This is the theme of the final event of the BE OPEN project that will take place on 9 June 2021, 13:00 to 16:00 CET. The event is free of charge and open to all, but registration is required (deadline 7 June). Read the programme and register for the event.
‘Streets for Life’ is the slogan of the 6th UN Global Traffic Safety Week (17 – 23 May 2021), calling for 30 km/h speed limits to be the norm for cities, towns and villages worldwide. FERSI supports this call, pointing at the importance of a low speed, in particular in urban environments with its many pedestrians and cyclists.
How do ordinary road users interact with self-driving buses in ordinary road traffic? Join the final seminar to hear the results on April 28th at 9 AM (CEST).
The main purpose of the AUTOBUS project has been to study how ordinary road users interact with self-driving buses (AV shuttles) in ordinary road traffic, at three different locations in Norway, namely Forus, Kongsberg and Oslo. We have used repeated field surveys and video recordings to gather data, and a key research question has been whether the interaction changes over time when road users get used to the AV shuttles.
Some researchers have suggested that since these AV shuttles run so slowly and so defensively, other road users will take advantage of this and hinder their accessibility in traffic. So, is that what actually happens in real-life traffic with AV shuttles?
The program and Zoom link of the webinar can be found on toi.no »
Unfortunately, due to the developments regarding COVID, FERSI has decided to postpone the FERSI conference until 2022. For FERSI as a network organisation par excellence, it was felt that meeting each other at a physical event is one of the key ingredients for a successful FERSI conference. The current developments regarding COVID could not provide sufficient certainty about the feasibility of such a physical event.
As FERSI continues to enhance road safety throughout Europe, FERSI aims to organise a virtual event in the run up to the conference in 2022. We hope to see you online before being able to meet again in person in 2022!
Please subscribe to the newsletter and/or follow the updates on Linkedin to receive updates on the conference (such as dates of virtual events and the conference in 2022).
We are very pleased to announce a new FERSI member: the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences (FPZ) of the University of Zagreb, Croatia. FPZ is an iRAP Centre of Excellence and brings in a lot of relevant knowledge and experience to FERSI on, among other things, traffic engineering. FERSI has now 22 members from an equal amount of European countries.
Our beloved colleague Prof. Dr. Petér Holló passed away. Péter was in FERSI for a long time, representing KTI Institute for Transport Sciences. He was Executive Board member for several years. A kind, helpful, wise and pleasant person, open for debate, a real scientist.
Péter served KTI for almost half a century as a road safety specialist, scientist and teacher. He helped shape the Hungarian road safety strategy and has been involved in many different European projects.
Our thoughts are with Péter’s family and friends. He will be missed dearly.
Photo by Zoltán Író
The International Transport Forum published the IRTAD 2020 Road Safety Annual Report. It provides an overview of the road safety performance in 42 countries. An Ask-the-Author webinar is scheduled for 4 November 2020 at 14:00 CET. Register here.
ESRA2 is offering six free one-hour webinars in advance of the 2021 international conference (tentatively scheduled for March 2021). These webinars are hosted by the ESRA partners across the world who are organizing and analyzing the E-Survey of Road Users’ Attitudes.
New results from the ESRA2 data, collected at the end of 2019, will be highlighted throughout six one-hour webinars scheduled between September 2020 and February 2021. Two topic areas per webinar will be presented and focus on measuring traffic safety culture using global road safety performance indicators.
More information can be found on esranet.eu.
Based on the input from FERSI members, FERSI compiled a report on the legal status, usage and safety of e-scooters in 18 European countries. It shows that the legal status differs between countries, and that in general the information about their usage and safety is scarce. It is an issue, though, that increasingly receives attention from both governmental bodies and research institutes.
In July, ETSC published a PIN briefing on the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on road deaths in April 2020, when most countries were in lockdown. Data were available from 25 countries and 19 saw a decrease in the number of road deaths related to the big drops in traffic volumes. The briefing includes recommendations at European, national and local level.
