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George Yannis    NTUA won the European Road Safety Excellence Award, Brussels, October 2025 The NTUA Road Safety Observatory won the Excellence in Road Safety Award of the the European Commission - People's Choice - on 16 October 2025 in Brussels, in recognition for the great impact of the NRSO Campaign promoting 30km/h city-wide speed limits as the key policy for safer, healthier and greener cities. NTUA Prof. George Yannis mentioned that "Robust scientific evidence demonstrates that slower traffic can save thousands of lives in Europe, especially those of pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists and at NTUA we are excited to contribute with all our efforts and with our 30 Marathons campaign and see more and more cities and countries in Europe adopting the 30km/h city-wide speed limits".

Latest Developments

European Union – New Directive for Driving Licences, October 2025 The European Union has recently adopted the new Directive to modernize EU driving licence rules. The newly adopted rules tackle several road safety issues, including the introduction of digital EU driving licences, driving disqualification, stricter rules for novice drivers and more systematic checks of the fitness to drive. The new Directive also introduces an EU-wide accompanied driving scheme for 17-year-old drivers, a measure that has been proven to significantly improve road safety. Particular emphasis is given on vulnerable road users’ safety, such as pedestrians, cyclists, scooters and other micromobility users.

EU Road Safety Exchange Project – Adoption of proven road safety measures across Europe, October 2025 The EU Road Safety Exchange Project of the European Commission and the European Parliament drives adoption of proven road safety measures across Europe with the active contribution of NTUA. The EU-funded Project connected road safety experts from 19 European countries to tackle specific road safety challenges, showcase European best practice and implement practical solutions to save lives on their roads. From safer roads in Lithuania to lower speed limits in Greece, the European knowledge-sharing initiative is helping governments turn successful road safety ideas into action, making faster progress toward the EU’s goal of halving road deaths and serious injuries by 2030.

European Commission – Traffic Culture Safety Thematic Report, February 2025 The European Commission with the active contribution of NTUA, SWOV and KFV has published at the European Road Safety Observatory, the Traffic Safety Culture Thematic Report which emphasizes on growing a positive Traffic Safety Culture (TSC). This Thematic Report highlights that TSC encompasses shared values, norms, and attitudes that impact behaviours across the road system, influencing not only individual road users but also key stakeholders such as public authorities, private companies, NGOs, vehicle manufacturers, and infrastructure designers. An important way to leverage TSC as a concept to improve road safety is through organisations and companies, also preventive efforts to tackle risk behaviours should be made, ideally by focusing on long-term behavioural change.

Statistics Corner

EU Transport in figures, Statistical Pocketbook, 2025 The Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) of the European Commission released the Statistical Pocketbook 2025 “EU Transport in figures”. In this Statistical Pocketbook, key road safety Tables are contained, together with several other Tables on transport statistics, providing a complete picture of current trends in transport in Europe. Data on road fatalities for the EU Member States and associate countries allow for time series comparisons and country rankings.

European Commission – Children 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 Children Facts and Figures Report which looks at road fatalities among children on EU roads. According to this Report, the absolute number of fatalities among children aged 0-14 decreased between 2012 and 2022 by 33% to 455 fatalities in 2022, while the short-term change from 2019 to 2022 is a decline of 7%. The relative share remained constant throughout this time at just over 2% of all EU fatalities.

Our Publications

ICTR2025 – 12th International Congress on Transportation Research, Thessaloniki, October 2025 The Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT/CERTH) in cooperation with the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE) organized with great success the 12th International Congress on Transportation Research (ICTR 2025), which took place on 16-18 October 2025 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The spotlight theme of the 2025 Congress was "Transportation in the era of Artificial Intelligence". Click here for the 25 NTUA presentations...

EuroSafe – EU Safety 2025 Conference, Heraklion, October 2025 The European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (EuroSafe) in cooperation with the Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU) and LaHeRS organized with great success the EU Safety 2025 Conference which took place in Heraklion, Greece on 1-2 October 2025. This conference aimed to strengthen the field of injury prevention and safety promotion in Europe by facilitating the exchange of scientific knowledge and enabling networking opportunities for researchers, safety organisations and academics.  NTUA actively contributed with the following papers and presentations:   Leveraging Smartphone Telematics for Urban Traffic Safety: A Data-Driven Analysis of Unsafe Driving Events and Crash Risk   Machine Learning-Based Categorization of Central Roads in Athens Using Crash Risk Analysis  Current State of Road Safety in Greece: Existing Deficiencies and Urgently Needed Interventions

IRTAD 40th Meeting, Paris, October 2025 The International Road Traffic Safety Analysis and Data (IRTAD) Group and the International Transport Forum (ITF) organized with great success the 40th Meeting which took place in Paris, France, on 1-2 October 2025. In this meeting, the latest international road safety developments were discussed. Members and observers from many countries enriched the discussion aimed to improve road safety across the globe. Particular emphasis was given to road safety data collection and analysis. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentations: TRENDLINE project: Speed and speeding behaviour in Europe Infrastructure use & safety feeling of different road user types globally results from the ESRA 3 project

ETSC – Main Council Meeting, Brussels, October 2025 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) organized with great success its bi-annual Main Council Meeting which was held in Brussels, Belgium on October 15, 2025, where all the latest road safety developments and policies in Europe were discussed. NTUA actively contributed with the following presentation: The New Greek Road Traffic Code

Examining the effects of texting, web surfing, and navigating apps on urban driving behavior and crash risk, March 2025 A paper titled Examining the effects of texting, web surfing, and navigating apps on urban driving behavior and crash risk authored by Maria Oikonomou, Foteini Orfanou, Marios Sekadakis, Dimosthenis Pavlou and George Yannis has been published in Traffic Safety Research. This study exploited data from 36 young adult drivers through a driving simulator experiment, supplemented by a survey to gather participant characteristics and driving profiles. Data analysis utilized linear and binary logistic mixed models to explore the effects of texting and web surfing on speed and its deviation, headway distance and its deviation, and crash risk. Results indicate that using texting, web surfing and navigating applications while driving elevate crash risk by 10% and decrease speed, speed deviation, headway, and headway deviation by 9%, 23%, 6%, and 18%, respectively.

The impact of connected and autonomous vehicles on road safety with use of simulation, July 2025 A NTUA Diploma Thesis titled “The impact of connected and autonomous vehicles on road safety with use of simulation"  was recently presented by Aikaterini Kalliakoudi. For this purpose an analysis based on simulation data derived from nine scenarios implemented in the city center of Athens was conducted. Additionally, traffic and geometric characteristics of the locations where the conflicts occurred were documented. The statistical analysis was carried out through the development of three models: two multiple linear regression models and one multinomial logistic regression model. The results indicated that the influencing factors for the above variables are related both to traffic composition (e.g., vehicle types) and infrastructure characteristics (e.g., speed limit, capacity). Furthermore, the increase in AV/CAV penetration in the network was found to have a positive impact on road safety, significantly reducing the number of vehicle conflicts.

Vehicles Special Issue – Emerging Solutions and Technologies for Smart Mobility and Vehicle Safety in Transportation, December 2025 A Special Issue titled “Emerging Solutions and Technologies for Smart Mobility and Vehicle Safety in Transportation” has been recently launched on Vehicles Journal, with Guest Editors from NTUA: Dr. Eva Michelaraki and Prof. George Yannis. This Special Issue aims to present cutting-edge research on novel solutions and technological advancements in smart mobility, transportation safety, and intelligent vehicle systems. Contributions that explore data-driven approaches to traffic management, machine learning applications for driver behaviour analysis, crash prediction and prevention strategies, automation in transportation systems, and the role of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) in improving road safety are welcome. Deadline for manuscript submission is until 15 December 2025. Researchers can submit their contributions here.

IMPROVA – 2nd Newsletter, July 2025 The Horizon Europe research project IMPROVA has recently released its 2nd Newsletter, focusing on enhancing road safety by addressing the complexities of long-term consequences (LTC) caused by road traffic crashes. In its first year, IMPROVA has made significant strides in understanding and assessing the LTC of road traffic crashes. These actions align with our core research questions and lay the foundation for innovative tools, methodologies and policy recommendations.

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. Researchers can submit their abstracts until 15 December 2025.