News

• Road Safety on the European Horizon
• Women and men in traffic - are men more protected than women?
• Workshop: Ensure safety in future mobility - prospects, trends, and technology

At the upcoming annual Transportforum event in Linköping, January 8-9, 2020, which brings together the Swedish transport and mobility community, SAFER will host no less than three sessions and workshops.

SAFER's director Magnus Granström says:
“Transportforum is an excellent arena for us to continue the dialogue about road safety and our common way forward to reach a sustainable transport system. The fact that we have been given the mission to host three different activities, which span over broad areas, is very positive and adds value to our research”.

Are men more protected?
One of the sessions will be about the gender perspective in traffic and SAFER's researchers will discuss whether it is the case that men may be more protected than women. People moving around in the in the transport system are of varying length, weight, muscle mass, age and gender. Everyone needs protection, whether in a vehicle or outside. As today's regulations are designed, half the population is excluded since many of the crash test dummies in use are based on a male body shape. We will in this session provide an updated picture of today's level of knowledge and discuss the question of whether existing legislation needs to be developed or supplemented so that the entire population can be considered to be represented in how crash tests are conducted. Is it the case that parts of the population are less protected than others, and is there a link to the design of the crash test dummies?

Date: Thursday January 9, 2019
Time: 09:00 - 10:30
Room: K&K, Musikalen

Forthcoming research programme within EU
Another of the sessions will be about road safety In Europe's upcoming framework for research and innovation - Horizon Europe. Transport research and innovation was one session topic at the 2019 Transportforum. At that session, an overview was given, particularly focusing a number of key road transport topics.

“Entering 2020 we are one year closer to Horizon Europe and numerous activities have and are taking place in order to support the upcoming R&I framework programme”, says Magnus.

This session gives an up-to-date overview of the Horizon programmes, and in particular Horizon Europe, before focusing on road safety. Relevant roadmaps from the technology platform for road transport research, ERTRAC, and EARPA, the European Automotive Research Providers Association, will be presented. Road safety issues related to cooperative, connected and automated mobility is one of the aspects. Results from Horizon 2020 projects and examples of areas needing further attention will also be discussed.

Date: Wednesday January 8, 2019
Time: 15:30 - 17:00
Room: Scandic Frimurarhotellet, Pluto

Workshop Road safety aspects in future mobility
Finally, SAFER will also organize a workshop linked to the upcoming 3rd ministerial conference on Road safety in Stockholm in February; “Ensure safety in future mobility - prospects, trends, and technology”. Prior to the conference, an academic expert group has prepared nine recommendations to help us achieve the global road safety objectives together. This workshop is based on recommendation number nine, which is about taking advantage of technology development and its potential to contribute to road safety. Sensors, a connected transport system and artificial intelligence are mentioned as examples. The expert group recommends that the development and application of existing and future technology are encouraged and contribute to road safety improvements. Swedish actors have developed a large number of safety innovations and system applications over the years, which today are considered standard and have reached a broad number of international applications. Often, these result from a shared commitment to common goals, linked to a system vision in collaboration.

So, how can we best take advantage of change and the development that is going on until 2030 to reach a road-safe society? This matter is highlighted in this workshop where invited panelists in conversation form start with an overview of technology trends we see today, and move on to discuss how road safety aspects can be an integrated aspect future mobility. Examples are given of knowledge needs to realize expectations and hopes for connection, automation and clever use of artificial intelligence.

Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2019
Time: 17:15 - 18:30
Room: K&K, Operan

Links to the complete program and the sessions are available below.

Welcome!