Don't wait for accidents to happen

Challenges and actual opportunities offered by new technologies to improve traffic safety

photo: Comune di Catania
26–27 October 2023
Catania, Italy
Local organiser(s): Salvatore Damiano Cafiso, Giuseppina Pappalardo
The conference is organized in close co-operation with the University of Catania, Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture.

days left

Important dates

Date Action
30 April 2023
Abstract submission deadline
2 June 2023
Notification of acceptance
24 September 2023
Early Bird fee expiration
20 October 2023
Registration closed
24–25 October 2023
Traffic Safety Researcher's course
26–27 October 2023
35th ICTCT conference
28 October 2023
ICTCT General Assembly

Social media

Please, use the hashtags #ictct and #ictct2023catania in your posts related to the conference.

Traffic Safety Researcher's course

As usual, ICTCT organizes the Traffic Safety Researcher’s course in connection to the conference.

More information about the course can be found here.

General Assembly

The ICTCT General Assembly will meet after the conference.

Read more about the General Assembly here.

Many Intelligent Transport System technologies are already mature, and new technologies are around the corner. The digital evolution of mobility involves both vehicles and the road environment (e.g. Smart Roads, Smart Cities) with expectations for significant safety improvements, environmental, economic, and social benefits by reducing accidents, decreasing traffic congestion, reducing energy consumption, and emissions of vehicles. The safety benefits are based on the idea that technology can gradually reduce margins for human error in driving tasks with a drastically decreased number of road accidents and consequences towards the long-term goal of reaching Vision Zero with no one killed or severely in traffic by 2050.

In reality, the road scenery still limits the operational design domains of automated vehicle functions. The total transition from human-driven to high automated vehicles (SAE level 3+), in the shared traffic flow, is far from being achieved. Automation is likely to be much more difficult in complex—often urban—settings with a mixture of road users and traffic movements.

Therefore, the actual scenario will be a gradual transition over the next 20–30 years in which different forms and levels of smart mobility will coexist with ‘conventional’ modes of interaction. As for the safety challenges, we are only seeing the first effects on safety due to C-ITS and ADAS on cars (and driver behaviour) and very limited on vulnerable road users’ behaviour and accident pattern. Furthermore, the type and volume of data, available from mobile and (quasi-)stationary sensor units in smart roads, require new analysis models for extracting useful information and new solutions for active and preventive safety actions.

In such framework, the ICTCT 2023 Conference aims to illustrate the capacity of research to face the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities offered by new technologies in road transport for enhancing safety.

Conference topics

A non-exhaustive list of topics includes:

  • Autonomous vehicles, ADAS, C-ITS and technological developments supporting transport safety
  • Smart roads and smart cities connected to road safety
  • Human factors related to road safety and new technologies, in particular human response to new technology
  • Vulnerable road users
  • Road safety policies
  • Safer infrastructure design
  • Road infrastructure safety management

We also accept abstracts that are not directly related to the conference theme, but that relate to relevant aspects of road safety (e.g. surveys, analyses of trends, assessments of current practices or potential countermeasures).

Special sessions

  1. Surrogate Measures of Safety (SMoS). The use of surrogate measures of safety is the most relevant safety diagnosis for new technologies, due to the lack of retrospective accident data. This includes traffic conflict observations, analysis of near misses in naturalistic data and the use of all kinds of simulations. The scope of this session are practical and methodological studies using SMoS for diagnosis of the new safety solutions in smart mobility.
  2. How to use data from new technologies in traffic safety studies.
    In-vehicle sensors and units in smart roads highly increase the opportunities for traditional and new data collection. With this wide availability of data through different technologies, data sets can rapidly become so large and complex that it is fruitful to approach traffic safety research from new unforeseen and multidisciplinary angles. Hence, the special session will illustrate the opportunities and challenges in this area addressed by researchers in traffic safety.
Authors aiming at presenting in one of these sessions are requested to mark the appropriate checkbox during the submission process to ensure the correct assignment of reviewers.

The submission processes is managed through EasyChair conference management system. If you have used this system before, you can login with the same username and password. In case this is your first time, you will need to create an account before continuing.

Your extended abstract (500-700 words) should include the following points:

  • Background
  • Aim
  • Method or methodological issues
  • Results obtained or expected
  • Conclusions

Please, submit your abstract as a pdf file using the template. Do not use references unless absolutely necessary. The system will not accept abstracts longer than 700 words. Provide 3-6 keywords characterizing your submission.

The assessment will be based upon the following criteria: i) relevance of the topic in relation to the conference theme; ii) scientific quality and iii) likelihood to raise the interest of the present audience and to stimulate discussion.

Contributions can be accepted for either a poster or an oral presentation.

Submission deadline is 30 April 2023.

Poster format

Poster presentation has many advantages and we want to promote this format as equally important as (if not better than) an oral talk. Your poster will receive sufficient time and audience, while the face-to-face contact will allow for going in more detail with those who are really interested in your research.

Two poster sessions will be held during the conference.

Poster pitch

Prior to the poster session start, you will have an opportunity to engage the visitors with one-slide pitch (max two minutes per presenter). Please, use the suggested template (here) and DO NOT change the timer settings.

Please send your one-slide pitch before the conference to matus.sucha@upol.cz. To save time during the speaker changes, all slides will be combined in one file by the conference team. Just in case, bring your slide on a USB stick, too, and get in contact with the chair person before the session and make sure that everything works well.

Poster design

Your poster has to be written in English. Use ICTCT poster template (here), which also contains useful tips and links to further reading on how to best design a poster that attracts attention.

Poster stands and fixing materials will be provided. Please, note that printing, delivering and setting up the poster before the session, as well as removing it at the end of the day, is entirely your responsibility. No local printing services will be provided.

Poster presentation

Make sure to be near your poster during the entire poster session. You get more of it if you actively engage in discussions with the visitors.

It could be a good idea to have some give-away materials with you, for example contact cards, small prints of the poster (A4-size), full-text paper or additional visuals in your iPad. Having a notebook and a pen for making notes or elaborating while answering a question is also a good idea.

Oral format

It is a tradition of the ICTCT conferences to reserve sufficient time for questions and discussion after each oral presentation. Therefore please limit your presentation to 15 minutes so we have at least 5 minutes left for discussion.

You can download the ICTCT presentation template here. You may use other templates, for example created by your organisation. In any case, please use a 9:16 format for your slides.

Please send your presentation before the conference to matus.sucha@upol.cz and bring it along on a USB stick to the session. Be present 10 minutes before your session starts and get in contact with the chair-person to make sure that your slides are ready and work well.

Full papers are not required but are welcomed.

Participants of the conference are encouraged to submit their full-text papers to the special issues connected to the conference. Papers will be processed based on the review policy of the journal(s).

Besides that, you can publish the full paper (not peer reviewed) in the conference proceedings at the ICTCT web page.

The authors are also free to publish their papers elsewhere.

Special issues

ISSN: 1824-5463

Advances in Transportation Studies

Article Processing Charges (APC) may apply—more information will follow.

Deadline for submissions:
30 November 2023

Guest Editors
Salvatore Damiano Cafiso, University of Catania, Italy
TBD, a member of ICTCT Steering Committee

Open Access

Online ISSN: 2589-0379
Print ISSN: 2095-7564

Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering (English Edition)

Article Processing Charges (APC) may apply—more information will follow.

Deadline for submissions:
30 November 2023

Guest Editors
Giuseppina Pappalardo, University of Catania, Italy
TBD, a member of ICTCT Steering Committee

Conference venue

Monastery of San Nicolò l’Arena, a late baroque monument and one of the biggest Benedictine monastery in Europe. The construction of the building started in 1500 and has continued until today. It is an example of architectonical integration of different styles through different epochs: you can find a roman house, the cloisters and a roof garden. The monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It hosts the Department of Humanities of the University of Catania.

Address: Piazza Dante, 32, Catania

Travel information

By air

The best way to arrive to Catania is by plane. The Vincenzo Bellini Airport (CAT) has connections to most major cities in Italy and across Europe, including both flights on traditional (ITA, Lufthansa, KLM) and low-cost carriers (EasyJet, Ryanair, Vueling, WizzAir).

Getting to and from airport

AMTS bus 457 Alibus goes every 20 minutes (from 5 a.m. to midnight) between the Catania’s train station and the airport. The ticket costs €4 and the travel time is about 30 minutes. More information can be found here.

Local taxis at the Catania airport calculate their fares using a taximeter, based on the time and distance travelled. There is a flat fare from Airport to city center of €25 during the day and €28 for night or weekend trips.

Getting around Catania

The conference venue is located in the historical city centre at walking distance from many hotels and points of interest. We expect mild weather in October, therefore walking is the option to prefer.

Catania is served by a dense network of bus routes. The cost of a bus ticket is €1 and it is valid for 90 minutes. On-board purchase is possible. The most reliable and frequent bus service is provided by the BRT lines, that serves from piazza Stesicoro to the University, with stops along the famous via Etnea street. More information can be found here

Catania Metro, with just one line and ten stops, is an option only for selected location. The most important stops for the conference attendees are Stesicoro (15 minutes walking distance from the conference venue) and Borgo (for the welcome reception at Museo della Rappresentazione). The fare for one ride is €1 euro, and the ticket is valid for 90 minutes. You may use the FCE Catania app (AppStore, GooglePlay) to buy the metro tickets. More information can be found here.

AmiGO is the bike sharing service in Catania. More information can be found here.

You can also take a ride with an e-scooter provided by Dott. Mote information can be found here.

Accommodation

The university does not have any special deals, so use Booking.com or similar services. Accommodations in the city centre are within walking distance from the conference venue.

Practical information

Visa requirements

You can enter Italy from all EU and non-EU countries. The conditions and documentation required vary depending on the traveller’s country of origin. More information can be found here.

Vaccinations

As of 1 June 2022, the Italian government no longer requires a green pass for entry into the country. This means that travellers do not have to show any Covid-19 documentation upon entry (vaccination or recovery certificate or negative Covid test). Anyway, rules can be subject to changes, therefore we recommend to check the latest requirements before the departure here.

Other

Time: CET (Central European Time) is applied throughout Italy. From early autumn to late winter, standard time is applied, corresponding to CUT+1, one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

Language: The official language spoken throughout Italy is Italian.

Climate: We are in the heart of the Mediterranean, floating on the sea yet anchored to the Etna volcano 3.357 m high. The generally mild climate means you can visit Catania in October with temperature ranging from 4 to 26°C.

Electric current: Electricity available everywhere in Italy at 220 volts alternating current at a frequency of 50 hertz. Electrical sockets comply with European legislation. Most hotels have adapters for special plugs.

Currency: The currency used in Italy is the Euro. Airports and large stations usually have banks and exchange agencies for withdrawals or related services. Banks (with 24-hour ATMs) are located at the airport and all over the town.

Electronic payments: In addition to cash, you can pay for your purchases using the most common credit cards.

Sponsorship opportunities

Gold Silver Bronze
Fee (excl. VAT)
€3,500
€2,200
€1,200
Quantity available
6
Unlimited
Unlimited
Registrations included
1
1
-

Discounted registration (€ 200 off)

1
-
1
Recognition of sponsor page of conference site
Logo in printed program and on signs at conference
Logo on welcome slides at the plenary session (Size as per Partnership Level)
-
Company brochure in the conference bag
-
Table-top (table, chair, power socket) and roll-up at the exhibit, poster and break area
-
-

Sponsor items

Besides a package there are possibilities to sponsor items in the conference. When sponsoring an item, you will get the publicity related to that item.

Sponsors Mentioning Price (excl. VAT)
Coffee breaks
3
Offered by … with logo
€750
Lunches
4
Supported by … with logo
€1,500
Welcome reception
1
Offered by … with logo
€2,000
Conference dinner
2
Supported by … with logo
€3,000

How to get invovled?

Please, get in contact with the local conference organizers.

ICTCT Local organiser
Contact person
Niels Agerholm
Salvatore Damiano Cafiso
Giuseppina Pappalardo
Affiliation
ICTCT Secretariat
University of Catania
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture
Email
Telephone

Contact ICTCT

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