Eleonora Papadimitriou

Delft University of Technology | TU · Safety and Security Science Section - Department of Values, Technology and Innovation

As automated vehicles (AVs) become increasingly popular, the question arises as to how cyclists will interact with such vehicles. This study investigated (1) whether cyclists spontaneously notice if a vehicle is driverless, (2) how well they perform a driver-detection task when explicitly instructed, and (3) how they carry out these tasks. Using a...

The i-DREAMS project focuses on establishing a framework known as the ‘Safety Tolerance Zone (STZ)’ to ensure drivers operate within safe boundaries. This study compares Long-Short-Term-Memory Networks and shallow Neural Networks to assess participants’ safety levels during i-DREAMS on-road trials. Thirty German drivers’ trips and Forty-Three Belgi...

Although signal countdown timers (SCTs) are likely to enhance efficiency at signalized intersections, there is little research on how they affect road users’ behavior. The present study explores factors associated with driver behavior through two approaches to examine how SCTs influence drivers’ actions toward pedestrians violating red lights. In t...

Driver anticipation plays a crucial role in crashes along horizontal curves. Anticipation is related to road predictability and can be influenced by roadway geometric design. Therefore, it is essential to understand which geometric design elements can influence anticipation and cause the road to be (un)predictable. This exercise, however, is not st...

Recent research in transport safety focuses on the processing of large amounts of available data by means of intelligent systems, in order to decrease the number of accidents for transportation users. Several Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications have been developed to address safety problems and improve efficiency of...

This study reviews the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning approaches developed thus far for driver profile and driving pattern recognition, representing a set of macroscopic and microscopic behaviors respectively, to enhance the understanding of human factors in road safety, and therefore reduce the number of crashes. It provides a defini...

Ship behavior is the semantic expression of corresponding trajectory in spatial-temporal space. The intelligent identification of ship behavior is critical for safety supervision in the waterborne transport. In particular, the complicated behavior reflects the long-term intentions of a ship, but it is challenging to recognize it automatically for c...

Automated vehicles (AVs) aim to dramatically improve traffic safety by reducing or eliminating human error, which remains the leading cause of road crashes. However, commonly accepted standards for the ‘safe driving behaviour of machines’ are pending and urgently needed. Unless a common understanding of safety as a design value is achieved, differe...

Road safety research is largely focused on prediction and prevention of technical, human or organisational failures that may result in critical conflicts or crashes. Indicators of traffic risk aim to capture the passage to unsafe states. However, research in other industries has shown that it is meaningful to analyse safety along the whole spectrum...

Sleepiness is a common human factor among truck drivers resulting from sleep loss or time of day and causing impairment in vigilance, attention, and driving performance. While driver sleepiness may be associated with increased risk on the road, sleepy drivers may drive more cautiously as a result of risk-compensating behaviour. This endogeneity has...

The importance of investigating pedestrian safety has been evaluated repeatedly in safety studies. The present study attempts to evaluate the various methods used by previous researchers in a hierarchical process, to determine the characteristics, advantages, and limitations of each method. Two general analysis approaches (passive and active) were...

Frequent water traffic accidents pose severe threats to human life and property safety, the water environment, and adverse effects on social stability. Understanding historical accidents is essential for accident prevention and risk mitigation. However, at present, research on the comprehensive statistical analysis of characteristics and causes of...

Intraindividual variability is a fundamental behavioural characteristic of aging but has been examined to a very limited extent in driving. This study investigated intraindividual variability in driving simulator measures in healthy drivers of different ages using the coefficient of variation (COV) as a variability measure. Participants were health...

Traffic conflicts are heavily correlated with traffic collisions and may provide insightful information on the failure mechanism and factors that contribute more towards a collision. Although proactive traffic management systems have been supported heavily in the research community, and autonomous vehicles (AVs) are soon to become a reality, analys...

Background Although many studies have been conducted on the safety of pedestrian crossings, few researches have been focused on drivers' behavior in unmarked crosswalk and marked crosswalk areas. Considering that statistics of pedestrian accidents are not the same in the two types of crossing area, based on the last report of the World Health Organ...

In this research, a hybrid approach for global path planning for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) is proposed, which generates the shortest path considering the collision risk and the proximity between path and obstacles. The collision risk concerning obstacles is obtained using Time-Varying Collision Risk (TCR) concept, taking into account...

Objectives To examine the driving variables that predict accident probability in mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and healthy older control drivers in simulated driving. To compare the three groups in mean performance and in frequency of scores exceeding 1.5 SD from the mean. Methods/Design Participant...

Ship collision is one of the major contributors of maritime accidents. Quantitative risk analysis of such accidents is an effective tool for maritime safety administrations to understand the current risk level and propose risk mitigation measures. In this paper, an improved Time Discretized Non-linear Velocity obstacle (TD-NLVO) algorithm is propos...

The aim of this paper is to explore driving behaviour during mobile phone use on the basis of detailed driving analytics collected by smartphone sensors. The data came from a sample of one hundred drivers (18,850 trips) during a naturalistic driving experiment over four months. A specially developed smartphone application was used, through which dr...

Economic evaluations of road safety measures are only rarely published in the scholarly literature. We collected and (re-)analyzed evidence in order to conduct cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) for 29 road safety measures. The information on crash costs was based on data from a survey in European countries. We applied a systematic procedure including co...

The objective of this paper is the review and comparative assessment of infrastructure related crash risk factors, with the explicit purpose of ranking them based on how detrimental they are towards road safety (i.e. crash risk, frequency and severity). This analysis was carried out within the SafetyCube project, which aimed to identify and quantif...

This study aims to estimate the overall impact of distraction due to operating in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) and similar devices while driving on road crashes. While similar research has been undertaken investigating the issue, varying results have been reported so far. Therefore a two-step approach was adopted: initially a review of the li...

The European Road Safety Decision Support System (roadsafety-dss.eu) is an innovative system providing the available evidence on a broad range of road risks and possible countermeasures. This paper describes the scientific basis of the DSS. The structure underlying the DSS consists of (1) a taxonomy identifying risk factors and measures and linking...

Introduction: Conversation and other interactions with passengers while driving induce a level of distraction to the person driving. Method: This paper conducts a qualitative literature review on the effect of passenger interaction on road safety and then extends it by using meta-analysis techniques. Results: The literature review indicates th...

Human factors related to pedestrians have received somewhat less attention in the literature compared to other road users, although it is often underlined that road and traffic factors appear to explain only a small part of pedestrian walking and crossing behaviour in urban areas. The understanding of pedestrian behaviour in urban areas may assist...

While road deaths have been reduced by 53% in the European Union (EU) between 2001 and 2013, in South East European (SEE) members reductions vary from 64% (Slovakia) to 24% (Romania) indicating a significant diversity in the road safety level in the region and the need for urgent improvements. Moreover, the poor performance in the SEE countries is...

While driving simulators allow for the examination of a range of driving performance measures in a controlled, relatively realistic and safe driving environment, driver distraction is a multidimensional phenomenon which means that no single driving performance measure can capture all effects of distraction. Furthermore, the large number of driving...

The objective of the present study is to provide an overview of the effects of selected Advanced Driver Assistance systems (ADAS), namely intelligent speed adaptation, collision warning and alcolock on driving behaviour and road safety. The methodology, developed within the SafetyCube project, was implemented in that purpose. International publishe...

Entry and exit areas are considered critical parts of freeways and expressways. In order to meet traffic safety and operation requirements, it is important that ramps and speed-change lanes have the appropriate design so that vehicles may complete sequential maneuvers. However, literature on risks associated with these freeway elements is limited a...

An existing vehicle dynamics model was used to define design parameters up to which steady-state cornering conditions apply and consequently lift the restrictions of the point mass model. Besides a passenger car, the motion of a two-axle truck was examined as well for both loaded and unloaded conditions. In order to assess critical safety concerns...

There is strong evidence that work zones pose increased risk of crashes and injuries. The two most common risk factors associated with increased crash frequencies are work zone duration and length. However, relevant research on the topic is relatively limited. For that reason, this paper presents formal meta-analyses of studies that have estimated...

Objectives: In-vehicle distraction is considered to be an important cause of road accidents. Drivers with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), because of their attenuated cognitive resources, may be vulnerable to the effects of distraction; however, previous relevant research is lacking. The main objective of the current study was to explore the effec...

The objective of this research was the analysis of the driving performance of drivers with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer’s disease (AD), in different road and traffic conditions, on the basis of a driving simulator experiment. In this experiment, healthy “control” drivers, patients with MCI, and patients with AD, drove at several sce...

Driving requires possessing cognitive, motor and visual skills and drivers need to have adequate motor strength, coordination and speed. More importantly, cognitive skills including concentration, attention, adequate visual perceptual skills, insight and memory must be present. The normal ageing process leads to declines in these motor and cognitiv...

The objective of this research is the comparative analysis of observed and declared behaviour of pedestrians as regards road crossing in urban areas. A field survey was carried out, in which a panel of 75 young and middle-aged pedestrians (out of which 40 males) were asked to take 8 short walking trips (each one corresponding to a different walking...

Although driver distraction can be considered as part of everyday driving it constitutes a basic contributory factor for increased risk for road accidents internationally. Within this content, cell-phone use and conversation with passenger are two critical in-vehicle distraction conditions with respect to driver behavior and safety. The objective o...

This paper investigates potential Stopping Sight Distance (SSD) violation on divided highways at left horizontal curves overlapped with crest vertical curves. The authors previously developed a SSD control methodology that relates the 3D configuration to the dynamics of a vehicle moving along the roadway. This methodology is applied for the assessm...

The objective of this paper is to analyze the self-reported driving behaviour of older drivers with and without brain pathologies affecting cognition, in order to explore possible differences in self-perception of driving behaviour, through an extensive questionnaire assessment. The diagnostic categories examined include Alzheimer׳s disease, Parkin...

Background The European Road Safety Decision Support System (DSS) is one of the key objectives of the European co-funded research project SafetyCube in order to better support evidence-based policy making. The SafetyCube project results will be assembled in the form of a Decision Support System that will present for each suggested road safety measu...

Background Despite the fact that road traffic casualties presented a decreasing trend during the last years, the number of fatalities in road accidents is still unacceptable and illustrates the need for greater efforts with respect to better driving performance and increased road safety. The objective of this paper is to investigate the accident pr...

While road deaths have been reduced by 53% in the European Union (EU) between 2001 and 2013, in South East European (SEE) members reductions vary from 64% (Slovakia) to 24% (Romania) indicating a significant diversity in the road safety level in the region and the need for urgent improvements. Moreover, the poor performance in the SEE countries is...

The objective of this paper is the analysis of the state of the art in pedestrian simulation models and the identification of key issues for further research, with particular focus on the modelling of pedestrians and motorised traffic. A review and comparative assessment of pedestrian simulation models is carried out, including macroscopic models,...

Modeling road safety development can provide important insight into policies for the reduction of traffic fatalities. In order to achieve this goal, both the quantifiable impact of specific parameters, as well as the underlying trends that cannot always be measured or observed, need to be considered. One of the key relationships in road safety link...

In this paper, an integrated methodology for the analysis of pedestrian behaviour and exposure is proposed, allowing to identify and quantify the effect of pedestrian behaviour, road and traffic characteristics on pedestrian risk exposure, for each pedestrian and for populations of pedestrians. The paper builds on existing research on pedestrian ex...

This chapter presents the European Road Safety Knowledge System, which was developed within the Data Collection Transfer and Analysis (DaCoTA) research project of the 7th Framework Program of the European Commission. This knowledge system includes a number of components, concerning data and tools, road safety issues and countries. A three-step meth...

This chapter presents the analysis of powered two-wheeler (PTW) mobility and safety in the OECD countries, and discusses some measures for the improvement of PTW mobility and safety. It discusses the integration of PTW in the safe systems approach with particular focus on the challenges and particularities involved. PTW riders are at far more risk...

This chapter presents the analysis of a road safety management framework in European countries and the identification of “good practice” for the optimization of road safety management processes, carried out within the DaCoTA research project. It then discusses the road safety management investigation model, and describes the data collection and han...

The objective of this research is the development of pedestrian crossing choice models on the basis of road, traffic and human factors. For that purpose, a field survey was carried out, in which a panel of 75 pedestrians were asked to take 8 short walking trips (each one corresponding to a different walking and crossing scenario) in the Athens city...

The objective of this research is the analysis of pedestrians behaviour along entire trips in urban road networks, with focus on their interaction with the traffic and the road environment while crossing roads. For this purpose, a special field survey was designed and carried out, which involved the recording of pedestrians road crossing behaviour...

The objective of this paper is the analysis of the state of the art in pedestrian simulation models and the identification of key issues for further research, with particular focus on the modelling of pedestrians and motorised traffic. A review and a comparative assessment of pedestrian simulation models are carried out, including macroscopic model...

This paper investigates potential Stopping Sight Distance (SSD) violation for 130km/h vehicle speed, on the passing lane of left curved, divided highways overlapped with crest vertical curves. The authors previously developed a SSD control methodology that relates concurrently the 3D configuration of a roadway to the dynamics of a vehicle moving a...

Driving is a complex task that requires the ability to receive sensory information, process the information, and to make proper, timely judgments and responses. Older drivers or drivers suffering brain pathologies may have deficits in their driving ability (motor, visual, cognitive or perceptual) and these deficits may lead to reduced driver fitnes...

In this paper, the interrelation between handheld mobile phone use, driver speed and accident probability is investigated. A driving simulator experiment was carried out, in which young participants drove in different driving scenarios: urban and interurban areas, good or rainy weather, with or without the occurrence of unexpected incidents. Log-no...

Driving is a complex task that requires the ability to receive sensory information, process the information, and to make proper, timely judgments and responses. Older drivers or drivers suffering brain pathologies may have deficits in their driving ability (motor, visual, cognitive or perceptual) and these deficits may lead to reduced driver fitnes...

This study analyzed road, traffic, and human factors of pedestrian crossing behavior through the development of integrated choice and latent variables models. The analysis used recent research as a starting point, in which a two-stage approach was successfully tested, including a separate estimation of human factors and choice models. Data from a d...

Although older drivers are involved in a few accidents in terms of absolute numbers, they represent one of the highest risk categories for accidents involving fatalities and serious injuries per number of drivers and per distance travelled. Furthermore, cell phone use is estimated to be an important cause of vehicle accidents. Even if cell phone...

The paper presents the findings of a research project aiming to quantify and subsequently classify several infrastructure-related road safety measures, based on the international experience attained through extensive and selected literature review and additionally on a full consultation process including questionnaire surveys addressed to experts a...

Background Driver distraction is estimated to be an important cause of vehicle accidents. Driver distraction factors can be subdivided into those that occur outside the vehicle and those that occur inside the vehicle. While the factors that occur inside the vehicle seem to have greater effect on driver behaviour and safety, the distraction mechanis...

Background Driving is a complex task, which requires possessing cognitive, motor and visual skills and it is necessary for the drivers to have adequate motor strength, speed and coordination. The normal ageing process leads to declines in these motor and cognitive skills, and when combined with a cerebral disease, it may significantly impair the pe...

The objective of this research is the analysis of the driving performance of drivers with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), on the basis of a driving simulator experiment, in which healthy “control” drivers and impaired drivers drive in different driving scenarios, following a thorough neurological and neuropsychologi...

The objective of this research is the critical assessment of driving simulator studies on driver distraction. For this purpose 45 scientific papers have been examined with respect to the design of driving simulator experiments on the effects of various sources of driver distraction (in-vehicle or external). More specifically, for each experiment re...

The objective of this research is the analysis of pedestrians behaviour along entire trips in urban road networks, with focus on their interaction with the traffic and the road environment while crossing roads. For this purpose, a special field survey was designed and carried out, which involved the recording of pedestrians road crossing behaviour...

Purpose In this research, a disaggregate analysis of road accident injury under-reporting in selected European countries is presented. Method The level of injury under-reporting is expressed by under-reporting coefficients, estimated as the actual estimated number of road accident injuries of a given severity to the number of related injuries recor...