Knowledge building and sharing

The Short Course in Road Safety, Mobility and Health addressed the need for stronger interdisciplinary understanding of the relationship between road safety, health, mobility and safe participation in transport. Road safety challenges are not only technical or enforcement-related; they are also influenced by human behaviour, health status, ageing, disability, rehabilitation needs, distraction, professional practice, and wider mobility systems.

The initiative responded to a gap in structured education for professionals whose work may affect, advise or support road users, but who may not always receive formal training on the links between health, mobility and road safety. The course aimed to improve awareness of safe mobility, medical and functional considerations, rehabilitation/adaptations, human factors, active travel, and the wider policy context, including Vision Zero and Ireland’s Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030.

A key challenge addressed was bringing together diverse professional perspectives so that road safety is understood as a shared responsibility across health, transport, rehabilitation, public health and related disciplines.

Young and inexperienced drivers are a key target group for road safety because safe driving requires more than passing a formal test. It requires understanding rules, recognising risks, building long-term knowledge and applying that knowledge under pressure. Traditional theory education can be limited by fixed course times, uneven learner engagement, fragmented communication and a lack of real-time visibility into individual weaknesses. As a result, some learners only discover knowledge gaps shortly before the exam or after they enter traffic as licensed drivers. DriveHero addresses this challenge by moving the driving school process into a digital, data-supported and learner-centred environment. The platform helps learners prepare more consistently, at their own pace and with targeted support. Its AI assistant, Aurum, provides 24/7 guidance, while analytics and reporting help driving instructors identify where learners need additional explanation or practice. By making learning more personalised, transparent and accessible, DriveHero aims to improve theory knowledge, increase exam readiness and contribute to safer behaviour among new drivers.

The main road safety challenge we address is the lack of clear, objective insight into real-life traffic behaviour around primary schools. These locations concentrate large numbers of vulnerable and inexperienced road users—particularly children—who face increased risks in complex traffic environments. During school peak hours, traffic volumes intensify within a short time frame. Parents arriving by car, combined with cyclists and pedestrians, create congested and often chaotic situations. This leads to unsafe conditions such as unclear routing, risky crossing behaviour, informal parking, and frequent near-misses. A key issue is that traditional traffic data methods—such as counts, surveys or incidental observations—fail to capture the dynamic interactions between different road users. As a result, many risks remain invisible or are only addressed after incidents occur.
In addition, there is often a mismatch between infrastructure, behaviour and organisation. Measures are frequently implemented in isolation, limiting their effectiveness.
We address these challenges by making risks visible before accidents occur, focusing on school environments where improving everyday safety for children has the greatest societal impact.

Hasselt University in Diepenbeek, Belgium, is home to one of the top transport engineering graduate programmes, the Transportation Research Institute (IMOB), and as such, attracts top talent from around the world. Around 80% of international students (713 students at the time) come from outside the European Union; meanwhile, the urban environment around Hasselt’s campus is a complex cycling network reflecting the mature cycling culture in Belgium, wherein the majority of Hasselt students commute by bicycle.

For the 713 students coming from outside the EU, largely from Africa and Asia, this can feel like a culture shock, leading to unsafe road behaviour or avoidance of cycling altogether, despite it typically being the most inexpensive and reliable commuting mode for students. A needs assessment survey to 53 international students found outsized fears around cycling and walking to campus, and pinpointed 14 critically unsafe cycling intersections.

This assessment revealed a need for dedicated orientation sessions for international students on cycling, targeted course materials on the local cycling and pedestrian culture, an awareness campaign, and targeted recommendations for top unsafe intersections around campus. These activities would not only keep students safe, but also support their inclusion and integration into Hasselt’s vibrant student culture.

Road safety education must begin in early childhood: the knowledge, habits and attitudes acquired at this age shape a child's behaviour in traffic for life and lay the foundations of later responsible, conscious participation in traffic. In today's stimulus-rich world, however, traditional classroom-based theoretical teaching is not sufficiently effective on its own for this age group, so we complement and combine it with experience-based, practical programmes.
The scale of the problem is reflected in accident data. In the European Union, around 20,400 people died in road accidents in 2023, with vulnerable road users – pedestrians, cyclists and powered two-wheeler riders – accounting for almost half of all fatalities. Children form a particularly sensitive group: in Hungary, between 2019 and 2023, 52 children lost their lives and 763 suffered serious injuries on the roads, and a significant share of these cases is attributable not to the children but to the conduct of adult road users. Achieving the EU's and Hungary's transport policy goals and realising Vision Zero requires regular, early-age educational programmes as instruments of long-term societal attitude change.
The programme therefore builds the foundations of safe mobility from ages 4–10 through experience-based, practical education, while also engaging parents and educators.

In 2020, we undertook a comprehensive review of our vehicle safety strategy. At that time, our primary focus was on accident management, driver safety, and identifying ways to reduce both the risks our employees faced while driving and the potential risks our vehicles posed to other road users. By "posed," we refer to the fact that our fleet consisted of relatively basic vehicles, with few advanced safety features included as standard.

The initiative presented several challenges. Cost was a significant consideration, as we needed to build a strong business case to justify the additional investment required for enhanced vehicle safety features. We also needed to engage with a workforce that had strong trade union representation, making consultation and communication an essential part of the implementation process.

The programme began with the delivery of our first upgraded vehicles in 2020. At a time when advanced safety technologies attracted a substantial premium, we made a deliberate decision to invest heavily in improving the safety of our fleet. Looking back, that investment has proven to be highly successful. The results have clearly demonstrated the value of prioritising vehicle safety, with a significant positive impact on both driver protection and overall risk reduction.

Operating a national fleet of over 850 vehicles supporting more than 2,000 employees presents a unique range of road safety challenges. Employees travel daily to high-risk environments including railway level crossings, bridges, trackside locations and busy public roads, often transporting specialised equipment and working under time-critical conditions. Protecting employees and other road users while maintaining operational effectiveness remains a key priority.

Before the introduction of GSR, we had already made significant investments in vehicle safety. This included implementing telematics systems, forward- and rear-facing dash cams, and, most importantly, passive safety features across our fleet. These measures helped improve driver behaviour monitoring, incident reporting, and occupant protection. The main challenge was the cost and logistics of upgrading vehicles and ensuring consistent implementation across the fleet. However, by taking a proactive approach to safety rather than waiting for regulatory requirements, we were able to enhance driver and passenger protection, reduce risk, and establish a strong safety culture within the organisation.

One of the principal challenges has been reducing occupational road risk by ensuring that both the driver and vehicle are fit for purpose. Experience gained through managing large commercial fleets has shown that vehicle safety alone is not enough; driver behaviour, competency, fatigue awareness and vehicle utilisation all play a critical role in reducing incidents. Historically, many organisations have relied on reactive measures following collisions. Our approach has been to move towards proactive risk management.

Additional challenges included integrating specialist railway maintenance equipment safely within vehicles, adapting to emerging technologies, and preparing for the transition to electric vehicles without compromising safety standards. The increasing complexity of modern vehicle technology also required continuous education and engagement with drivers to ensure advanced safety systems were fully understood and effectively utilised.

The Drogowskaz Programme (Signpost Programme) addresses Poland's persistent road safety crisis, which remains among the EU's most severe. Our diagnosis, drawn from 663 grant applications and 44 funded projects in the 2025 edition identifies three interconnected challenge areas.
In Poland, notable educational gaps persist in the area of practical road safety education. Opportunities for hands‑on learning in real traffic conditions are limited or, in many cases, entirely absent. Only a small number of schools provide practical training in simulated environments, and the overall system places relatively little emphasis on developing consistent, experience‑based safety habits. Emerging risks like: smartphones and headphones distracting pedestrians, e-scooters and varied micromobility remain an issue insufficiently addressed. Adults frequently model and reinforce unsafe behaviours for children because of limited enforcement of traffic regulations.
Infrastructure deficits: rural and small-town areas often lack pavements, cycling paths, road markings, lighting and traffic-calming measures, particularly around schools and kindergartens. Practical training facilities, traffic-education parks are scarce, leaving children without safe spaces to develop cycling and pedestrian skills.
Vulnerable groups: preschoolers, adolescents aged 12-15, deaf children (with virtually no accessible materials), children with disabilities and those from disadvantaged families face systemic exclusion from road safety education. The Drogowskaz Programme reflects the core values of our founding organisation, which has a long‑standing commitment to education, volunteering, emergency response, and comprehensive road‑safety initiatives—both for the wider public and for its own employees.

Road traffic crashes remain a major public health challenge, representing the leading cause of death among children and young people aged 5–29 worldwide. Greece is no exception to this reality, with vulnerable road users facing evolving mobility challenges, including the growing use of e-scooters and other personal mobility devices alongside traditional road safety risks, reinforcing the need for early, practical and age-appropriate road safety education.
At national level, this challenge is further compounded by the fact that road safety education is not compulsory within the school curriculum and is largely left to the discretion of teachers, who may choose whether to implement it through skills-based workshops. As a result, many children and young people have limited opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to become safe and responsible road users through structured learning.
At regional level in Northern Greece, there was a clear need for an innovative and accessible educational initiative capable of bringing together the expertise of the road safety sector, local communities and the private sector in order to strengthen prevention efforts and engage different population groups within a shared road safety framework.
These interconnected challenges highlight a clear gap in structured, experiential and inclusive road safety education, which this initiative was designed to address.

Nea Odos operates one of Greece's most strategically important motorway corridors - the 196 km Ionia Odos (A5), part of the European E65 route At Nea Odos, road safety relies on a coordinated ecosystem of processes, systems, human and material resources. Our daily goal is to enhance operational capacity through innovation with measurable improvements in detection and response times, while setting a benchmark for the industry.
To support this goal, we deployed an AI-powered system for 24/7 maintenance, surveillance, and driver information, along the entire length of the Ionia Odos highway addressing critical motorway safety challenges such as animal incursions, pedestrian presence, vehicles moving against traffic etc These high-risk events require significant resources and are often linked to severe incidents.
Traditional monitoring systems rely on fixed infrastructure with limited coverage and adaptability. Furthermore, the growing number of data sources—sensors, navigation apps, crowd inputs, and weather data—often leads to fragmentation, operator overload, and inconsistent alerts. As a result, operators must cross-check multiple systems, delaying event validation, response, and communication.
To address these challenges, Nea Odos partnered with Valerann to integrate AI-powered cameras, geolocation and multi-source data analytics into a unified platform - Lanternn. Goal to improve detection speed and accuracy, reduces response times, and enable faster, targeted response.
By integrating diverse data Nea Odos is advancing safer, smarter motorway operations without costly infrastructure expansion.

Road accidents are a leading cause of non-natural death in Spain and generate disability and social costs.

This project would be situated in the pre-accident phase, characterized by intervention on the human factor from a healthcare perspective.

Directive (EU) 2025/2205 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Article 11: Compliance with minimum physical and mental fitness requirements. Point 7: This Article shall not prevent Member States from adopting measures to raise awareness and improve the knowledge of the healthcare sector and driving licence holders regarding the minimum physical and mental fitness requirements for driving set out in Annex III.

Thus, within traffic medicine, we understand this to be the branch concerned with the analysis, detection, and prevention of the human factors involved in the causes of road accidents, through the adaptation and modification of behaviors, attitudes, and habits related to traffic and road use.

Therefore, this project brings together epidemiological and preventive criteria to be included in the concept of traffic medicine and in the area of Primary Care (Health Center/family medicine).