The participation of PHOEBE at the Annual Meeting of the Transport Research Board (TRB) in Washington DC, USA, already became a tradition. This time, a poster was submitted that depicts the joint research efforts of TU Delft, AIMSUN, iRAP and FLOOW related to the incorporation of human factors into traffic microsimulation, which was presented during a dedicated session. We invite you to read the summary below and download the poster here.

Traffic flow models used in traffic microsimulation platforms do not commonly consider human factors, especially non-compliant behaviours. While the theoretical need for the incorporation of specific human factors into traffic microsimulation, especially for the purpose of safety assessment, has been shown in previous studies, there is no systematic methodology which can be empirically tested for a wide range of behaviours. The framework consists of four steps:

• collecting empirical telematics data on a certain behaviour of interest, and merging them with individual road user characteristics, road infrastructure and traffic conditions data.
• developing an analytical model for this behaviour with all of the collected data.
• encoding the behaviour in microsimulation.
• conducting the  microsimulation experiments enhanced with the behaviour.

To demonstrate the feasibility of the methodology, a microsimulation model of our West Midlands pilot region, developed in Aimsun Next is employed to test drivers speeding behaviour. Results show statistically significant differences in speed and acceleration profiles following the incorporation of speeding behaviour, suggesting a potential impact on surrogate safety assessment. The findings provide valuable insights into the impact of integrating human factors in microsimulation on traffic-conflict based road safety assessments.

George Yannis and Eva Michelaraki from the PHOEBE project partner of National Technical University of Athens assessed recent literature concerning urban speed limit reduction to 30km/h and the related policy efforts of different European cities. Such assessment was also shared as a summary during a POLIS ‘safety and security working group‘ meeting in October 2024.

Road crashes cause 1.19 million deaths and over 50 million injuries annually, with speeding as the leading cause. Vulnerable road users (VRUs), such as pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists, face heightened risks due to minimal protection in collisions. Research shows that reducing speed limits to 30 km/h dramatically enhances safety, with a pedestrian’s survival likelihood rising to 90% in crashes at this speed, compared to under 50% at 50 km/h.

The study evaluates the broad impacts of implementing 30 km/h speed limits in urban areas, addressing safety, environmental, energy, traffic, and health effects. Evidence highlights a 40% reduction in fatalities, alongside decreased emissions, lower energy consumption, and improved public health through increased walking and cycling. This aligns with the Vision Zero and Safe System approaches, emphasizing road systems designed to minimize human error impacts.

Despite benefits, public resistance and limited evidence on multi-parameter impacts hinder widespread adoption. Cities like Glasgow have embraced 30 km/h limits as part of comprehensive safety strategies, achieving lower fatality rates. This study provides a framework for assessing such limits’ multifaceted advantages, emphasizing their potential to create safer, healthier, and more livable urban environments while supporting global road safety goals.

Besides the fact that the PHOEBE project supports this cause, further safety implementations and infrastructure solutions, such as physically separated bicycle lanes and secure road crossings, are essential tools to enhance VRU safety.

The PHOEBE Community of Practice met in person for the first time on 3 December in Valencia. With participants from our sister projects, SOTERIA and V4SAFETY, Transport for West Midlands and SWOV, it was a day for knowledge exchange and lively discussions around road safety work and approaches.

The meeting started with an introduction to PHOEBE, discussing the objectives and project structure. Presentations from the Technical University of Delft (TUD), The Floow, EIRA, and iRAP reviewed the technical history and achievements of PHOEBE so far. NTUA followed, outlining the challenges ahead, and POLIS discussed the Community of Practice’s role in PHOEBE’s success. The afternoon kicked off with a technical workshop by TUD. This workshop introduced the framework and allowed participants to engage in an exercise to understand it better. During the exercise, participants were asked to conduct a SWOT analysis, which is also relevant for PHOEBE to assess how its framework is being perceived outside of the project.

Some of the highlights of the SWOT analysis of the framework were:

STRENGTHS

• Solid methodologies as a foundation: transport simulation and iRAP assessments, tool internationally recognized.
• Transparent process.
• Data driven approach
• Road safety assessments provide structured insights that integrate safety into transport planning effectively.

WEAKNESSES

• Use by local authorities depends on the availability of an important level of data and know-how. 
• Challenges arise from inconsistencies across simulation levels, data limitations, and validation difficulties.

OPPORTUNITIES

• European trends that are safety oriented like lowering speeds to 30 km/h and growing policy push to advance cycling and walking.
• growing demand for light electric vehicles will make improving road safety more necessary.

THREATS

• misalignment between the way policy, management and design decisions are made in real life, and the rational and linear decision process the PHOEBE tool assumes.

The CoP meeting in Valencia reinforced the idea that creating effective knowledge transfer with relevant stakeholders is critical for the success of PHOEBE and its uptake and transferability. By involving external stakeholders in the process, PHOEBE can ensure that it meets and surpasses its objectives. CoP members’ validation and inputs will be instrumental in increasing the understanding of how broadly applicable the results of PHOEBE are, especially in relation to existing regulations and standards. Moreover, it is essential for PHOEBE to function in reciprocity with road safety professionals and other similar projects, fostering collaboration and shared insights for greater impact.

The PHOEBE Community of Practice plays a crucial role in advancing road safety research and development. It aims to serve as a platform for sharing the latest developments in PHOEBE’s R&D efforts, enabling members to support their own research initiatives effectively. After the lively and fruitful discussions, feedback, and exchange, the CoP and project partners wrapped up the day by cycling through Valencia, seeing their efforts to improve road users’ safety first-hand.

PHOEBE and its CoP will continue with the collaboration and exchange created in Valencia, combining efforts for the work being carried out by PHOEBE, its sister projects, SOTERIA and V4SAFETY and other road safety professionals.

The PHOEBE consortium met on 4-5 December 2024 in Valencia to plan the remaining 18 months of the project and to visit the cycling lanes that are assessed as part of the local pilot activities. The ninth consortium meeting was combined with the first gathering of PHOEBE’s ‘Community of Practice’, which includes interested stakeholders, local partners from the three pilot cities and our sister projects of SOTERIA and V4SAFETY. Thanks to the hospitality of the Polytechnical University of Valencia (UPV), the consortium members experienced the Spanish city by bike and visited the traffic control centre.

Latest consortium meeting was much more than work package and use case updates

Even though the reporting of recent activities had a top priority, the consortium meeting began with a short quiz by iRAP, which aimed to identify the level of progress and potential gaps by looking back on the first two years of PHOEBE. Additionally, a recap of the Community of Practice event helped to structure the upcoming dissemination plans for 2025.

Besides the technical work packages related to the PHOEBE framework, data collection and modelling, a significant time was spent on the three use cases. Local challenges of Valencia were evidently in the spotlight of the meeting, while the involved partners of Athens and West Midlands use cases also reported.

PHOEBE partners also discussed communication plans for 2025

The EU Road Safety Cluster and the cooperation with our sister projects will see various joint dissemination activities, such as written content related to road safety research, as well as events and webinars. The latter are planned for the first quarter of 2025 in cooperation with the cluster and with the JULIA project. Additionally, the functioning use and structure of the newly launched ‘R&D Blog’ was explained and feedback was gathered. The blog will support experts to gain an deeper understanding of the research by PHOEBE partners.

Joint bike ride helped to visualise modelling area

The participating consortium members and the stakeholders from the ‘Community of Practice’ cycled along the pilot corridor in the North of Valencia in proximity of the UPV campus. Even those partners who are not actively involved in the assessment of the Spanish pilot were able to identify safety challenges related to different intersections and cycling path categories. Whereas some stretches of the cycling path within the pilot area include separated bike lanes, other areas require cyclists to ride on a dedicated area of the pavement.

The City of Valencia has around 200km of cycling paths, a flat profile and mild climate throughout the year, which caters to the increasing number of cyclists in the Spanish city. Nevertheless, the width and space allocation of some of the paths could be improved and the safety of some intersections could be enhanced. Therefore, PHOEBE pilot results will be used to highlight local challenges and suggest potential improvements for areas with a lower safety rating.

Site visit of Valencia City Hall Traffic Control Center focused on road safety challenges

PHOEBE consortium members visited the centre last week Thursday to engage with local experts and gain further insights into traffic bottlenecks, challenges and safety concerns of Valencian road infrastructure. The centre itself is housed in a former tobacco factory, which was transformed into a modern and minimalist control room and offices. The heart of the centre features a recently-upgraded video wall, which showcases live data from several hundred sensors, CCTV and traffic control cameras.

A horizontal task force of police authorities, traffic control managers and political stakeholders manage the daily traffic flows of the Spanish city. Besides the daily challenges related to accidents and congestion, the October floods of Valencia have created an additional layer of complexity. Besides the direct aftermaths of the floods, such as blocked and damaged roads and bridges, the temporary breakdown of the metro led to increased road traffic on the accessible roads.

PHOEBE is proudly announcing its participation in an EU road safety cluster with several other EU-funded projects, which share the common aim of creating cutting-edge solutions addressing the growing complexity of urban transport systems and the interaction between drivers and vulnerable road users (VRUs) to enhance road safety. You can find further details in our joint press release and the news item below.

What is the aim of the cooperation?

The cluster’s mission centers on a unified vision to implement the “safe system” approach, which moves away from placing the sole responsibility for safety on road users. Instead, it adopts a comprehensive strategy, engaging all stakeholders—from infrastructure planners to transport operators—in fostering safer environments. The collaborative projects aim to ensure that automated mobility technology not only maximizes efficiency but also remains transparent, inclusive, and adaptable to real-world traffic conditions.

These five projects are investigating how advanced technologies—such as artificial intelligence (AI), simulation tools, predictive analytics, and human-machine interfaces (HMIs)—can improve urban road safety for all, with a special focus on vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, and individuals with reduced mobility.

Which projects are part of this newly-formed cluster?

Besides PHOEBE, four other projects are part of the cluster, of which SOTERIA has already cooperated with us in form of two ‘sister project webinars’ (1^st webinar & 2^nd webinar):

SOTERIA focuses on creating a data-driven safety intelligence framework that integrates electric micro-mobility services in urban environments.

AI4CCAM leverages the potential of AI to create trustworthy and ethical models for predicting the behavior of vulnerable road users in urban environments.

EVENTS seeks to overcome the limitations of current Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) by developing a robust and resilient perception.

HEIDI is breaking new ground by designing a cooperative HMI that connects drivers and pedestrians in dangerous situations.

Transport for the West Midlands (TfWM) and The Floow recently hosted the PHOEBE Road Risk Workshop, which brought together key road safety stakeholders and served as a showcase of several tools and datasets that are currently available for understanding road risk in the West Midlands.  The group discussed the aims and progress of the PHOEBE project and the potential to improve urban road safety and save lives. The importance of bringing regional stakeholders together is evident as a ‘road safety emergency’ was declared by Birmingham City Council on 1 August 2024 in response to a demand from campaigners in light of several high profile and fatal incidents across the city.

During the day, PHOEBE showcased how data can be used to understand and predict changes to road risk, with a particular focus on the plight of more vulnerable road users and active travellers. The initial session concentrated on how new and emerging sources of data, such as the speed datasets produced by The Floow, are providing local authorities with powerful insights into the behaviour of traffic over extended regions and along strategic routes.

iRAP demonstrated the principals behind the existing road assessment methodology and the current understanding of how the underlying infrastructure gives rise to a given level of risk. There followed a demonstration of the cycle-specific RAP process, a powerful new system for predicting the emergent risk of cycle infrastructure. In subsequent sessions, iRAP surveys in the West Midlands and the PHOEBE research towards understanding the propensity to speed were showcased and discussed. This also included results of a CycleRAP survey can be used to estimate the reduction in risk from installing new active travel infrastructure by comparing the risk exposure of the local main roads and the adjacent cycle lanes.

PHOEBE showcased its innovative solutions to key stakeholders in Europe during the ‘iRAP in Europe 2024’ event, positioning itself as a leader in the field. Next, it expanded its influence on a global scale at the World Safety 2024 conference! 

The iRAP in Europe 2024 event focused on enhancing road safety with discussions on star ratings, investment strategies, and research. Representatives from EU member states emphasised the need for safer infrastructure, collaboration, and technology-driven solutions aligned with Vision Zero goals.  

The PHOEBE project was highlighted at the event as an innovative initiative for urban safety. Dr Sam Chapman from ‘The Floow’ discussed how the PHOEBE framework will use predictive models and data to enhance urban road safety – moreover, showing how the project leverages behavioural and telematics data, simulations, and safety frameworks to assess risk in pilot cities like Athens and Valencia. He highlighted the project’s objectives, the current status, and next steps to transform urban safety. 

In New Delhi, the World Safety 2024 conference focused on global injury prevention, addressing topics like powered two-wheeler safety and child health in road safety. Experts discussed strategies to halve road deaths and serious injuries by 2030, while workshops explored practical safety solutions and new research. The event highlighted the importance of road safety in sustainable development. 

This time, Jigesh Bhavsar, India’s iRAP Technical Manager, presented PHOEBE to the global audience. Bhavsar outlined the PHOEBE framework dynamic methodology for urban road safety assessment using predictive models. He engaged with participants by explaining how PHOEBE leverages AI, big data, and telematics to develop adaptable safety scores and evaluate city-specific changes. The case studies from Athens, Valencia, and the West Midlands highlighted real-world applications aimed at enhancing risk assessment tools for safer urban mobility across Europe. 

PHOEBE was present at Walk21 Portugal on 14 October for a workshop on “Pedestrian Safety: Assessment, planning and design” and to question how this could support the uptake of safe and accessible walking in our cities. The workshop was conducted by POLIS and iRAP, bringing together the different tools to assess the safety of the pedestrian network and how the EU-funded PHOEBE and ELABORATOR projects are aiming to go further by building upon these holistic tools.  

The workshop began with a discussion on the importance of establishing a systematic approach to evaluating the safety of pedestrian networks at the local level. It addressed several key topics, such as the need to consider organizational capacities, tools, and resources and the unique characteristics of pedestrian infrastructure. The conversation also highlighted the various professionals who could be involved in modifying these infrastructures. Additionally, it also emphasised the importance of assessing the current state of the infrastructure and making necessary adjustments before planning any new developments. It covered how to prioritise interventions and use targeted, limited actions to establish standards and improve the overall quality of the entire network. 

Following this initial discussion, the workshop included an interactive exercise where participants shared their needs, challenges, and perspectives regarding their contexts.  Key issues included the difficulty of obtaining accurate and reliable data and grasping the intricate details surrounding pedestrian-related statistics, including crashes and infrastructure status. They emphasized the need for effective evaluation of interventions and their impacts, alongside a clearer understanding of behaviours and the enforcement of new regulations. Another significant point was the importance of reducing speed limits and their connection to the built environment. Additionally, there was a focus on understanding the interactions among pedestrians, cyclists, and emerging micro mobility solutions, particularly regarding their effects on disabled people’s accessibility.  

Different contexts will present these challenges in varying degrees and intensities, which will also include specific context-related challenges and needs associated with the morphological characteristics of cities, as well as their policies, regulations, and practices. 

iRAP presented their methodologies worldwide, with the Star Rating system for road impact assessment, the iRAP Safety Insights Explorer to visualise the impacts of road crashes and the CycleRAP, and how they can support improving pedestrian safety.  

iRAP methodologies are an integral part of the PHOEBE, where they meet demand models, traffic microsimulation, and behaviour models. The PHOEBE ambitions, goals, methodology and framework were presented to the participants so they could grasp and explore how the project aims to bring a more holistic approach to dynamic safety prediction and socio-economic evaluation. Moreover, the PHOEBE framework has great potential to respond to the challenges and needs raised by the participants. 

While focusing on the safety of pedestrians, the workshop also provided the opportunity to reflect on how to improve road safety for all modes and interactions.  

For PHOEBE, Walk21Portugal was not only an opportunity to showcase the work being done and how it can relate to ELABORATOR but also to listen to and learn from the different experiences and needs of professionals in cities all over Europe, Latin America and Africa to continue to develop an approach that hopefully will support them in increasing pedestrian and road safety.  

A final deliverable and a related summary often does not portray the continuous research in PHOEBE that led to the respective result. Thus, PHOEBE aims to provide you with regular updates about our research and development processes, such as data analysis, iterative testing and exchanges between partners.

These updates are published in regular intervals on our recently created R&D blog, which is part of our framework and theory segment of the PHOEBE website. It focuses on innovative research and development in road safety and features articles written by team members, showcasing ongoing studies, methodologies, and findings. The PHOEBE consortium hopes that you find our insights inspiring and encourages to engage with the researchers.

Last week, Ghent hosted cycling enthusiasts at Velo-city 2024, where all things cycling were celebrated, from research to practice to fun, data, and, of course, safety. With a consolidated cycling culture, Ghent was the perfect stage for PHOEBE to connect with the cycling community.