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NTUA – Key Resources on Cities with 30km/h speed limit, November 2023

Several cities worldwide have started setting speed limits of 30 km/h in large parts of the city. Brussels, Paris and Vienna have introduced city-wide 30km/h speed limits, mixing safely traffic of pedestrians, cyclists and motorised vehicles, with significant results in reducing road crashes, emissions and noise and upgrading city liveability. Within the 30 Marathons in 30 months campaign-challenge of Prof. George Yannis, a comprehensive set of resources on cities experiences with 30km/h speed limit is made available: georgeruns30x30.com/resources   Latest Developments European Commission – Boosting cycling across Europe, October 2023 The European Commission proposed a list of principles, in order to boost cycling across Europe. This proposal recognises cycling as a sustainable, accessible and inclusive, affordable and healthy means of transport, with strong added value for the EU economy. The Declaration should serve as a strategic compass for existing and future policies and initiatives related to cycling. The proposed principles will help the EU achieve its European Green Deal, Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and Zero Pollution Action Plan objectives.   ETSC – Reducing Older People’s Deaths on European Roads, 45th PIN Flash Report, November 2023 Τhe European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has recently published the 45th PIN Flash Report titled “Reducing Older People's Deaths on European Roads". This report highlights road safety challenges faced by older road users examines the latest data regarding road deaths of older people across the EU and other countries that form part of ETSC’s Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme. Key measures aimed at reducing risks for older road users, encompassing strategies that address behaviour, infrastructure and vehicle safety, are provided. Remarkable is that 55% of older people road deaths are vulnerable road users, while one third of them are pedestrians.     PIARC – Boosting Road Safety in LMICs: Focus on Infrastructure, November 2023 The World Road Association – PIARC implemented an ambitious PIARC Knowledge Exchange project, aiming at sharing knowledge about road safety, with the active contribution of NTUA, especially within Low and Middle Income Countries with limited resources but also in more developed economies with different needs and priorities. The theme of this month refers to infrastructure, as presented by the chair of PIARC Technical Committee 3.1 John Milton. Throughout the year, PIARC focuses on the Safe System approach, addressing safe roads and roadsides, safe road users, safe vehicles and safe speeds.    United Nations – World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, November 2023 The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is observed on the third Sunday of November each year, launched in 1995 by the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR) and since 2005 adopted by the United Nations 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. A book written by Jeannot Mersch and Briggite Chaudhry has been published for celebrating 30 years for the Day of Remembrance.      Statistics Corner Eurostat – Road fatalities in EU Regions 2021, November 2023 Based on the new interactive map of EUROSTAT on road safety performance of European Union regions (NUTS 2), there were 19,917 road fatalities on EU roads in 2021, equivalent to 45 road fatalities per million inhabitants. In total, there were 24 EU regions with at least 80 road fatalities per million inhabitants and the highest incidence rates for road fatalities were recorded in rural regions. In urban and capital regions much lower rates of road fatalities are reported with the lowest incidence rates observed in Brussels,Belgium (7 fatalities per million inhabitants), Wien, Austria (8), Stockholm, Sweden (9), and Bremen, Germany (9).  Our Publications ICSC2023 – 11th International Cycling Safety Conference, Hague, November 2023 The SWOV - Dutch Road Safety Research Institute organised with great success the 11th International Cycling Safety Conference (ICSC2023) which took place in Hague, on 15–17 November 2023, bringing the conference back to the Netherlands after 10 years. The ICSC is a forum for researchers and experts in the field of cycling safety to exchange their knowledge and bring up new research topics and safety solutions. This year's conference focused on safer cycling for a better future. NTUA actively contributed with the following paper:   Review on the literature on the safety of micromobility ECTRI 20-Years Celebration – Advancing Sustainable & Multimodal Mobility Research, Brussels, November 2023 The European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) celebrated the 20 Years of Achievements in Sustainable and Multimodal Mobility Research, in conjunction with the Annual Plenary Meetings of Members and of Thematic Groups, which took place with great success in Brussels, on 16 November 2023. Key achievements were highlighted and discussions focussed on how can research drive future green and inclusive mobility and the transformative impact of research on transport policy. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:  Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environments  AI for Vision Zero in Road Safety IRTAD 36th Meeting, Paris, November 2023 The International Road Traffic Safety Analysis and Data (IRTAD) Group and of the International Transport Forum (ITF) organised with great success the 36th Meeting which was held in Paris and online, on 8-9 November 2023. In this conference, the latest international road safety developments were discussed. 45 road safety experts enriched the discussion aimed to help improve road safety across the globe. Particular emphasis was given to new mobility and the evaluation of road safety measures. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:  ERSO Tool: Monitoring National Strategies  Effectiveness of city-wide 30 km/h speed limit   NTUA – Telematics boosting mobility behaviour Workshop, Athens, November 2023 The NTUA Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering organised with great success a Scientific Workshop titled “Telematics boosting mobility behaviour” which took place at the NTUA Campus in Athens on November 22nd, 2023. The rapid spread of innovative technologies in the field of telematics creates new opportunities to monitor, evaluate and improve driver behaviour through feedback tools, providing incentives to drivers for safer and greener behaviour, with spectacular results. During this workshop, the new interactive SafeRoadsMap tool for safe and green travelling in Greece was released.  Click here for the 10 NTUA presentations... Intelligent Transport Systems International Conference, Patras, November 2023 The Hellenic Association for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS Hellas) in co-operation with the University of Patras, Department of Civil Engineering and TSS-Transport Simulation Systems: Aimsun & Aimsun Online, organised the International Conference ITS2023, which took place with great success in Patras on 2-3 November 2023. This Conference was held under the theme “Intelligent Systems and Consciousness Society” to ensure comfortable, fast, and safe movement of people and goods in smart cities and communities.   NTUA actively contributed with the following paper:  Correlations of automated mobility conditions with traffic conflict types Comparing Machine Learning Techniques for Predictions of Motorway Segment Crash Risk Level, May 2023 A paper titled "Comparing Machine Learning Techniques for Predictions of Motorway Segment Crash Risk Level" authored by Dimitris Nikolaou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Anastasios Dragomanovits, Julia Roussou and George Yannis has been published in Safety. The techniques considered were Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, and K-Nearest Neighbours. Among the five techniques, the Random Forest model achieved the best classification performance (overall accuracy: 89.3%). The findings of this study are particularly useful as the Random Forest model could be used as a highly promising proactive road safety tool for identifying potentially hazardous motorway segments.  Comparative Evaluation of Road Safety Performance of the European Union Countries, November 2023 An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Comparative Evaluation of Road Safety Performance of the European Union Countries” was recently presented by Panagiotis Konstantopoulos. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for road safety were exploited as collected in 2021-2022 within the Baseline project, together with data from Eurostat and EC CARE road crash databases. It was observed that an increase in the percentage of vehicles travelling within the speed limits on urban roads and of the percentage of seat belt use, as well as an increase in the proportion of new vehicles in the total fleet, are associated with a clear reduction in crash severity.   Upcoming Events 6th International Traffic Safety Conference, Dammam, December 2023 The Saudi Traffic Safety Society is organizing under the patronage of His Royal Highness Governor of the Eastern Region the sixth International Traffic Safety Conference, which will take place in Dammam, Saudi Arabia on 4-6 December 2023. The theme of the conference is “Artificial intelligence and big data for transportation and traffic safety”. Experts, researchers, academics from internationally renowned research centres, institutions and international scientific organizations will take part in this conference.   European Commission – EU Road Safety Conference, Dublin, April 2024 The European Commission is organising the EU Road Safety Conference which will be held in Dublin, Ireland, on 16 April 2024. The Conference provides an opportunity to engage with EU Member State Authorities, Experts and all Stakeholders across the road safety community. In addition, it will facilitate exchanging views and experiences on the efforts to reach Vision Zero.  Transport Research Arena (TRA), Dublin, April 2024 The European Commission and the An Roinn Iompair (ARI) together with the European Transport Research Platforms ACARE, ALICE, CEDR, ECTP, ERRAC, ERTRAC, ETRA and Waterborne will organise the Transport Research Arena Conference (TRA2024) which will take place in Dublin, Ireland, on 15-18 April 2024. The pillars of the Conference will be the safe & inclusive transport, the sustainable mobility of people and goods, the efficient & resilient systems and the collaborative digitalisation regarding the European Transport Research and Innovation and the cooperation of Europe with other continents.