NRSO Road Safety

3rd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety, Stockholm, Sweden, 2020 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.

NTUA Road Safety Observatory in figures 2019 The infographic of the 2019 NTUA Road Safety Observatory (www.nrso.ntua.gr) highlights one more very intensive year, striving with highly scientific expertise to improve road safety in Greece, in Europe and worldwide. The nrso team with excellent dedication, efficiency and expertise were active in 25 innovative research projects, succeeded to publish 59 scientific papers (20 in peer reviewed journals), and traveled at 40 cities in 4 continents to develop and promote their research, proud also for the two Prince Michael Awards (SafetyCube and SaferAfrica). In the new decade, we are even more committed to our scientific quest for safer roads everywhere and for all.

Latest Developments

PIARC – Catalogue Of Road Safety Case Studies, January, 2020 The World Road Association – PIARC recently published the Catalogue of Case Studies, containing a properly documented set of interventions designed, implemented and operated worldwide to improve road safety in three specific fields: Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), Human Factors (HF) and interventions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). This Catalogue is aimed to be enriched in the future with new case studies, showing other applications, different solutions to solve the same problems and better representing the safety interventions applied or applicable in LMICs.

ETSC – How safe is walking and cycling in Europe? (PIN Flash 38), January, 2020 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has published the 38th PIN Flash Report “How safe is walking and cycling in Europe?“, with the active contribution of NTUA. This Report examines the most recent available data on the current safety levels of cycling and walking across the EU and other countries that provide data to ETSC as part of its Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme, and it concludes with recommendations for action at EU. It is highlighted that for a serious shift to walking and cycling, particularly for local journeys in densely populated areas, the very design of urban spaces will need to change. Motorised traffic will need to slow down when it comes into spaces used by vulnerable road users; separated infrastructure and smart intersection design will be essential; school streets without cars may need to become the norm.

ECF/Global NGOs – The Best Practice Guide for Safer Cycling, 2020 The European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) and the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety with the support of FedEx released a very interesting Guide containing good practices for supporting community and non-government organisations (NGOs) advocating for safer cycling in European cities. It is based on the experiences of the Netherlands and Denmark, two countries that have developed significant expertise in the field of cycling safety. Written in cooperation between the European Cyclists’ Federation, the Fietsersbond and the Cyklistforbundet, this guide seeks to collate and advocate for the adoption of best practice measures regarding road user behaviour, infrastructure design, safe vehicles and the management of road infrastructure.

Our Publications

Hellenic Parliament Road Safety Committee – Road Safety Worldwide, 2020 NTUA Professor George Yannis made an invited lecture at the Permanent Road Safety Committee of the Hellenic Parliament on “European Road Safety Policy and Good Practices Worldwide” on February 6th, 2020. He stressed the importance for measures on priority risk factors (speed, alcohol, distraction, seat belt, helmet) and serious road safety capacity-building with appropriate evidence-based policy making.

99th TRB Annual Meeting – Washington, 2020 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 will focus 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

Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport – Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans Workshop, Athens, 2020 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

Ministry of Development – National Conference on Growth, Athens, 2020 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

i-DREAMS – 1st Newsletter on Safety Tolerance Zone, 2020 The 1st newsletter of the Horizon 2020 project i-DREAMS (Safety Tolerance zone calculation and interventions for driver – vehicle – environment interactions under challenging conditions) was recently released highlighting the key activities of the first 8 months of the project with the active contribution of NTUA. It contains the project video, a closer look at the Safety Tolerance Zone concept and the i-DREAMS prototype, the team behind this exciting project, the expert advisory board members and some publications and press releases.  Sign up here.

A systematic cost-benefit analysis of 29 road safety measures, 2019 A paper titled “A systematic cost-benefit analysis of 29 road safety measures” authored by Stijn Daniels, Heike Martensen, Annelies Schoeters, Wouter Van den Berghe, Eleonora Papadimitriou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Susanne Kaiser, Eva Agner Breuss, Aggelos Soteropoulos, Wim Wijnen, Wendy Weijermars, Laurent Carnis, Rune Elvik, Oscar Martin Pere is now published in Accident Analysis & Prevention: Volume 133. Cost-benefit analyses were carried out for measures with favorable estimated effects on road safety and for which relevant information on costs are available, within the Horizon 2020 SafetyCube project. The information on crash costs was based on data from a survey in European countries and the results were assessed in terms of benefit-to-cost ratios and net present value, providing highly useful support to decision makers.

Correlation of road safety performance with health and economy indicators in the European Union, 2018 A Diploma Thesis titled “Relation of the performance of road safety to medical, economic and social indicators to countries in the European Union” was presented by Myrto Damianou in July 2018. The 27 European Union Member States are studied between 2008 and 2014. Linear regression and linear mixed statistical model were developed. The results demonstrated important but different impacts of the examined indicators at the different countries and varying impact weight of these indicators.

Point of View

How can new road safety data accelerate safety improvement? Data is a key support tool for developing evidence-based road safety policies. However, we are quite far from both disposing the right data and appropriately using them. Today, very often, we look where the data are and not where the problems are.  For example, we miss very critical information not only about risk exposure, like the time and distance travelled by pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, but also about the Key Performance Indicators of the road users, the infrastructure and the vehicles (speeding, distraction, helmet use, vehicle fleet age, road maintenance). Obviously, only crash data are not enough to identify neither the real dimension nor the causes of road accidents. We claim working on road safety problems, but we do not dispose a lot of critical information, all over Europe. In a way, we work well in blind, driven rather by road user impressions than by evidence. Read the whole article...

Upcoming Events

ESRA2 – International Conference on Measuring Traffic Safety Culture, Paris, 2020 E-Survey of Road Users’ Attitudes (ESRA2) is organizing the International Conference on Measuring Traffic Safety Culture which will take place on 1-3  April 2020, in Paris, France. The Conference will focus on measuring traffic safety culture using road users attitude metrics including new thematic reports on seat belt & child restraint systems, automated vehicles, risk perception, enforcement, cyclists, and elderly road users as well as first results from sixteen new countries.  Conference registration is open at: .

Transport Research Arena (TRA), 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.  TRA2020 full programme has now been published on the conference website