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Introduction: The number of road fatalities have been falling throughout the European Union (EU) over the past 20 years and most Member States have achieved an overall reduction. Research has mainly focused on protecting car occupants, with car occupant fatalities reducing significantly. However, recently there has been a plateauing in fatalities amongst ‘Vulnerable Road Users’ (VRUs), and in 2016 accidents involving VRUs accounted for nearly half of all EU road deaths. Method: The SaferWheels study collected in-depth data on 500 accidents involving Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) and bicycles across six European countries. A standard in-depth accident investigation methodology was used by each team. The Driver Reliability and Error Analysis Method (DREAM) was used to systematically classify accident causation factors. Results: The most common causal factors related to errors in observation by the PTW/bicycle rider or the driver of the other vehicle, typically called ‘looked but failed to see’ accidents. Common scenarios involved the other vehicle turning or crossing in front of the PTW/bicycle. A quarter of serious or fatal injuries to PTW riders occurred in accidents where the rider lost control with no other vehicle involvement. Conclusions: Highly detailed data have been collected for 500 accidents involving PTWs or bicycles in the EU. These data can be further analyzed by researchers on a case-study basis to gain detailed insights on such accidents. Preliminary analysis suggests 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. Practical Applications: The collected data can be analyzed to better understand the characteristics and causes of accidents involving PTWs and bicycles in the EU. The results can be used to develop policies aimed at reducing road deaths and injuries to VRUs.

Road traffic movement at nightfall (twilight) is characterizing by a reduction of light time of the day and the rapid nightfall onset, thus the driver’s eyes have less time to adapt to rapid sudden changes in illumination. The visual perception and the reaction time of the driver in conditions when pedestrians appear in nightfall conditions on the street and road network in a city is considered in the paper. Researched was conducted in uncontrolled pedestrian crossings in nightfall conditions on Ukrainian roads. Regularities of the vehicle’s driver and pedestrians’ interaction in nightfall conditions are obtained. Road traffic accidents occurrence probabilities at the twilight time considering the driver’s reaction time and the car’s movement parameters was analyzed. As a result, a model for estimating the variation the reaction time of the driver when a pedestrian appears in the nightfall (twilight) conditions was calibrated.

Network Safety Ranking and Road Assessment Programme (RAP) are two procedures used in road infrastructure safety management to rank the road sections of a network according to estimated road safety performance. The former uses indicators based on road accidents and their consequences while the latter method is based primarily on inspections of the road infrastructure. The aim of this study was to verify whether there is a relationship between the indicators used within these methods, in order to evaluate if and under which conditions RAP scores contribute to the prediction of accident numbers. The adopted approach is based on the calibration and analysis of a wide array of models in order to reproduce the observed events – injury road accidents, fatalities and injuries - with reference to different aggregations of the original data and in the two reference situations: with and without EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) indicators. . From the obtained results, the introduction of the EuroRAP indicators ends up making the models that explain the frequency of accidents more convincing from a statistical point of view. These indicators, which summarise the road safety performance of a road section, could prove useful in replacing the covariates (e.g. presence of intersections, geometrical and functional features of roads) that are used in the calibration of accident prediction models. However, it should be stressed that not all types of accident are addressed by the EuroRAP approach, and this may represent a limitation for those roadways where such kind of accidents are frequently observed, like rear-end collisions on motorways. Probably, by including these accident types, the explanatory power of the EuroRAP variables would increase, at least on motorways.

Wearing a safety restraint system is one of the most effective measures to substantially reduce the risk of serious or fatal accidents. Despite their benefits, a survey in 2015 revealed that on average 62 out of 100 Italian front car occupants wore their seat belt and only 15% of the rear seat passengers were regularly wearing their seat belt. According to several studies, one’s (driving) behaviour is based on a combination of attitudes toward the behaviour, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. The present study aims at understanding factors contributing to the low wearing rates in Italy. The data used are based on a questionnaire survey carried out among a representative sample of more than 1.000 Italian drivers within the ESRA project (European Survey of Road users’ safety Attitudes). The survey involved 17 European countries and covered several themes on (un)safe traffic behaviour and attitudes among which those related to the use of seat belts and child restraint systems. Two methods of investigation were adopted: the comparison between the Italian situation with the European best performers, pointing out the relevant difference with the included selected European Countries, and the use of regression models to study the association between several explanatory variables and self-declared behaviours related to the use of safety restraint systems. The main results show a high acceptability of risky behaviour in Italy and a relevant contribution of age and gender in shaping attitudes towards unsafe traffic behaviours. A number of recommendations are proposed to change people’s unsafe behaviour and attitudes in Italy, providing both enforcement and voluntary (e.g. campaigns, education and training, incentives) measures.

Africa is the worst performing continent in road safety: the fatality rate, 26.6 per 100.000 inhabitants, is almost three times that of Europe’s and fatalities per capita are projected to double from 2015 to 2030 (WHO, 2015). This is mainly due to the fact that Emerging Economies are experiencing increases in traffic, for which their traffic systems are not sufficiently prepared. On one hand, there is a significant demand for data and knowledge to be used for road safety-related decision making. On the other hand, there is a substantial lack of a reliable and detailed knowledge on road casualties in terms of the number of road accidents and fatalities occurring and, on the factors, leading to road accidents or affecting their consequences. When official data are poor or missing these could be integrated with other sources. The objective of this paper is to describe the African Road Safety Observatory (African RSO), a participative web portal developed in the field of the "SaferAfrica – Innovating dialogue and problems appraisal for a safer Africa" project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program. The African RSO combines traditional functions of analyzing and sharing road safety performance data and provide knowledge and information, with the more innovative ones: a Dialogue Platform and the crowdsourcing tool. The Dialogue Platform is dedicated to experts and stakeholders and aims at encouraging and facilitating a constructive engagement and dialogue on road safety in Africa, producing knowledge to inspire road safety funding, policies and interventions in Africa and providing recommendations to update the African Road Safety Action Plan and the African Road Safety Charter. The crowdsourcing tool allows African citizens to report and highlight road safety needs, to share opinions as well as to discuss solutions in their own Countries.

The interaction between drivers and pedestrians at a pedestrian crossing is studied using the method of ergonomic design. The galvanic skin response (GSR) and changes of the heart rate of drivers have been measured to monitor any emotional state change when encountering a pedestrian at a pedestrian crossing. If the driver moves away from the pedestrian standing at the roadside edge, the driver experiences a minimal emotional change. However, if there is no vehicle speed and path variation, the driver experiences significant shift in the GSR and heart rate, thus highlighting a possible increase of the stress level. It was based on the research where the distance and current speed have a significant impact on the drivers and pedestrians with the following consequences for their health. To assess the influence of a pedestrian presence on the road on drivers, it was proposed to use the angular velocity of the vehicle with respect to pedestrians. The probability of the pedestrians presence in a dangerous condition for drivers at different distances and speeds of pedestrian crossing made it possible to find an optimal pedestrian position on the road. Thus, the paper proposed a safe distance for pedestrians on the road at a pedestrian crossing in order to reduce the driver stress level in the traffic flow.

Post-license advanced driver training (ADT) addresses different categories of road users such as: novice drivers, professional drivers, company employers and recidivists. These training courses can be carried out on-track or on the road. On-track courses allow participants to gain knowledge on driving physics and experience limits in a safe road environment. On-road courses are more focused on hazard perception and situation awareness. Although extensive research has been done in this field, knowledge of the effects of these courses on road accident risk remains unclear. Previous evaluation of on-track courses did not always show a positive effect on crash rate. For example, post-license training focused on mastery of driving skills can lead to an increase of accident risk, especially on young males. However, research identified several factors that may enhance the effectiveness of driving training. In Europe a new framework for driver education and training has been proposed based on a safe driver hierarchical model (the GADGET model) and the development of a strategy for continuous learning. According to this framework, an evaluation study of on-track post-license advanced driver training has been undertaken in Italy with the main goal of assessing the safety effects of these courses and identifying training aspects to be improved. Besides crash rate, the study aims at assessing also driver behavior, knowledge of risks, self-evaluation and training quality. This paper presents the results of the possible effects of advanced driver training on driving behavior, considering in particular the number and type of violations. For each driver, data on age, gender and driving violations history were extracted from the platform and the national violations database. Three cases were addressed through a before-after analysis with control group. Case 1 considers all drivers who attended an ADT course. Case 2 aimed at understanding the effects of the courses on a specific target group: the traffic violators. Case 3 is similar to Case 2, however the control group was selected in a way that drivers characteristics and the violation rate was similar to the violation rate of the treatment group in the before period.The significance of the differences highlighted was assessed through appropriate statistical tests (i.e. paired t-test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test). The study showed in general a higher propensity to commit traffic violations after attending an ADT course. These results are in contrast to what expected and show the necessity to diversify the training classes according to the different needs of participants.

Road Infrastructure Safety Management (RISM) refers to a set of procedures that support a road authority in decision making related to the improvement of safety on a road network. Some of these procedures can be applied to existing infrastructure, thus enabling a reactive approach; and other procedures are used in early stages of a project's life-cycle allowing a proactive approach. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the most well-known procedures and present a series of recommendations for successful road infrastructure safety management. The work described in the paper was completed by the IRTAD sub-working group on Road Infrastructure Safety Management and presented in detail in the respective Report. The methodology followed on this purpose included the description of the most consolidated RISM procedures, the analysis of the use of RISM procedures worldwide and the identification of possible weaknesses and barriers to their implementation, the provision of good practice examples and the contribution to the scientific assessment of procedures. Specifically, the following RISM procedures were considered: Road Safety Impact Assessment (RIA), Efficiency Assessment Tools (EAT), Road Safety Audit (RSA), Network Operation (NO), Road Infrastructure Safety Performance Indicators (SPI), Network Safety Ranking (NSR), Road Assessment Programs (RAP), Road Safety Inspection (RSI), High Risk Sites (HRS) and In-depth Investigation. Each procedure was described along with tools and data needed for its implementation as well as relevant common practices worldwide. A synthesis summarizing the key information for each procedure was also drafted. Based on a survey on 23 IRTAD member countries from worldwide, the lack of resources or tools is the most commonly stated reason for not applying a RISM procedure. This has been frequently found mainly in European countries. Another common reason is the absence of recommendations/guidelines, especially for SPI, RAP, RSI and RSA. This highlights the importance of the presence of some legislation regulating the application of the procedures. Lack of data was found important mainly for SPI, HRS and EAT. Good practices of road infrastructure safety management have been explored in order to find solutions to the issues highlighted by the survey and provide examples about how these issues have been overcome in some countries. Specifically, issues related to data, legal framework, funding, knowledge, tools and dealing with more RISM procedures were addressed. Finally, nine key messages and six recommendations for better Road Infrastructure Safety Management were developed based on the conclusions made.

Introduction Smeed's law defines the functional relationship existing between the fatality rate and the motorization rate. While focusing on the Italian case and based on the Smeed's law, the study assesses the possibility for Italy of reaching the target of halving the number of road fatalities by 2020, in light of the evolving socio-economic situation. Method A Smeed's model has been calibrated based on the recorded Italian data. The evolution of the two indicators, fatality and motorization rates, has been estimated using the predictions of the main parameters (population, fleet size and fatalities). Those trends have been compared with the natural decreasing trend derived from the Smeed's law. Results Nine scenarios have been developed showing the relationship between the fatality rate and the motorization rate. In case of a limited increase (logistic regression) of the vehicle fleet and according to the estimated evolution of the population, the path defined by motorization and fatality rate is very steep, diverging from the estimated confidence interval of the Smeed's model. In these scenarios the motorization rate is almost constant during the decade. Conclusions In the actual economic context, a limited development of the vehicle fleet is more plausible. In these conditions the target achievement of halving the number of fatalities in Italy may occur only in case of a structural break (i.e., the introduction of highly effective road safety policies). Practical application The proposed tools can be used both to evaluate retrospectively the effectiveness of road safety improvements and to assess if a relevant effort is needed to reach the established road safety targets. Keywords Road safety; Trend; Smeed's law Language: en

This paper is the result of a PhD in Transport Infrastructure, realized at CTL, aimed to investigate issues related to the evaluation of interventions producing changes in traffic configuration and to develop an information system (Road safety Impact Assessment - RIA Module) to be integrated in an existing Decision Support System on road safety.The research created a library of SPF and developed an information system, called “RIA Module”, updating the existing “DSS - ISIDE”, developed by CTL.

The objective of this research is the assessment of current needs for evidence-based road safety decision making in Europe, through the consultation of a panel of road safety experts. The members of this Experts Panel have extensive knowledge of road safety management processes and needs in their country, being either directly involved in decision making, or working closely with decision makers. Two consultation methods were implemented: semi-directive interviews and written contributions. The synthesis of the results was carried out by means of a predefined matrix, in which the road safety management tasks were separated into their components, and were then cross-tabulated with distinct categories of needs. The results provide valuable information on the current and future needs for evidence-based road safety management in Europe. A number of key issues were brought forward with wide consensus among Experts, such as the need to make the consideration of scientific evidence in road safety decisions compulsory in all countries. The establishment of appropriate procedures was emphasized, including institutional arrangements for road safety management, with the necessary links and interactive procedures for local needs. The results also include useful recommendations, for the setting of targets, the use of cost-benefit analyses, the analysis of combined effects of measures, the collection of data on measures implementation, the collection of exposure and behavioural data, the estimation of injury under-reporting and the standardization of analysis methods.

Data collected from in-depth road accident investigations are very informative and may contain more than 500 accident-related variables for a single investigated case. These data may be used to get a more detailed knowledge on accident and injury causation associated with a specific accident scenario. However, due to their complexity, studies using in-depth data at aggregated levels are not common. The objective of this paper is to propose a methodology to analyse aggregated accident causation charts in order to highlight strong and weak relationships between crash causes and pre-crash scenarios. These relationships can be taken into account when developing or assessing new road safety measures (e.g. in-vehicle systems). The methodology has been applied to an in-depth accident dataset derived from the European project SafetyNet. Four different pre-crash scenarios associated with the accident scenario 'vehicles encountering something while remaining in their lane' have been investigated. Even if generalization of these results should be done with care because of database representativeness issues, the methodology is promising, highlighting, for example, a well-defined causation pattern related to vehicles striking a vehicle in rear-end accidents.

In years to come, urban areas face the challenge of making transport sustainable in terms of environment and competitiveness. Cycling is a perfect transport means in urban areas. Cyclists have a high casualty rate and should be given special attention in road safety policy. Actions to promote cycling in cities should go together with improving road safety. ICT can be used to develop intelligent applications assisting cyclists to avoid, prevent or mitigate accidents. This paper presents the results of activities focused on the assessment of impacts of ICT on the safety of cyclists, realised in the framework of the EU project SAFECYCLE ( www.safecycle.eu ). E-safety applications were identified that can enhance the safety of cyclists in Europe. Eleven applications were analysed in term of benefits and costs. The results highlighted important differences between European countries in term of awareness about cycling, knowledge about ICT applications and also impacts of these applications.

This study was intended to estimate the presence and number of individual sleep-related risk factors in a sample of diurnal car accidents and to analyze the extent to which these risk factors tended to be more represented in diurnal accidents involving only one vehicle, involving young drivers or occurring on non-urban roads. Two hundred fifty-three drivers involved in diurnal accidents were interviewed immediately after the accidents to assess their sleepiness-related personal conditions and the circumstances prior to the accident (i.e., individual sleep-related risk factors), such as poor sleep, changes in habitual sleeping patterns, prolonged wakefulness, self-reported acute sleepiness and daytime sleepiness, night-shift jobs and insomnia. A total of 12.3% of the drivers were classified as having at least one of the seven risk factors assessed in the study, supporting the general notion that drivers' sleepiness conditions are crucial, even in diurnal driving circumstances in which they are less likely to depend on chrono-biological processes. Furthermore, consistent with the guiding hypotheses, specific sleep-related risk factors were more evident in single (vs. multiple) car accidents, among young drivers and in car accidents occurring on non-urban roads. In summary, sleep-related risk factors seemed to have a negative impact on drivers' safety in circumstances of diurnal driving, especially when the accidents involved young individuals and occurred on non-urban roads. Language: en

SaferBraIn (an EC-funded project within the FP7) aims at increasing the level of safety of the road transport systems, focussing on Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) in India and Brazil. A Decision Support System (DSS) ([Geographic Information System (GIS)]-based application) is developed to select safety measures to reduce risk of accidents of VRUs, realize corrective and preventive analyses and road safety audits. The “corrective module” relies with analyses of VRUs accident data, identification of causes of accidents, possible countermeasures basing on Cost-Benefit and Cost-Effectiveness Analyses and monitoring of results. The “preventive module” realises road safety inspections and audits with a special focus on VRUs.

With the rapid expanse of motorised traffic in countries such as Brazil and India, the safety of vulnerable road users (VRUs) needs to be a key component in any transportation development. It should be considered what can be learnt from European transport planning experiences. This review identifies current good practice in Europe and considers how VRU safety is considered in the process. Based on this review, recommendations are given for:Stakeholder participation; • The development of a step by step planning process; • The implementation of VRU principles into the process. • An assessment of the feasibility and implications for safety of applying European practice to Emerging Economies is also given.

The safety level of a pedestrian crossing is affected by infrastructure characteristics and vehicular and pedestrian traffic level. This paper presents a methodology that allows assessing the safety level of a pedestrian crossing, regulated or not by traffic light, in an urban area according to the features of the crossing. A hierarchical structure representing factors influencing crossing safety has been developed and the relative contributions of each factor were calculated using AHP method. A composite index for crossing safety and specific indexes for main aspects included in the assessment have been developed. Main assessment aspects are: Spatial and Temporal Design, Day-time and Night-time Visibility and Accessibility. Night-time Visibility resulted to have the higher weight (about 41%). Developed indexes allow ranking of pedestrian crossings and assigning intervention priorities, highlighting the aspects which are to be enhanced. The methodology has been used for the evaluation of 215 pedestrian crossings in 17 European cities for the Pedestrian Crossing Assessment Project co-financed by FIA Foundation.

Road Safety Management (RSM) can be briefly defined as the tasks of preparing and implementing road safety policies. Many studies have been carried out on RSM, trying to identify success factors and reference best practice examples, but the complexity of the subject and the difficulty of quantitative data collection make it difficult a clear and comprehensive understanding. According to the EC-funded DACOTA research project, the weakest components of RSM systems in Europe are policy implementation and funding and the lack of knowledge-based road safety policy making.The main objective of the research, undertaken within the FERSI's working group on Road Safety Management (RSM), is to better investigate in several European countries those two RSM key functions: funding and research. Particularly the study aims at 1) exploring the existing structures, processes and factors affecting funding and research performances; 2) defining an assessment framework able to measure single country performances with reference to the efficiency and effectiveness of road safety funding and research, possibly shifting from a qualitative to a more quantitative approach.Based on the available knowledge on these two topics (research and funding), an assessment framework is defined and a set of qualitative and quantitative indicators for funding and research performance measurement is proposed. A desk analysis aiming at collecting available data useful to estimate the proposed indicators is conducted and a preliminary analysis with this subset of indicators is undertaken. A subset of research indicators (bibliometric) are used to estimate road safety research outputs performance of a country in terms of productivity and quality of research and international collaboration activities. Preliminary results show a positive correlation among them, even if the linear correlation turns to be not so strong. Countries are ranked on the basis of a composite index of all the three indicators.Data related to the full set of indicators will be collected, in the next phase of the research, through a dedicated survey to experts in the field of road safety and the relationships among countries performance and the existing conditions potentially affecting research and funding will be studied.