NRSO Road Safety

 

Dimitrios Nikolaou PhD – Machine Learning-based Road Crash Risk Assessment, March 2024 Dimitris Nikolaou has successfully defended his PhD dissertation titled: Machine learning-based road crash risk assessment fusing infrastructure, traffic and driver behaviour data, under the supervision of NTUA Prof. George Yannis. Two distinct databases were developed; the former concerned motorway segments and the latter concerned urban and interurban road segments. Several statistical models (e.g. Logistic and Negative Binomial Regression, Hierarchical Clustering, Spatial Error Model) and Machine Learning Algorithms (e.g. Decision Tree, Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbour and Support Vector Machine) were implemented. The results revealed that crash frequency on motorway segments is positively correlated with the traffic volume, the segment length, the number of harsh accelerations and the number of harsh brakings per segment trips. It was also concluded that geometrical and behavioural parameters can be combined to meaningfully conduct road safety analysis spatially and proactively, as they are highly correlated with harsh braking Surrogate Safety Measures.

Latest Developments

United Nations – General Assembly urges speedier action to reduce fatalities worldwide, June 2024 The 92nd General Assembly of the United Nations urged accelerated action to reduce deaths and injuries from traffic crashes worldwide by implementing the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030. Precisely, it urged Member States and relevant actors to accelerate and scale up efforts to implement the Global Plan, making road safety a political priority and ensuring its relevance in the broader sustainable development agenda. Furthermore, the General Assembly invited Member States to consider adopting comprehensive legislation on key risk factors, including the non-use of seat belts, child restraints and helmets, and driving under the influence.

WHO – Road traffic deaths rise in Africa contrary to the global trend, July 2024 The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently published the 2023 Status Report on Road Safety for the Africa Region. According to this Report, road traffic death rates during the period 2010-2021 have increased significantly in the African region, with 17% increase in road-related fatalities, despite being home to only 15% of the world’s population, and 3% of its vehicles. Conversely, global rates fell by 5% during the same period. WHO recommends concerted efforts to implement a range of interventions, in order to strengthen national road safety strategies in Africa.

iRAP/IRF/FIA Foundation – Safer Roads Pledge Campaign launched, August 2024 The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), the International Road Federation (IRF) and the FIA Foundation have launched a SaferRoadsPledge campaign calling on organisations involved in designing and financing roads to pledge their commitment to safer roads ahead of the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. The Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety recommends using Road Safety Audits and Star Ratings to lift the safety of roads and designs. Road designers and financing institutions from the government and private sector are called on to commit their support for safer roads that enable more sustainable mobility.

SHOW – Dashboard of Autonomous Vehicle Fleets, January 2024 The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW Dashboard  with the active contribution of NTUA. The SHOW Dashboard provides a unified view of all SHOW Autonomous Vehicles pilot sites in a cohesive and user-friendly interface, in terms of performance monitoring and visualisation of real-time vehicle information. This Dashboard enables access to various Autonomous Vehicle (AV) data to optimise operations and get an insight of the impacts of the fleet operation on the environment, traffic flow or safety. Beyond the SHOW project, the information panel of the Dashboard contains available data, which are available and accessible to the wider AV-interested audience.

Statistics Corner

European Commission – Traffic fatalities collision matrix in the EU, March 2024 The European Commission published a breakdown of fatalities in the EU by road user and (other) “main vehicle” involved in the crash. The matrix shows clearly that fatalities overwhelmingly occur in collisions involving cars, and the need  to increase the protection of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists. EU policies are already evolving in this direction with the new mandatory safety measures introduced by the General Safety Regulation focused on VRUs.

ESRA3 – Subjective Safety & Risk Perception Thematic Report, July 2024 The Subjective Safety & Risk Perception Thematic Report of the European Survey of Road Users’ Safety Attitudes (ESRA) has been published with the active contribution of NTUA, containing a wealth of information on road safety in 39 countries across Europe, America and Asia-Oceania, based on the ESRA3 survey. This Thematic ESRA3 Report describes the perceived levels of safety when using different transport modes and the assessment of various risk factors in traffic (e.g. alcohol, speed, fatigue) regarding their contribution to crashes. Furthermore, it includes comparisons amongst the participating countries, as well as results in relation to age and gender.

Our Publications

Transport Community – Capacity Building on Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) 3+, June 2024 The Transport Community organised with great success a hybrid event about the Capacity Building on Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale 3+ in Belgrade, on 21 June 2024. During this conference, the conclusions of the SafetyCube project regarding the collection of serious injury data were presented. Furthermore, the MAIS3+ database and several best practices from EU Member States were discussed.  NTUA Professor George Yannis actively contributed with the following presentation:   Serious road injuries current practices & problems discussion on possible solutions

Exploiting Surrogate Safety Measures and Road Design Characteristics towards Crash Investigations in Motorway Segments, February 2023 A paper titled "Exploiting Surrogate Safety Measures and Road Design Characteristics towards Crash Investigations in Motorway Segments" authored by Dimitris Nikolaou, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Katerina Deliali, Yannis Handanos, Christos Karadimas, Giorgos Kostoulas, Elina Frantzola and George Yannis has been published in Infrastructures. For this analysis, a database containing data on injury and property-damage-only crashes, road design characteristics, and SSMs of 668 segments was compiled and utilized. The results of the developed negative binomial regression model revealed that crash frequency is positively correlated with the average annual daily traffic volume, the length of the segment, harsh accelerations, and harsh braking.

Safety evaluation via conflict classification during automated shuttle bus service operations, June 2024 A paper titled “Safety evaluation via conflict classification during automated shuttle bus service operations” authored by Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Maria Oikonomou, Marios Sekadakis and George Yannis  has been published in European Transport Research Review. To investigate impacts of autonomous shuttle bus services and to further examine their operational speed, the microscopic simulation method was performed.  By analyzing the trajectory data extracted from microsimulation, traffic conflicts were identified and further analyzed by developing Mixed-Effects Multinomial Logit Regression models (ME-MLMs) in order to associate conflict type taking into account network characteristics as well as traffic conditions. The analysis yielded several significant findings that provide quantitative measurements and assessments of the effects observed, enabling a better understanding of the safety implications associated with the widespread adoption of automated services.

The effect of fatigue on driver behavior in rural environment using driver simulator, July 2024 An NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “The effect of fatigue on driver behavior in rural environment using driver simulator” was recently presented by Georgios Tziouvaras. To achieve this objective, a driving simulator experiment was carried out and data from 35 participants were collected. Linear and binomial logistic regression models were developed. Results indicated that fatigue driving increases the average speed and reaction time of drivers, reduces their distance from the vehicle ahead and increases crash probability. It was also revealed that under conditions of high traffic load, lower average driver speeds, reduced reaction times and increased crash probability were observed.

SHOW – 9th Newsletter, July 2024 The Horizon 2020 research project SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption) has recently released the SHOW 9th Newsletter. The Newsletter provides information on the latest outcomes of the project. The SHOW Dashboard brings all the pilot sites in a cohesive and user-friendly interface. The combined efforts have brought real-life pilots to over 15 cities across Europe, paving the way for some countries to embark on their inaugural operations with shared Automated Vehicles. SHOW’s aim is to enhance urban mobility and automation by understanding people’s needs.

Upcoming Events

IRF – International Road Federation World Congress, Istanbul, October 2024 The International Road Federation (IRF) in cooperation with the Turkish Road Association are organizing the IRF World Congress 2024 in Istanbul, Turkey, on 15-18 October 2024. This conference with theme "Connecting to Empower Mobility: Roads as Enablers of a Sustainable Future for All" will serve as a platform for global leaders, industry experts, academia, and diverse public and private stakeholders to engage in insightful discussions and collaborative efforts, addressing pivotal issues and exploring innovations within the road and mobility sectors. Registrations are open here.

36th ICTCT Conference, The Hague, Netherlands, October 2024 The International Cooperation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic safety (ICTCT) together with the Traffic and Transportation Safety Lab of Delft University of Technology are organising the 36th Conference which will be held in The Hague, Netherlands, on 17-18 October 2024. This conference with theme “Inclusive and interdisciplinary road safety research” will serve as a platform for global leaders, industry experts, academia and diverse public and private stakeholders to engage in insightful discussions and collaborative efforts. Particular emphasis will be given to vulnerable road users, micromobility, road infrastructure design, innovative research methodologies and inclusive road safety policies. Participants can register here.

RSS2024 – 9th Road Safety and Simulation International Conference, Kentucky, October 2024 The 9th Road Safety & Simulation International Conference 2024 (RSS2024) hosted by the Kentucky Transportation Center will take place in Lexington, Kentucky, on 28-31 October 2024, under the theme “Improving Decisions Through Safety and Simulation Tools”. The Conference aims to improve upon the existing knowledge in the area of road safety and contribute to reducing the number of crash fatalities and injuries occurring worldwide, through the dissemination of innovative research and applications. Participants can register here.

POLIS – Polis Annual Conference, Karlsruhe, November 2024 POLIS, the European Cities Network, is organising the 2024 Annual Polis Conference, which will take place in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, on 27-28 November 2024. The POLIS Annual Conference is Europe’s leading sustainable urban mobility event, providing an opportunity for cities and regions to showcase their transport achievements, including recent safety developments, to a large audience of mobility experts, practitioners, and decision-makers from both the public and private sector. Urban Road Safety is a key conference priority. Participants can register here.