improve urban road safety in the EU“, with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report analyses the latest data urban road safety across the EU and other countries that form part of the ETSC Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme, and it conclude with more than twenty main recommendations for action at EU. It is highlighted that the problems can be addressed with the right political leadership, resources and energy. But while the EU, national governments and other actors can help provide the knowledge, finance and guidelines to implement the necessary changes, it will often be up to local authorities to implement them effectively.   A comprehensive infographic depicts current urban road safety in Europe, with Pedestrians, Motorcyclists and Cyclists accounting for 70% of all urban road fatalities.

Make Roads Safe Hellas – International Tourism and Road Safety in Greece, 2019 Make Roads Safe Hellas in collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens, the University of Macedonia, the University of the Aegean, the Hellenic Open University and EASST, released a report titled: “International Tourism and Road Safety in Greece, Country Report 2019”. Make Roads Safe Hellas is a Non-Profit Organisation promoting road safety in Greece which hopes to gain momentum from their study and build support for the establishment of a Safe Tourism Network to ensure that road safety for tourists and travellers is given adequate attention, not just in Greece but across the globe. The Report is based on a survey of almost 1,500 international tourists visiting Athens, Chania, and Thessaloniki in 2018, as well on recent accident statistics from ELSTAT.

Our Publications

WCTRS – World Conference on Transport Research, Mumbai, 2019 The 15th World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR) which was organized by the WCTRS and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) took place with great success on 26-31 May, 2019 at Mumbai, India. For the last 40 years, WCTR has been organised every three years by the WCTR Society. WCTR allowed sharing cutting-edge research and advanced state-of-practice and provided a unique opportunity for experts to exchange ideas in all areas of transport research including Traffic Safety Analysis and Policy (C4 Special Interest Group).  All nine (9) NTUA presentations are available here.

Two more Francqui Chair Key Lectures, Hasselt, 2019 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.    All four (4) lectures are available here.

Safety Culture among Private and Professional Drivers in Norway and Greece: Examining the Influence of National Road Safety Culture, 2019 A paper titled “Safety Culture among Private and Professional Drivers in Norway and Greece: Examining the Influence of National Road Safety Culture” authored by Tor-Olav Nævestad, Alexandra Laiou, Ross O. Phillips, Torkel Bjørnskau and George Yannis is now published in Safety Journal. This study investigates road safety culture (RSC) as an explanation for this discrepancy by: (1) Comparing the road safety behaviours among professional and private drivers in Norway and Greece, (2) Examining factors influencing road safety behaviours, focusing especially on national road safety culture, and (3) Examining the influence of road safety behaviours and other factors (e.g., demographic and work-related variables) on accident involvement. The results indicate that aggressive violations are more similar among private and professional drivers within the national samples, than across the national samples, while seat belt use seems to vary according to the professional versus private dimension.

Spatial analysis of driver safety behavior using data from smartphones, 2019 A Diploma Thesis titled “Spatial analysis of driver safety behavior using data from smartphones” was recently presented by Ilias Parmaksizoglou. Smartphone driver behaviour data were processed in a GIS computer environment, resulting to the development of new tables describing the phenomena observed on the map of a major road axis in Athens, in nodes and links. Analytic maps were developed aiming to indicate patterns of the accumulation and ranking of the harsh events in the selected road axis. Finally, four linear regression models were developed, which demonstrated speed as the most statistically significant factor in predicting harsh events per day on a region basis.

Events

2nd ESRA Symposium, Brussels, 2019 The ESRA consortium will host the 2nd ESRA Symposium on Global Road Safety Performance Indicators, which will take place in Brussels, on 18 June 2019. New results from the ESRA2 data, collected at the end of 2018, will be showcased. Presentations will focus on key results of global road safety performance indicators (i.e. release of 32 country fact sheets and thematic reports on speeding, mobile phone use, and fatigue). The symposium is sponsored by the Forum of European Road Safety Institutes (FERSI).

ETSC – REVIVE Conference: Identifying good practice in emergency response in Europe, 2019 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) is organizing the REVIVE Conference which will take place in Brussels, on 18 June 2019. This conference will bring together road safety practitioners and legislators, and those working in the fire and rescue and emergency medical systems. It will provide an opportunity to learn more about the work of the REVIVE project and to discuss good practice in the emergency response across Europe. The aim of the REVIVE project is to map Emergency Medical Service (EMS) and Rescue and Fire Service (RFS) practices in the EU28 and raise the profile of both EMS and RFS on the national and European political agendas.

ETSC – 13th Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) Conference, Brussels, 2019 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) is organising the 13th Annual Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) Conference which will take place on 19 June 2019 in Brussels. During this Conference the latest road safety figures will be presented and actions needed to accelerate road safety progress will be identified. A high level representative on behalf of their country will receive the PIN award for achievements in road safety. The PIN conference will be attended by national road safety experts, high level officials and decision makers from across Europe and will provide an opportunity to discuss ways in which road safety in the EU can be further improved.

VSV – European Road Safety Summer School, Mechelen, 2019 Vlaamse Stichting Verkeerskunde (VSV) in cooperation with Flanders, Road Safety GB, UHasselt, ETSC and Polis are organising a European Road Safety Summer School which will take place in Mechelen, Belgium, on 26-30 August 2019, targeting road safety professionals. The schedule of the Summer School for these 5 days includes key topics on: a) road safety vision and strategy, b) education, awareness raising and infrastructure, c) technologies, enforcement and integrated policy, d) technical site visits.

Transport Research Arena – Research Awards TRAVisions 2020 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):    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 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

Transport Research Arena, Helsinki, 2020 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.  Submissions for the Journal Track (full papers) until the 16th of June Submissions for the Conference track (short papers) until the 30th of June Πηγή Ε.Μ.Π