Νέα από το Ε.Μ.Π -Παρατηρητήριο Οδκής Ασφάλεια!

 

Let’s paint together a safe mobility future everywhere and for all in 2026 This year we followed our dreams with passion, system and stamina, promoting intensively road safety scientific excellence and safer mobility everywhere and for all. At mid-way to the decade target of -50% road fatalities, we need to further strengthen our individual and collective efforts to sincerely include traffic safety into the mobility agenda and persist in implementing the vision zero traffic fatalities. We thank you all for the excellent cooperation and we are sending you our very best wishes for Merry Christmas and a Very Lucky New Year, full of personal and professional achievements.  Latest Developments PIARC – Motorcycle Traffic Safety Report, December 2025 The World Road Association – PIARC recently published a Report titled “Motorcycle Protection Systems & Safety Aspects Of Management Of Traffic For Motorcycles” responding to the need of protecting one of the most vulnerable road user groups worldwide. The purpose of this Report is to provide evidence-based knowledge, case studies, and recommendations that can support PIARC member countries in addressing motorcyclist safety through both infrastructure measures and traffic management strategies. The scope of the Study includes literature reviews, international surveys, stakeholder interviews, and numerical/experimental analyses with emphasis in low- and middle-income countries. European Commission – EU progress on cycling, greener, healthier, more inclusive mobility, October 2025 The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission recently adopted its first Progress Report on the European declaration on cycling, showing strong momentum across the EU to boost cycling infrastructure and policies. The Report confirms cycling’s role as a clean, affordable and health-boosting way to travel. It also highlights the need to improve aspects such as safety, safe parking, cycle logistics, charging in buildings, carriage of bikes on trains, climate-proofing infrastructure and engagement with industry. Cities are stepping up cycling measures to meet the targets of the climate-neutral and smart cities mission.  TSR – Report on Optimizing Fleets with Telematics, October 2025 Together for Safer Roads Global Coalition recently published a Report titled Optimizing Fleets with Telematics presenting key insights on how vehicle telematics can transform fleet safety and reduce crash risks through data-driven interventions. This Report analyzes over 60 million driving trips globally, identifying correlations between telematics-based driver monitoring and significant reductions in risky behaviors such as harsh braking and speeding. Furthermore it emphasizes the value of AI-powered analytics and proactive driver coaching in improving fleet safety performance.  HMIT – Road Safety Campaign, December 2025 The Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport recently launched a road safety campaign, to draw public attention on the safety of Greek drivers with focus on the risk caused to other's lives. This Campaign aims to reduce serious traffic crashes and fatalities and save all road users lives, boosting road safety awareness and respect to other road users and the new Road Traffic Code.  Statistics Corner European Commission – Powered Two-Wheelers 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 Powered Two-Wheelers Facts and Figures Report which looks at fatalities at motorcycle and moped riders’ fatalities on EU roads. According to this Report, respectively, 3% and 16% of all road fatalities in the EU in 2022 were moped riders and motorcyclists. Taken together therefore, almost one in five road fatalities were powered two wheeler riders. Moreover, in fatal moped and motorcycle crashes, often no other road user was involved as 29% and 37% of moped riders and motorcyclists respectively died in a single vehicle crash (i.e. a crash with no crash opponent).   Our Publications ICTR2025 – Stella Roussou won the Young Researcher Best Road Safety Paper Award, October 2025 Stella Roussou, NTUA PhD Candidate & Researcher, received the Young Researcher Best Paper on Road Safety Award 2025 during the International Congress on Transport Research 2025. The Award is granted jointly by the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT/CERTH) and the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE). The award concerned the paper titled: “Predicting Pedestrian Violations in Urban Intersections Using ANOVA and Poisson Regression”, co-authored by Roberto Ventura, Apostolos Ziakopoulos and George Yannis.  In Motion for Safety Saracakis Safe Driving Behavior, Athens, November 2025 Saracakis Group of Companies in cooperation with NTUA and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport organized with great success a Workshop on Safe Driving Behavior Courses, which was held in Athens, on 12 November 2025. This Ιnitiative aimed to educate the participants on safe driving, reduce serious traffic accidents and fatalities and save the lives of young people. National road safety experts and driver safety instructors commented on the issue.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:   Road Safety Contemporary Challenges ETEK – Sustainable Mobility and 30km/h speed limits, October 2025 The Sustainable Mobility and Road Safety Committee of the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK) organized with great success a Meeting on Sustainable Mobility and 30 km/h speed limit in cities, which was held online on 23 October 2025. This Event focused on relevant policy recommendations, supporting Cyprus cities to adopt 30 km/h speed limits. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:   Benefits of the 30km/h speed limit in cities E-scooter riders: A cross-cultural analysis of traffic safety attitudes and behaviors, July 2025 A paper titled E-scooter riders: A cross-cultural analysis of traffic safety attitudes and behaviors authored by Milad Delavary, Craig Lyon, Ward G.M. Vanlaar, Robyn D. Robertson, Dimitrios Nikolaou and George Yannis has been published in IATSS Research. This study aims to analyze the prevalence of self-reported risky behaviors across various demographic groups and regions, and to assess factors contributing to the likelihood of unsafe e-scooter riding behavior. To achieve this, data from the third edition of the E-Survey of Road users’ Attitudes (ESRA) were utilized, focusing on responses from 39 countries worldwide. This paper included descriptive analysis and also mixed-effects logistic regression models were employed. The findings suggest that younger individuals and males are more likely to use e-scooters and engage in risky behaviors. Key factors influencing or associated with these behaviors included previous crash involvement, student status, and permissive attitudes toward safety regulations. Furthermore the study highlights the need for targeted safety interventions that address infrastructural factors as well as behavioral factors, including demographic and attitudinal influences.  Incentive-Based Telematics and Driver Safety: Insights from a Naturalistic Study of Behavioral Change, December 2025 A paper titled Incentive-Based Telematics and Driver Safety: Insights from a Naturalistic Study of Behavioral Change authored by Armira Kontaxi, Harris Sideris, Dimitrios Oikonomopoulos and George Yannis has been published in Sensors. This paper investigates driver profiling and behavioral change using high-resolution telematics data collected through the OSeven DrivingStar smartphone application. The naturalistic driving experiment was divided into two main phases: a baseline period with personalized feedback (Phase A) and an incentive-based phase (Phase B) comprising two gamified driving challenges with distinct reward criteria. The analysis of K-means clustering identified three driver profiles — Low-Exposure Cautious, Balanced/Average, and High-Risk Drivers — based on exposure, harsh events, speeding, and mobile phone use. The findings indicate that the Balanced/Average group exhibited statistically significant improvements during both challenges, reducing speeding frequency and intensity, while High-Risk Drivers achieved moderate reductions in speeding intensity. Furthermore, this study contributes to the growing body of research on gamified driver feedback by linking behavioral clustering with responsiveness to incentives, providing a foundation for adaptive and personalized road safety interventions.  Investigation of Illegal Pedestrian Crossings in the Center of Athens, July 2025 A NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Investigation of Illegal Pedestrian Crossings in the Center of Athens" was recently presented by Marianthi Alverti. For this purpose a Stated Preference (SP) survey was structured in order to examine decision-making scenarios based on varying conditions of travel time, perceived crash risk, and personal comfort, with a dataset of of 212 responses. The analysis exploited binary logistic regression to examine the likelihood of illegal crossing, and generalized linear model to investigate the trade-offs pedestrians make between safety, time, and convenience given three different scenarios of camera use, traffic light with timer, and the baseline scenario to choose from. The models highlight the influence of time pressure, traffic conditions, and social components on individual decisions. The findings aim to showcase the importance of pedestrian decisions to prevent the likelihood of a road crash and, in this way, support more behavior-aware policy design, ultimately contributing to safer urban mobility systems.   Infrastructures: Special Issue on “Safer Roads Ahead”, December 2025 Infrastructures Journal has launched the 2nd Edition of the Special Issue titled: “Safer Roads Ahead: Exploring the Latest Innovations and Advancements in Road Design and Safety Technology, 2nd Edition” aiming to showcase recent developments, innovative methodologies, and emerging technologies that contribute to safer and more resilient road infrastructure. The submission deadline is 31 August 2026. This Special Issue welcomes contributions on innovative approaches to road safety and infrastructure development. Relevant themes include emerging road design strategies, smart and adaptive roadway systems, and advanced safety solutions for vulnerable road users, as well as  data-driven and AI-supported methods for identifying and mitigating crash risks,, and connected and autonomous vehicle technologies. Studies focusing on human factors, behavioural insights, and environmental or climate-resilient road design are likewise encouraged. Guest editors of this special issue are Dr. Dimitrios Nikolaou and Associate Prof. Panagiotis Papantoniou.  Cultural Road – 1st Newsletter, January 2025 The Horizon Europe research project CulturalRoad has recently released the CulturalRoad 1st Newsletter, which provides information on the latest outcomes of the EU-funded Cultural Road Project aiming to develop innovative methodologies to ensure the equitable deployment of Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) services. This version of the Newsletter introduced five demonstration sites in Catalonia, Karlsruhe, Eilat, Ljubljana, and the West Midlands and Oxfordshire regions. They will test and validate the Project's methodology, generating valuable input to develop guidelines and policy recommendations for the fair deployment of CCAM in various environments. Furthermore it announced some key events, where awareness of Cultural Road and it's developments will be raised.  Upcoming Events 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, ECTRI and HITE. 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.  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.