PHOEBE Project Concludes After Three Years of Advancing Predictive Road Safety and Safer Urban Mobility

After three years of research, innovation, collaboration and real-world implementation, the Horizon Europe Projet PHOEBE (Predictive Approaches for Safer Urban Environments) has successfully concluded.

Bringing together leading research organisations, technology providers, road authorities, mobility practitioners and road safety experts from across Europe, the project sought to transform how cities assess, predict and manage road safety risks. By combining infrastructure assessment, traffic modelling, emerging data sources and advanced analytics, PHOEBE has demonstrated how predictive approaches can support more proactive and evidence-based road safety decision-making.

As a key consortium partner, iRAP was proud to contribute its expertise in road infrastructure safety assessment and evidence-based risk analysis throughout the project. Together with project partners, iRAP helped advance innovative approaches that bridge the gap between traditional safety assessment methods and next-generation predictive analytics.

Transforming Road Safety Through Prediction

At its core, the project was founded on a simple but ambitious vision: moving road safety management from a reactive and fragmented approach to a more proactive and integrated predictive model capable of identifying risks before crashes occur.

To achieve this, the project developed and tested an integrated framework that combines risk assessment, traffic simulation, road user behaviour and socio-economic factors to generate meaningful safety performance indicators for decision-makers. Through pilot implementations across Europe, PHOEBE explored how data-driven approaches can help authorities better understand safety challenges, evaluate interventions and prioritise actions that deliver the greatest benefits for all road users.

A Significant Contribution to iRAP Methodology Development

For iRAP, one of the project’s most significant outcomes was its contribution to the ongoing evolution of road infrastructure safety assessment tools and methodologies.

Through PHOEBE, iRAP contributed to research, development and testing activities that helped inform the iRAP Star Rating Version 3.10, strengthening the connection between infrastructure safety assessment, traffic operations analysis and vulnerable road user (VRU) risk assessment. The project also provided an opportunity to investigate how outputs from traffic microsimulation models can be integrated with road safety assessment methodologies to better understand the potential safety impacts of transport interventions before they are implemented.

Working closely with project partners, iRAP helped demonstrate the feasibility of linking traffic simulation outputs with Star Rating assessments. This work has contributed to functionality within Aimsun Next that enables users to examine safety-related indicators alongside traffic simulation results, creating new opportunities to integrate safety considerations into transport planning and decision-making.

This represents an important step towards more predictive approaches to road safety assessment, enabling practitioners to explore the safety implications of different scenarios during the planning and design stages rather than relying solely on post-implementation evaluations.

Collaboration Across Europe

Beyond its technical achievements, the project fostered strong collaboration between researchers, public authorities, mobility experts, technology providers and road safety practitioners.

Stakeholders were actively engaged throughout the project’s lifecycle, helping ensure that methodologies, tools and recommendations reflected real-world needs and practical applications. The consortium also played a leading role within the EU Road Safety Cluster, working alongside sister projects to promote knowledge exchange, identify synergies and strengthen the collective impact of European road safety research.

Project results were disseminated through conferences, workshops, webinars, technical publications and stakeholder events, helping raise awareness of innovative approaches to safer urban mobility while creating opportunities for future collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Looking Beyond PHOEBE

The conclusion of the project does not mark the end of its impact.

The project leaves behind a valuable legacy of methodologies, tools, datasets, recommendations and collaborative networks that will continue to support future road safety research and implementation activities. Its findings provide a strong foundation for cities, transport authorities, researchers and practitioners seeking to adopt more proactive approaches to understanding and managing road safety risks.

The final outputs, including the PHOEBE Decision Support Tool, offer practical resources that support the uptake and replication of project results across Europe and beyond.

Thank You to the PHOEBE Community

iRAP would like to thank all consortium partners, pilot site representatives, stakeholders, contributors and the European Commission for their commitment, expertise and collaboration throughout the project.

The success of PHOEBE demonstrates what can be achieved when road safety professionals, researchers and innovators work together towards a common vision.

As the project concludes, its achievements reinforce an important message: safer mobility depends on stronger evidence, better data and the ability to anticipate risk before tragedy occurs. By advancing predictive, proactive and data-driven approaches to road safety, PHOEBE has helped lay the foundations for safer roads, safer cities and safer journeys for all.