NRSO Road Safety Update - February 2021

 

Greek National Road Safety Action Plan – February 2021 The Greek National Road Safety Action Plan was presented on 3 February 2020 by Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis, and Deputy Minister Yannis Kefalogiannis, with  the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and all competent Ministers and the active contribution of NTUA.  The Action Plan sets the target of reducing fatalities by 50% by 2030 and is composed by five main axes: High-quality Data, National Strategic Plan & Governance, Education & Communication, Effective Enforcement System and Safe Road Network.     NTUA Road Safety Observatory in numbers 2020 The 2020 infographic of NTUA Road Safety Observatory (www.nrso.ntua.gr) highlights one more very intensive and highly fruitful year, despite the pandemic. The nrso scientific team with high dedication, efficiency and expertise continue to grow and excel, being active in 30 innovative research projects, succeeded to publish 65 scientific papers (23 in peer reviewed journals), and travelled around the world in hundreds of webmeetings to develop and promote road safety science. This year, besides intensive research in six Horizon 2020 and other projects, we were also lucky to contribute to the long waited Athens Great Walk large urban regeneration project and to the National Road Safety Action plan. During and after the pandemic, we are better than ever committed to our scientific quest for safer roads everywhere and for all.  Statistics Corner Road fatalities decrease in the pandemic, Greece 2020 Road fatalities in Greece in 2020 presented a significant decrease (16%) compared to 2019 figures, according to recently published ELSTAT data. This significant decrease is mainly attributed to the traffic restrictions due to the pandemic. During the last decade, Greece presented the most impressive road safety improvement in the European Union, with a decrease of 49% in road fatalities since 2011, achieving its target of halving road fatalities in 2020 compared to 2010. Serious injuries were reduced by 70% and the rate fatalities per vehicles was decreased by 52% since 2011.  Latest Developments ETSC – The Impact of COVID-19 on Traffic Safety and Mobility Education Report, January 2021 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has recently published a Report titled: The Impact of COVID-19 on Traffic Safety and Mobility Education.  The Report focuses on the effect of the restrictions imposed by most European Governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular the closure of schools, affected the provision of traffic safety and mobility education in their country, their work related to it, and how they adapted to it. The potential for Traffic Safety and Mobility Education improvement during and after the pandemic is discussed.   FERSI – E-scooters in Europe: legal status, usage and safety, September 2020 The Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes (FERSI) published a Paper titled “E-scooters in Europe: legal status, usage and safety“, which presents the legal status, usage and safety of e-scooters in 18 European countries.  Many countries are working on more targeted or more elaborate legislation. Οbjective information about numbers, safety, users and their behaviour is scarce and needs to be strengthened.  D. Lord, X. Qin, S. R. Geedipally – Highway Safety Analytics and Modeling, March 2021 A new book titled ‘Highway Safety Analytics and Modeling‘ authored by Dominique Lord, Xiao Qin, Srinivas R. Geedipally, has been recently published. This book covers the key elements needed for making effective transportation engineering and policy decisions based on highway crash data analysis. It covers all aspects of the decision-making process, from collecting and assembling data to making decisions based on the results of the analyses. The book discusses the challenges with crash and naturalistic data, identifying problems and proposing best methods to solving them. It examines the nuances associated with crash data analysis, showing how to develop countermeasures, policies, and programs to reduce the frequency and severity of traffic crashes   EuroRAP / RSI Panos Mylonas – Maps of most dangerous roads in Greece, January 2021 EuroRAP together with RSI Panos Mylonas, delivered to the Greek Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport two maps with the most dangerous roads in Greece. The maps were presented within the framework of the SLAIN project, which aims at enhancing Road Safety at the European Road Network. At these maps, Greek roads risk level is depicted in different colors, based on accidents frequency and quantitative risk assessment.    Our Publications ITF – Artificial Intelligence in Road Traffic Crash Prevention Roundtable, online, February, 2021 The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) organised with great success on 10-12 February 2021 an online Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence in Road Traffic Crash Prevention, chaired by NTUA Professor George Yannis. This roundtable examined several promising use cases of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the prevention of road crashes and explored the potential of computer vision to acquire relevant information and AI models to identify high risk locations and situations. The Full Report will be available soon.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  Using AI for spatial predictions of driver behavior Vulnerable road users: Cross-cultural perspectives on performance and attitudes, September 2020 A paper titled “Vulnerable road users: Cross-cultural perspectives on performance and attitudes“, authored by George Yannis,  Dimitris Nikolaou, Alexandra Laiou, Yvonne Achermann Stürmer, Ilona Buttler, Dagmara Jankowska-Karpa is now published in the Journal of IATSS.  The results of this paper indicate that crossing the road at places other than nearby pedestrian crossings, reading a text message or checking social media while walking on the streets, cycling and riding without wearing a helmet, and speeding on powered two-wheelers outside built-up areas but not on motorways/freeways were the most frequently reported self-declared behaviours in 32 countries.  Event identification based on driving characteristics on rural roads, July 2020 An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Event identification based on driving characteristics on rural roads” was recently presented by Akrivi Varela. Focus was put on determining the main factors that can describe the situation before and during an event. Results showed that random forest model performs much better than the binomial logistic regression model in identifying event occurrence with very few false alarms. Moreover, speed and longitudinal acceleration along with total distance driven from the beginning of the driving session, turned out to better describe the case of driving one minute prior to an event. Finally, driving during an event can be sufficiently described through speed, the deviation of the vehicle from the middle of the road as well as time headway with the vehicle ahead.    HADRIAN – Newsletter November 2020 The Horizon 2020 project HADRIAN  (Holistic Approach for Driver Role Integration and Automation Allocation for European Mobility Needs) published recently the 1st HADRIAN Newsletter.  One-year technical work is presented, highlighting the HADRIAN operational concept for improved driver role for automated driving and the respective driver state monitoring capability and HMI approach, together with related safety and impact assessment and the elaboration of ethical and legal implications for automated driving.   i-DREAMS – 3rd Newsletter, December 2020 The Horizon 2020 project i-DREAMS (smart Driver and Road Environment Assessment and Monitoring System) recently released its 3rd Newsletter, presenting the main accomplishments of the project, through creative solutions and risk mitigation strategies.  The newsletter overviews the progress of the project during 2020, and highlights the technical results of project deliverables, spanning from the theoretical modelling of the Safety Tolerance Zone and the active and post-trip intervention strategies to the practical organization of the 6-month field trial experiment and the corresponding hardware and software developed from the consortium.   Upcoming Events IRF – Webinars on Covid-19, Sustainable Mobility and Road Safety Management, March 2021 The International Road Federation (IRF) is organising three Webinars which will be held online on 4, 9 and 16 March 2021. The topics of the Webinars are: COVID-19 Response and Recovery: The Global Transport Knowledge Partnership (gTKP), Sustainable Mobility: Policymaking for Data Sharing and Road Safety Management – Innovation and delivery in developing countries. Registrations are open:    United Nations Sixth Global Road Safety Week, May 2021 The UN Road Safety Collaboration is organizing the global campaign for the Sixth UN Global Road Safety Week, 17-23 May 2021. The 6th Global Road Safety Week will have as theme Managing Speeding, with focus on city streets safety and the introduction of 30km/h speed limit in cities. It will be a great opportunity to mobilise the global population (Authorities, stakeholders, citizens) and launch the global plan for the newly proclaimed Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030. During this week, several road safety events are expected to be organised worldwide, including the active participation of NTUA.  POLIS – Polis Annual Conference, Gothenburg, December 2021 POLIS, the European Cities Network, is organising the 2021 Annual Polis Conference, which will take place on 1-2 December in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Conference provides an opportunity for cities and regions to showcase their transport achievements to a large audience of mobility experts, practitioners and decision makers. With a focus on innovation, sustainability and co-creation, Gothenburg hosts one of Europe’s most dynamic clusters within the field of mobility and safety.