Ε.Μ.Π ΟΔΙΚΗ ΑΣΦΑΛΕΙΑ-NRSO Road Safety

 

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

NTUA – Road Safety and Simulation International Conference, Athens, June 2022

NTUA Civil Engineering School ranked 4th globally, 2021 The Civil Engineering School of the National Technical University of Athens was ranked 4th globally (2nd in Europe) according to ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2021, being the best performance of any Higher Education School in Greece.  The GRAS use a range of objective academic indicators and third-party data to measure the performance of world universities in respective subjects, including research output, research influence, international collaboration, research quality, and international academic awards.  NTUA road safety activities have contributed to this ranking.

Latest Developments

WHO Europe – Supporting healthy urban mobility in the pandemic, May 2021 The  World Health Organisation – Regional Office for Europe (WHO-Europe) recently published a Report titled: “Supporting healthy urban transport and mobility in the context of COVID-19“. The recommendations in this guidance can help in achieving multiple societal objectives, including: transport safety and efficiency; improved quality of urban life; reduced emission of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, and reduced noise; and greater opportunities to adopt a physically active lifestyle, while supporting economic recovery.

World Bank – Global Meeting of Regional Road Safety Observatories, December 2020 Africa’s Road Safety Data Challenge (ARSO), Asia Pacific Road Safety Observatory (APRSO) and Ibero-American Road Safety Observatory (OISEVI) with the support of international development organizations, co-organised the Global Meeting of Regional Road Safety Observatories which was held online with great success, on 8-9 December 2020. This Global Conference helped in keeping the momentum created at the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, and contribute to strengthening collaboration and harmonization across these regional observatories.

FERSI – Towards an evidence-based national road safety programme, Position Paper, January 2021 The Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes (FERSI) published a Position Paper titled “Towards an evidence-based national road safety programme“. The paper intends to offer guidance to Member States on developing a national road safety programme. Its main message is that a road safety programme must be based on scientifically sound evidence in order to ensure that it focuses on the most relevant issues and implements the most appropriate treatments.

European Commission – Relaunch of the European Road Safety Charter, April 2021 The European Commission officially relaunched its European Road Safety Charter, the largest platform on road safety in civil society, to support the Vision Zero ambition of reducing road deaths to almost zero by 2050. The Charter was founded in 2004 by the Road Safety Unit of  DG Move as part of its Road Safety Action Programme. To create more awareness and to have a bigger presence at the local and national level, DG MOVE will work intensively with a network of National Relays in the 27 EU Member States.

Drive2theFuture – 2nd Newsletter, February 2021 The 2nd Newsletter of the Horizon 2020 project Drive2theFuture was recently released highlighting the 2nd Drive2theFuture Workshop, held on March 2021, with the so far achievements of the project. The Newsletter also includes a survey identifying the current views and acceptance of automation in all modes which has been concluded with the participation of more than 11.500 people from all over Europe.   NTUA actively contributed in the Workshop with the following presentation:  From AV Skills Identification to AV training: The Drive2theFuture approach

BE OPEN – 5th Newsletter, April 2021 The fifth Newsletter of the Horizon 2020 project BeOpen (European forum and observatory for open science in transport) was recently released with the results of the second event held virtually at the US TRB (Transportation Research Board) 2021 Annual meeting and successive presentations of the TOPOS Observatory and Forum key features to the transport and open science community.

Statistics Corner

Transport Community – Road Safety in Western Balkans, April 2021 The Transport Community published statistics on road fatalities in 2020 for the Western Balkans’ regional participants, which show that the numbers of road fatalities per million inhabitants are higher in the Western Balkans than the EU average, highlighting the need for intensification of efforts for all pillars of road safety.

Our Publications

RADAR – 5th Road Safety Expert Group Meeting, online, May 2021 The RADAR project team organised with great success the 5th Road Safety Expert Group (RSEG) Meeting, which was held online, on 27 May 2021, under the theme: “Transport Safety and COVID-19“. There is a reasonable threat that investments in road infrastructure safety will be largely affected by the covid-19 and will shrink already small budgets dedicated to road infrastructure safety. Improving road infrastructure safety in the Danube area in this critical time requires action to demonstrate by facts the real impact of the pandemic outbreak on road safety.  NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation:  COVID-19 impact on mobility and safety

IATSS – Best Paper Award to NTUA, April 2021 The 42th IATSS Best Paper Award has been awarded to NTUA paper titled “A meta-analysis of the impacts of operating in-vehicle information systems on road safety“, co-authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Athanasios Theofilatos, Eleonora Papadimitriou and George Yannis. The paper aimed to estimate through meta-analysis techniques the overall impact of distraction due to operating in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) and similar devices while driving on road crashes. It was determined that 1.66% of total crashes are caused by operating in-vehicle systems, while the respective proportion is 0.60% when examining professional drivers exclusively.

Correlations of multiple rider behaviors with self-reported attitudes, perspectives on traffic rule strictness and social desirability, July 2021 A paper titled “Correlations of multiple rider behaviors with self-reported attitudes, perspectives on traffic rule strictness and social desirability“, authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Dimitris Nikolaou and George Yannis is  published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. Numerous statistical relationships were discovered and quantified correlating the four examined unsafe rider behaviors with eight latent unobserved variables. All covariances between unsafe behaviors were found to be positive and statistically significant, indicating that a rider who will engage more frequently in every single one of the four examined unsafe riding behaviors is more likely to also engage in all the others as well.

Impact of weather conditions and rush on road safety, March 2021 An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “Impact of weather conditions and rush on road safety” was recently presented by Giota Spanou. Data of 42 young drivers were collected, from a driving simulator experiment with and without any time pressure in good weather conditions, in fog, rain, and snow. Linear and binomial logistic regression models were developed for the mean driving speed, reaction time, headway and accident probability. The application of the mathematical models showed that snow and rain lead to a significant increase in the probability of an accident. Fog increases the accident probability only in the event of a dangerous event and time pressure seems to have the same effects as snow, a fact that should concern drivers.

Upcoming Events

ITF – Motorcyclists Safety Workshop: Riding in a Safe System, online, June 2021 The International Transport Forum (ITF) together with the Swedish Transport Administration, VTI, the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM), and the motorcycle manufacturers associations (IMMA and ACEM) are co-organising the “Motorcyclists Safety Workshop: Riding in a Safe System” which will be held online on 9-23 June. It is a follow-up to the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety and will focus on the nine recommendations of the Academic Expert Group and their application to motorcyclists’ safety.  Registration is open

ETSC – Road Safety Performance Index Annual Conference 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.