The IRTAD conference was held with great success in Athens in April 2026. TRUST partner TOI, represented by Tor-Olav Nævestad, presented the TRUST abstract – Development of a conceptual model for Traffic Safety Culture – which gave an overview of how the TRUST project has sought to better define and operationalise Traffic Safety Culture (TSC) by mapping previous research on traffic safety culture, and from there developing a conceptual model of traffic safety culture. A copy of the abstract given by Tor-Olav can be found on the TRUST website here. A copy of his presentation can be found here. A second TRUST abstract – Towards a Traffic Sustainability Culture: Integrating Safety and Sustainability in Line with the Stockholm Declaration – was also presented by Tor-Olav. A copy of this abstract can be found here. A copy of the presentation given by Tor-Olav can be found here.  

The Transport Research Arena (TRA) conference organised by the European Commission is one of the most important EU transport research events. Only held every two years, TRUST was pleased to have 2 abstracts and 2 posters accepted by the event. The abstract: Advancing Traffic Safety Culture: Developing a Conceptualisation of Cultural Maturity Among Traffic Safety Stakeholders, describes how a study carried out within the TRUST project will develop a conceptualisation of Traffic Safety Culture among stakeholders involved in Safe System implementation, considering that Safe System implementation is often impeded by insufficient culture and low cultural maturity among stakeholders and that existing Traffic Safety Culture (TSC) research primarily focuses on road users at the community and organisational levels, with limited attention to stakeholders and their roles. A copy of the abstract can be found here. A copy of the poster presented on the abstract can be found here. The second abstract: TRUST – Growing a Positive Traffic Safety Culture in the EU, explains how and why the TRUST project will explore the options for improving Traffic Safety Culture (TSC) in Europe. It goes on to explain how the project will develop measures for improving TSC and how these measures will be evaluated in seven pilots, working with municipalities, businesses and schools. Tools, benchmarking facilities and guidance developed through the project will be accessible through the TRUST platform. A copy of the abstract can be found here. A copy of the poster can be found here.

The TRUST project will test and evaluate different interventions to improve Traffic Safety Culture (TSC) in different settings. These are called the TRUST pilots. One of the TRUST pilots will focus on secondary schools.