An interview at the inSCIght on-line magazine of Hasselt University How did it all start? Everything started with my studies in civil and transportation engineering back in Athens, and later on in Paris. There I developed my passion for applied transportation science and the great social as well as economic value it holds to our society. It’s
Road casualties is a major burden to the society worldwide. According to WHO statistics, road casualties in Africa are by far proportionally higher than in any other region of the world. However, do we know the real number of road fatalities and injuries in Africa? Do we know the real specific road safety problems in
Road safety data collection and storage are critical for a series of procedures to improve road safety. However, capturing accurate and complete road safety data is a difficult and complex issue. The main problems faced when recording road accidents are the unclear determination of road accident location, insufficient or incorrect recording of information and insufficient
Transport sector in the digital era relies more and more on high end transport research. The Europeans are expecting more and more integrated and cost affordable services in all transport modes and the European transport industry strives to evolve to more novel and competitive technological products and services. But which are the contemporary key challenges
Road accident analysis is focussing too much on accident characteristics and too little on accident causes. Very often, we look where the data are and not where the problems are. Consequently, there is imperative need for data not only on casualties but also on: - exposure to risk (traffic kilometres of vehicles and pedestrians) to
Driver distraction is lately becoming a key critical road accident risk factor, equivalent or even more important than the well-known "four big road killers": speed, drink-and-drive, non-use of seat belt and helmet. Some argue that mobile phone use (talking, texting and browsing) is a key reason why road fatalities do not decrease anymore in developed
Recent technological advances are bringing closer the introduction of flying vehicles (Vertically Taking off and Landing Vehicles -VTOLs) into the transport systems of the near future. Technology pioneers announce massive introduction of flying vehicles within the coming five years. Managing this new air traffic is a certainly great challenge and respective research and technological development
The connected and automated vehicles will have to cope with other automated or not vehicles and connected or not road users (drivers, riders, pedestrians) and a priority negotiation will always be necessary, especially at junctions. The behaviour of both the drivers and of the autonomous vehicles is inevitably dependent to all the other road users.
At the digitalisation era more and more life activities are supported by digital systems and services, in which data and information are collected, processed, organised and re-directed through dedicated services to the end user but also to all parties involved in the planning, execution and management of these activities. All traffic and transport activities are
Autonomous vehicles are bringing a very different new reality in road traffic. However, human factors will remain present both in the near future and in the long term, because of the: - mixed traffic of autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles during the long transition phases (different at the different places of the world), - the interaction
