The Laboratory of Traffic Engineering (LTE), established in 1998, is a Center of Research and Innovation Excellence in Traffic Engineering, with global recognition. Administratively, it belongs to the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering (www.transport.ntua.gr) of the School of Civil Engineering (www.civil.ntua.gr). Since its establishment, the LTE contributes to transportation science through numerous academic and research activities. Comprehensive presentation of the academic, scientific and research activities of the Laboratory: 

Mission

The Mission of the NTUA Laboratory of Traffic Engineering is to provide scientists engineers with high level of education, and to promote research in the field of traffic engineering. The Laboratory’s educational and research activities are characterized by high innovation, excellent organisation and great utility for society.

Vision

The Vision of the the NTUA Laboratory of Traffic Engineering is the substantiated support for decisions on the optimal operation of urban and interurban road traffic in Greece and internationally, making use of the most modern scientific theories and technological developments, so as to ensure both the servicing of the traffic and the medium-term economic and environmental sustainability of the mobility.

Traffic Engineering Laboratory scientific fields are summarized as follows:

  • Traffic Management
  • Traffic Safety
  • ITS and Automation

The Laboratory staff consists of a dynamic team of more than 40 renowned scientists and more precisely 2 Professors, 5 Post Doctoral Researchers, 22 Ph.D. Candidates, 10 Research Assistants, 2 Information Systems Engineers and 3 Administrative assistants.

Within the academic activities of Traffic Engineering Laboratory, 6 courses are offered at the transportation engineering cycle of the School of Civil Engineering: Traffic Flow theory (7th semester), Urban Traffic Networks (8th semester), Traffic Management and Traffic Safety (9th semester), Analysis Methods in Traffic Engineering (9th semester), Quantitative Methods in Transportation (9th semester), Integrated Project in Transportation Engineering (9th semester). Over the last 10 years, more than 165 Diploma Theses and 9 PhD Theses have been conducted, while 15 new Phd Theses have been started during the last 5 years.

The members of Traffic Engineering Laboratory have participated in more than 170 Research Projects funded by EU (>90 EU Research Projects) and National (>80 Greek Research Projects) resources with more than 350 national and international organizations, covering all the above mentioned scientific fields. More than 100 projects had been carried out through highly competitive procedures. Research results from the Diploma and PhD. theses and from all research activities of the Laboratory have been published in more than 1100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences proceedings.

The equipment belonging to the Traffic Engineering Laboratory consists of a large number of instruments, devices and computer software for the traffic and safety data collection and processing. Within these instruments are included driving simulator, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), On-Board Monitoring Devices, Traffic Counts Devices, Data Bases, Data and Knowledge systems, NTUA Road Safety Observatory and Software.

Traffic Management

 Topics

  • Data driven traffic flow analysis and forecasting
  • Simulation for automated traffic
  • Mobility as a service, electromobility, connected and shared mobility
  • UAV based traffic monitoring and analysis
  • Traffic and safety of PTW, cyclist and pedestrians
  • Network level traffic prediction and management
  • Evidence based mobility optimization and policy making
  • Design and implementation of traffic management systems
  • Design and operation of parking systems

Research Questions

  • How to improve traffic monitoring using crowdsourcing?
  • How ICT, social networks and smartphone sensing can be used for traffic monitoring control and management?
  • Can UAVs be used for monitoring traffic and identifying congestion in urban areas?
  • What is the impact of smart mobility services to large scale network traffic?
  • How to manage the cooperative and automated traffic?
  • Can intelligent parking services reduce traffic congestion in cities?

Example Projects:  e-MOPOLI ,  CAMP-sUmp ,  SKILLFUL ,  KSYL ,  Velivr’ , Tangent , DIT4TraM , Conductor , Acumen , EcoDrive 

Traffic Safety

 Topics

  • Driver Safety Behaviour & Telematic
  • Road Infrastructure Safety
  • Traffic Safety Analysis
  • Road Safety Data& Knowledge Systems
  • Road Safety Management

Research Questions

  • How to improve driver safety behaviour with focus on speeding, drink-and-drive and distraction?
  • Which are the best solutions for safe traffic of Vulnerable Road Users?
  • How to integrate safety into urban mobility planning and operation?
  • How to identify and assess the most appropriate road safety measures?
  • How to exploit big data to support better traffic safety decision making but also driver behavior?
  • How are automation and connectivity going to improve traffic safety?

Example Projects: Nrss , Erso , Trendline ,  i-DREAMS ,  BeSmart ,  Smartmaps , Phoebe , Ivory ,  i-safemodels ,  Netsafety , Napcore , SafetyCube ,  SaferAfrica ,  SafeCulture ,  ESRA , GeorgeRuns30Marathons , Improva , Optimo 

ITS and Automation

 Τopics

  • Smatphone sensing and analytics, insurance telematics, driving analytics
  • C-ITS applications
  • Traffic Automation
  • Impact assessment of ITS, c-ITS and CAV on mobility, environment and safety

Research Questions

  • Can we accurately predict demand in future cooperative and connected smart city context?
  • What will be the impact of automation in future road networks?
  • How to develop efficient individualized systems for managing personal mobility?
  • How to accurately forecast traffic evolution in the era of autonomous, connected and shared mobility?

Example Projects:  Levitate ,  Drive2theFuture ,  Show ,  Hadrian ,  BeOpen , Piarc , Peve , Mimob , CulturalRoad , Metaccaze