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NRSO Road Safety Update - April 2021
Yahoo/Εισερχόμενα
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George Yannis <nrso@central.ntua.gr>
Προς:efthita_rh@yahoo.gr
Τρί, 11 Μαΐ στις 12:41 μ.μ.

Email not displaying properly? European Commission – All time low for road fatalities in 2020, April 2021 According to the European Commission almost 4.000 (-17%) fewer people lost their lives on EU roads in 2020 compared to 2019. Lower traffic volumes, as the result of the Covid-19 pandemic, had a clear impact on the number of road fatalities. Over the previous decade between 2010 and 2020, the number of road deaths dropped by 36%. This was short of the target of 50% fewer deaths that had been set for that decade. However, with 42 road deaths per 1 million inhabitants, the EU has the safest roads in the world.  NTUA – Innovation in Road Safety Research Workshop, online, May 2021 NTUA within the framework of the Sixth UN Global Road Safety Week is organising a Scientific Workshop titled “Innovation in Road Safety Research” which will be held online on May 20th, 2021. The objective of this Workshop is to highlight through an intensive flow of presentations the main findings and challenges of key road safety research projects carried out within the NTUA Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering and to open up the discussion in a round table with high-level experts on key innovations in road safety research in Greece, in Europe and worldwide. NTUA supports actively the UN Global Road Safety Week pledge for speed limits of 30km/h in urban areas.  Workshop Programme:  Participation is free upon registration:  Workshop WebLink:  Latest Developments WB/GRSF - Road Crash Trauma, Climate Change, Pollution and the Total Costs of Speed Report, March 2021 The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) has published a Report titled: Road Crash Trauma, Climate Change, Pollution and the Total Costs of Speed: Six graphs that tell the story. The purpose of this Report is to provide information on the relationships relevant to fundamental road transport policies, design, and operation. Well-established evidence shows the importance of managing travel speeds for road safety, for efficiency, for improved inclusion, and for greenhouse gas and other emissions.   European Commission – Road Safety Risks for New Personal Mobility Devices Study, April 2021 The European Commission has recently published the Study on market development and safety of personal mobility devices (PMDs) and L-category vehicles, prepared by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). The main objectives of this Study were to provide an inventory of the various types of personal mobility devices available on the market, to provide a detailed analysis of the market and the influence of the existing legislations at EU and national level and to provide a collection and evaluation of available data and information on accidents involving personal mobility devices.  HMIT – New Mobility and e-scooter Law in Greece, March 2021 The Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport proposed the New Mobility and e-scooter Law which has been recently adopted by the Greek Government. This Law sets the framework for the development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs), with several provisions for traffic and road infrastructure safety upgrade. Moreover, within this Law, traffic rules for Personal Light Electric Vehicles (e-scooters, etc.) are set for the first time, including compulsory  use of helmet and reflective clothing (at night), use of sidewalk for up to 6km/h PLEV design speed (like pedestrians), use of the road for PLEV design speed between 6 and 25km/h (like cyclists) and traffic ban for PLEV design speed higher than 25km/h and on streets with a speed limit of 50km/h or higher.    Statistics Corner Road fatalities significant decrease in the EU – Greece achieved the decade target of 50% reduction, 2021 According to the EU road fatalities infographic of the NTUA Road Safety Observatory based on preliminary European Commission DG-Move data for 2020, Sweden ranked first in 2020 with 18 fatalities/mil. inhabitants followed by Malta (21) and Denmark (27), whereas Greece ranked 20th (54) and Romania ranked last (85). 13 countries had a better performance than the EU average of 42 fatalities/mil. inhabitants. Greece was the only country that achieved the decade 2010-2020 target of 50% road fatalities reduction, with a performance of -52%.  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 54% in road fatalities since 2010, achieving its target of halving road fatalities in 2020 compared to 2010. Serious injuries were reduced by 72% and the rate fatalities per vehicles was decreased by 56% since 2010.

Our Publications

hEART – 9th Symposium of the European Association for Research in Transportation, Lyon, February 2021 The 9th conference of European Association for Research in Transportation (hEART) organized by the Transport, Urban Planning and Economics Laboratory (LAET), took place with great success in Lyon on 3-4 February 2021. It covered relevant areas of transportation research with focus on methods, models and planning of transport systems. The aim of the conference was to connect researchers in transport modelling, transport economics, transport engineering and transport policy with advanced practice and state of the art, including road safety applications.  NTUA actively contributed with the following paper:  Exploring driving behavior as a latent variable in safety modeling. A preliminary analysis from a driving simulator study.

IRTAD 32nd Meeting, online, April 2021 The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum (ITF) organised online the 32nd Meeting on 12-13 April in which the latest international road safety developments were discussed. NTUA contributed actively with the following presentations:  Review of Road Safety Strategic Plans Worldwide Artificial Intelligence in Road Traffic Crash Prevention

Pioneer Alliance – PIONEERing Solutions for the Smart City Challenge, online, April 2021 The Pioneer Alliance together with the NTUA Department of Transportation Planning organised with great success the PIONEERing Solutions for the Smart City Challenge, which was held online on 15 April 2021. Through this Workshop, students had the opportunity to learn about civil engineering for carbon-neutral smart cities, safety, security and risk management, technology enhanced solutions, service design, circular economy and sustainable urban life and tourism.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations:  Pilot Assessment of Athens Great Walk  Conducting spatial predictions of driver behavior using multi-parametric data  Towards the development of an action plan for promoting electromobility

Investigation of accidents involving powered two wheelers and bicycles – A European in-depth study, February 2021 A paper titled “Investigation of accidents involving powered two wheelers and bicycles – A European in-depth study” authored by L.Brown, A.Morris, P.Thomas, K.Ekambaram, D.Margaritis, R.Davidse, D.Shingo Usami, M.Robibaro, L.Persia, I.Buttler, A.Ziakopoulos, A.Theofilatos, G.Yannis, A.Martin and F.Wadji, is  published in Journal of Safety Research. Highly detailed data have been collected for 500 accidents involving PTWs or bicycles in the EU, which were analyzed on a case-study basis and led to detailed insights on such accidents. Analysis results suggest that ‘looked but failed to see’ remains a common cause, and in many cases the actions of the other vehicle were the critical factor, though PTW rider speed or inexperience played a role in some cases.

Critical factors of the influence of mobile phone use on driving behavior, based on smartphones’ data, October 2020 An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Critical factors of the influence of mobile phone use on driving behavior, based on smartphones’ data” was recently presented by Sofia Akritidou. Data from a six-months 200-drivers naturalistic driving experiment were analyzed and four statistical regression models were developed, forecasting the percentage of mobile phone use while driving. The results revealed that the parameters affecting the use of mobile phone while driving are four: the percentage of driving duration with speed above the speed limit, distance driving, average deceleration, and average speed. For the general, urban and rural models, the average deceleration had the most significant impact, whereas for the highway model, distance was the most significant parameter.

Upcoming Events

LEVITATE – Webinar: Road safety assessment of automated vehicles, online, May 2021 The EU-funded Horizon 2020 project Levitate (Societal Level Impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles) is organising a Webinar on Road safety assessment of automated vehicles, which will be held online, on 27 May, 14:00-15:30 CET. The Webinar will offer a discussion on which road safety impacts can be expected from Connected and Automated Transport Systems and how best the different types of impacts can be quantified. Key findings from the Levitate project analyses will be presented including estimation of impacts using microsimulation and those focusing on Vulnerable Road Users.

ETSC – Road Safety Performance Index Annual Conference and Award Ceremony 2021, online, June 2021 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) is organising the Road Safety Performance Index Annual Conference and Award Ceremony 2021 (PIN conference) which will be held online, on 16 June 2021, at 10:30-13:00 (CET). In June each year ETSC’s analysis of overall annual progress on tackling road deaths and serious injuries is published in the PIN Annual Report. The PIN conference is also the platform for the presentation of the PIN Award to the best performing country.

NTUA – Road Safety and Simulation International Conference, Athens, June 2022 The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), in cooperation with the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) organises the 8th Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2022 (RSS2022) which will be held on NEW DATES 08-10 June 2022 in Athens, Greece. The Conference’s theme this year will be: “Road Safety and Digitalisation” aiming to capture all recent trends in road safety emerging technologies, surrogate measures, augmented and virtual reality, big data, modeling and simulation, which are expected to boost global road safety in the coming years. Road safety experts and scientists from all over the world will join forces for a widely open and vivid discussion on both traditional and innovative solutions with high potential for traffic safety improvement. Selected papers will be published in key international scientific journals and special awards will be granted to best papers.   New abstract submission deadline 28 June 2021: Submit Now