NRSO Road Safety

 

ITF – 8th IRTAD International Conference, Athens, April 2026 The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) and the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of NTUA are co-organizing the 8th IRTAD International Conference: Better Road Safety Data for Better Safety Performance which will be held in Athens, Greece, on 15-17 April 2026, with the support of FERSI and ECTRI. The objectives of the Conference are to discuss improvements in the quality of data systems and data analysis globally, by fostering knowledge transfer among participants, with particular emphasis on road safety performance. The Conference is open to all and is primarily for the attention of road safety researchers, data analysts, those involved in collecting safety data and developing databases, and all those using the results of research to advise decision makers on road safety matters. Researchers can submit their abstracts until 30 September 2025.

Latest Developments

European Commission – Children Safety Thematic Report, February 2025 The European Commission with the active contribution of NTUA, SWOV, VIAS Institute and KFV has published at the European Road Safety Observatory, the Children Safety Thematic Report which refers to the safety of children. This Thematic Report highlights that children are, along with elderly people, the most vulnerable road users with boys being most at risk due to greater exposure and risk-taking behaviour. Moreover, a series of specific countermeasures are suggested, such as road infrastructure that prioritizes vulnerable users, 30 km/h zones around childcare facilities, mandatory protective equipment, the enhancement of active and passive vehicle safety, traffic laws with strict penalties, as well as better Traffic Safety and Mobility education in schools.

ETSC Annual Report 2024, June 2025 The ETSC Annual Report 2024, highlights a year of impactful advocacy and cross-border collaboration in the pursuit of safer roads across Europe. From championing 30 km/h urban speed limits and tackling loopholes in EU vehicle safety regulations, to supporting EU Member States through the EU-funded Road Safety Exchange programme, ETSC continues to be a leading voice for road safety in Europe. The Report also celebrates milestones such as Finland’s PIN Award for outstanding progress on road safety, the #IWillBeALifesaver campaign, and award-winning educational initiative LEARN!

UN Decade of Sustainable Transport 2026-2035 The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs announced the first ever UN Decade of Sustainable Transport 2026 – 2035 starting in 2026. The Implementation Plan of the UN Decade of Sustainable Transport is expected to serve as a strategic framework to coordinate actions, mobilize resources, and monitor progress towards sustainable transport worldwide. It will be an opportunity to further raise awareness of transport’s crucial role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals and to gather and rally new solutions, resources and partnerships to advance sustainable transport globally. Ensuring safety in sustainable transport is essential to protect lives, reduce crashes and build trust, resilience and reliable in transport systems.

Statistics Corner

European Commission – Young People Facts and Figures Report, May 2024 The European Commission with the active contribution of NTUA, SWOV and KFV has published at the European Road Safety Observatory, the Young People Facts and Figures Report which examines the number of fatalities among persons aged 15 to 24 years old. The absolute number of fatalities among young people aged 15-17 decreased by 39% between 2012 and 2022, while the respective number of fatalities among young people aged 18-24 decreased by 38% during the same period. Furthermore, remarkable is that the mortality rate for the age group 15-17 was the second lowest among all age groups in 2022.

NTUA – Road Safety Performance Indicators in Greece, May 2025 NTUA has recently released the 2025 version of Key Road Safety Performance Indicators in Greece in the framework of the EU project Trendline. These KPIs are derived from nationwide field observations in 2025 on four key Road Safety Performance Indicators (KPIs): speed, seatbelt use, helmet use, and driver distraction. Key findings show that only 71% of vehicles on rural roads complied with speed limits (less than in 2022), seatbelt use among rear passengers remained as low as 57%, helmet use increased for both front (85%) and rear riders (60%) and mobile phone use increased on rural roads (12%). These results provide valuable evidence for targeted road safety interventions and the future alignment of Greece with national and EU safety targets.

Our Publications

Elsevier – Transportation Research Symposium, Rotterdam, May 2025 Elsevier’s Transportation Research (TR) family of journals organized with great success the Transportation Research Symposium (TRS), which was held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 25-28 May 2025. This conference covered various themes concerning road safety, including policy & practice, methodological operations research, implications of emerging technologies, transport, environment, sustainability, logistics, traffic psychology and behaviour safety.  NTUA actively contributed with the following paper:  AI-Powered Tracking and Analysis of Pedestrian and Vehicle Behaviours with Time-to-Collision Estimation

EPTS – 23rd European Transport Congress, Paris, June 2025 The European Platform of Transport Sciences (EPTS) organized with great success the 23rd European Transport Congress which was held in Paris, France on 26-27 June 2025, under the theme "Future of European transport: infrastructure, service and technologies". Key topics discussed in this Conference were sustainable mobility and safety, railway transport, challenges in metropolises, airline transport and freight transport.   NTUA actively contributed with the following paper and presentation:   New Technologies for Sustainable Mobility: A Simulator-Based Approach to Risk Assessment and Transport Safety

EU Road Safety Exchange Workshop on Urban and PTW Safety, Athens, March 2025 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) together with the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the European Commision organized with great success the EURSE Workshop of Road Safety: Urban Safety and Safety of PTW, which took place in Athens, on 31 March - 1 April 2025.  The main focus of this event included information on the new regulations, as well as good practices to enhance road safety. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations: City-wide 30km/h speed limits – Challenges and perspectives Challenges for Power-Two Wheelers and Urban Roads Safety in Greece

ETSC PIN Talk – Improving the road safety of e-scooters, Online, May 2025 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organized with great success the PIN Talk “Improving the road safety of e-scooters“, which was held online, on 13 May 2025. This event looked both at how the safety of the vehicles themselves could be improved and how road rules can also improve safety by focusing on the available data relating to e-scooter user deaths and serious injuries.   NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Safer Micromobility

Using computer vision and street-level videos for pedestrian-vehicle tracking and behaviour analysis, March 2025 A paper titled Using computer vision and street-level videos for pedestrian-vehicle tracking and behaviour analysis, authored by Roberto Ventura, Stella Roussou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Benedetto Barabino and George Yannis has been published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Using advanced computer vision object detection and featuring extraction models, this framework integrates Kalman filtering, homography transformations, and object re-identification to achieve high accuracy. This study utilizes data from roadside video recordings from Athens, Greece. The findings show accuracy rates of 50%-70% in detecting traffic light statuses and identified a 23% discrepancy on average between manual and automated counts of illegal crossings. This paper underscores the potential of computer vision detection systems to provide reliable, real-time data that takes the road network conditions into account, ultimately contributing to safer urban traffic management and informed policy decisions.

Identifying driving profiles after take over request in automated vehicles at SAE levels 2 and 3, May 2025 A paper titled Identifying driving profiles after take over request in automated vehicles at SAE levels 2 and 3 authored by Marios Sekadakis, Sandra Trösterer, Peter Moertl and George Yannis has been published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. The analysis included clustering to develop distinct driving profiles based on key measurements collected through a driving simulator experiment, such as acceleration, deceleration, and speed, offering a deep understanding of driver behavior in responses to take over requests. Findings suggest that the nervous driving profile, although less frequent, poses significant safety implications due to higher deceleration rates and variability in speed and deceleration. The study also highlights that non-driving related tasks increase the need for longer take over time with greater variability observed at higher automation levels. These insights can inform the design of more adaptive HMI systems, enhance real-time feedback mechanisms, and improve driver training programs to ensure safer transitions during take over requests.

The impact of alcohol consumption on driving in rural roads using a driving simulator, March 2025 A NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “The impact of alcohol consumption on driving in rural roads using a driving simulator” was recently presented by Giorgos Papadakis. For this purpose, a driving simulation experiment was conducted with 35 drivers of different characteristics, who were required to drive under varying blood alcohol concentration levels. Additionally, data were collected through questionnaires, including demographic characteristics, driving habits, and perceptions regarding alcohol-impaired driving. Data analysis was performed using statistical and mathematical models, such as linear regression and binary logistic regression, revealing that increased BAC leads to a longer reaction time, higher accident probability, and reduced ability to maintain a safe distance from the preceding vehicle. The results confirm the significant impact of alcohol consumption on driving safety and emphasize the necessity of additional preventive measures.

metaCCAZE – 3rd Newsletter, April 2025 The Horizon Europe research project metaCCAZE has recently released the metaCCAZE 3rd Newsletter, which provides information on the latest outcomes of the EU-funded metaCCAZE project aiming to accelerate the deployment of smart systems that combine electric, automated and connected technologies and infrastructure, enabling zero-emission shared mobility services for both passengers and goods in European cities. This version of the Newsletter celebrates the 2nd year of the EU-funded project, marking a key turning point: the spotlight is now equally on the Follower Cities—Athens, Gozo, Kraków, Milan, Miskolc, and Poissy in Yvelines, part of the Paris Region. Each city brings its own challenges, priorities, and ambitions—from Milan’s suburban e-pod mobility concept to Gozo’s autonomous shuttle, and Athens' integration of electric buses using AI-supported planning. The diversity across these urban environments provides a proving ground for scalable, people-centred mobility solutions.

Upcoming Events

RSS2026 – 10th Road Safety and Simulation International Conference, Napoli, June 2026 The 10th Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2026 (RSS2026) hosted by the University of Naples Federico II will be held in Napoli, on 23-26 June 2026,  under the theme "Advancing Towards the Safe System Approach". The Conference aims to explore how the Safe System Approach has been embraced by the transportation community as an effective way to prevent fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways. Researchers can submit their abstracts until 31 October 2025.

WCTRS – 17th World Conference on Transport Research, Toulouse, July 2026 The World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) is organizing the 17th World Conference on Transport Research which will be held in Toulouse, France, on 6-10 July 2026.  For the last 40 years, WCTR has been organized every three years by the WCTR Society, uniting specialists from the transportation sector worldwide. Topics for discussion at the World Conference on Transport Research are grouped into 9 distinct themes which include maritime and air transport logistics, infrastructure design, traffic management in urban environments or the emergence of transport in developing countries. Researchers can submit their papers until 30 September 2025.