NRSO Road Safety

100 NRSO Road Safety Updates, 2019 The current issue of NRSO Road Safety Update (November 2019) is the 100th newsletter of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory and we celebrate it with a dedicated infographic, proud having contributed to the very important road casualties reduction in Europe this period.  With our first NRSO newsletter back on January 2007 and then more systematically with monthly newsletters since September 2011, we support systematically the international road safety community with key road safety knowledge and data, with ultimum objective safe traffic everywhere and for all.  Latest Developments European Commission – Road Safety Country Performance 2018 The European Commission has published a leaflet demonstrating the road safety situation at the end of 2018 and the very important progress made since 2010 in the EU countries. The target of the EU was to halve the number of road fatalities on European roads by 2020. The purpose of this leaflet is to allow Member States and European citizens to compare their situation and to encourage them to continue their efforts regarding road safety.  ETSC Video – Why the EU needs a zero tolerance drink-driving limit, 2019 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published a short video supporting that it is time for the EU to move from dozens of different drink driving limits to one that everyone can remember easily: Zero, despite the fact that every individual responds to alcohol differently.  FEVR – World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, 2019  The  European Federation of Road Victims (FEVR) along with the European Commission – DG MOVE and the WHO Regional Office for Europe commemorated the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on 18 November 2019, in Brussels, Belgium. From 1995, FEVR observed this day, as European Day of Remembrance, that was adopted by the United Nations in 2005, and is dedicated to remembering the many millions killed or injured in road crashes and their families and communities, as well as to pay tribute to the dedicated emergency crews, police and medical professionals who daily deal with the traumatic aftermath of road death and injury. The slogan of 2019 was: “LIFE IS NOT A CAR PART”.     NTUA signed the City declaration: The new Paradigm for Safe City Streets, 2019 During 30th POLIS Conference on 28 November 2019, in Brussels, Belgium, the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) declared its full support and signed the City declaration “The new Paradigm for Safe City Streets” including 10 principles to be recognized by EU cities, as necessary for sound and effective action for traffic safety.   Our Publications 30th POLIS Conference – Brussels, 2019 The 2019 Polis Conference tοοk place on 27 and 28 November 2019, in Brussels, Belgium, organised by POLIS, the European Cities Network, celebrating the network’s 30th anniversary. The conference provided 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 constituted a key focus area of the Conference.    NTUA contributed actively with: a presentation   The Effect of Mobility Characteristics on Road Safety in European Cities contribution at the Closing Plenary Panel Session: Who’s the Action Hero in Vision Zero?: Mobility and Safety, New Road Safety Data signing the City Declaration: The new Paradigm for Safe City Streets RADAR – ITS and Speed Management Workshop, Budapest, 2019 On November 21, 2019, in Budapest, a Road Safety Experts Workshop was organised by the RADAR project within the framework of Interreg Danube Transnational Programme, titled ITS and other speed management strategies.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:   Speed Management in Greece   ITS and Speed Management in Europe ECTRI – Assembly of Members Meeting, Madrid, 2019 ECTRI organized the Autumn Assembly of Members Meeting which took place with great success in Madrid, Spain, on November 18 & 19, 2019 and hosted by the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). NTUA as new member of ECTRI presented the current and future activities of the:  Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering  NTUA Road Safety Observatory LEVITATE – Connectivity and Automation Impact Assessment Workshop, Brussels, 2019 The Horizon 2020 research project LEVITATE organised an Experts and Stakeholders Workshop on Impact Assessment of Connected and Automated Transport Systems which took place with great success on 26 November, in Brussels.  Public authorities, road users, researchers and industry players discussed how the Levitate Policy Support Tool (PST) could assist Cities identifying the potential societal level impacts of connected and automated transport systems. Emphasis was given to the prediction of the impact of transport systems automation (forecasting tool) and the identification of (policy) interventions to help achieve certain long-term mobility goals and/or to mitigate the potential negative effects of transport systems automation (backcasting tool).   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Policy Support Tool A meta-analysis of the impacts of operating in-vehicle information systems on road safety, 2019 A paper titled “A meta-analysis of the impacts of operating in-vehicle information systems on road safety” authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Akis Theofilatos, Eleonora Papadimitriou, and George Yannis is now published in IATSS Research. This study aims to estimate the overall impact of distraction due to operating in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) and similar devices while driving on road crashes. While similar research has been undertaken, varying results have been reported so far. The findings of this meta-analysis, suggest that device operation as a risk factor while driving is a less researched aspect of driver distraction than others, and more studies would improve result estimates and transferability, especially for professional drivers.  Modelling Automated Vehicles’ Socio-economic Impact, 2019 A Diploma Thesis titled “Modelling Automated Vehicles’ Socio-economic Impact” was recently presented by Epameinondas Theodorakos. The aim of this Diploma Thesis was the development of a model that, by filling in the values for several parameters, could estimate the socio-economic impact of the automated traffic for different penetration scenarios, compare these scenarios results and demonstrate each parameters’ impact on the total cost. The model application results highlighted the crucial benefits of automated traffic and quantified the socio-economic parameters impact depending on the penetration scenarios and the reference year, with most important the role of cost of travel time.   Point of view Which is the right mix of mobility and safety policies? Today there is too much imbalance between urban mobility and safety policies, with mobility and efficient travelling dominating the mind of the citizens and subsequently the choices of the politicians, even if everybody agrees and talks about safety as a theoretical priority. This imbalance in favour of mobility is also reflected at the effort put by the Authorities and the industry. The question is how can we address this imbalance? Read the whole article... Upcoming Events Pre-events of 3rd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety in Stockholm, February 2020 Several highly interesting pre-events are organised by various international road safety organisations, mainly the days before the 3rd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety which will take place on 19–20 February 2020, in Stockholm, Sweden, marking the conclusion of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. The full list of pre- and post-side events, including details regarding the scope, date and location of each one, is available in the following link:  ITS Hellas – 5th Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference, Athens, 2019 The 5th Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems and related developments in Greece, which is organised by “Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems – ITS Hellas, will take place on 17 & 18 December 2019 at the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Athens, Greece.  The conference aims to discuss 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 will thoroughly discuss and present a number of key-topics, through several sessions and a number of Round-Table discussions.