This page presents the Highlights of the European ITS Platform published in 2021. You may use the table of contents below to browse directly to the highlight of your interest and use the “back to top” link after each highlight to return to the Table of Contents again.
Table of Contents
Integrating C-ITS into road operators’ day-to-day-business ITS Forum Webinar – Summary Report 1
Final event of the Web ITS Forum – Best and Innovative Practices in Europe for Road Mobility. 1
Highlights from the Crocodile 3 – Technical Workshop: National Access Points and the Implementation of Multimodal Travel Information Services. 1
6th Web ITS Forum Webinar – Integrating C-ITS into road operators’ day-to-day-business. 1
European ITS Platform and Corridors contribution to the ITS World Congress in Hamburg. 1
Future mobility trends – digitalisation opportunities. 1
5th Web ITS Forum webinar – Future mobility trends – digitalisation opportunities. 1
“ITS projects in Italy – state of play and recent outcomes” at the Working Group Meeting of the “Scandinavian-Mediterranean Core Network Corridor Macroregion “Mediterranean” 1
The European Mobility Week hosts the 5th event of the Web ITS Forum: “Future mobility trends – digitalisation opportunities” 1
EU EIP at the concluding Webinar of the DATEX II Forum. 1
Resilience of road infrastructures – an Event in Italy. 1
Autonomous Driving: Social and Safety Aspects – May 28th, 2021. 1
NEXT-ITS Newsletter Nr 3. 1
“Digitalisation of road transport in Europe”: the book is freely available online. 1
A CROCODILE 3 statement on the progress of digitalisation in cross-border traffic management 1
Smart Road works of Anas in the Italian A2 "Mediterranean Highway" within URSA MAJOR neo Project 1
Euractiv published an Event report on Intelligent Transport Systems. 1
"Road digitalisation will lead to safer and greener highways" Pierpaolo Tona interviewed by Sean Carroll 1
On Euractiv media network an overview of the results of Platform and Corridors. 1
On YouTube the EU EIP web ITS forum "Digitalisation of road transport in Europe: the great progress under the Connecting Europe Facility" 1
On YouTube the EU EIP web ITS forum "Perspectives and contribution of road operators for facilitating automated driving" 1
On YouTube the EU EIP web ITS forum "Actions for Core Network Corridor Digitalization" 1
On YouTube the EU EIP web ITS forum "A preview of ITS Handbook for Road Operators" 1
CROCODILE 3 Technical Workshop: Digitalisation of cross-border traffic management 1
Euractiv published a European ITS Platform opinion on corridor results. 1
EU EIP publishes annual NAP report 2020. 1
Tire Pressure system – Final evaluation report available. 1
Optimum Quality: Final Report published, Key Recommendations to Road Operators formulated. 1
4th Web ITS Forum webinar – Digitalisation of road transport in Europe: the great progress under the Connecting Europe Facility. 1
Safety and quality of life in digital Europe. 1
Integrating C-ITS into road operators’ day-to-day-business ITS Forum Webinar – Summary Report
01/12/2021
The European ITS Platform (EU EIP) and C-Roads have jointly organised a webinar on “Integrating C-ITS into road operators’ day-to-day business”. The webinar on 5th November, 2021, has served as the 6th part of EU EIP’s Web ITS Forum. It has featured – in a total set of seven presentations – key C-ITS related results from the EU EIP work program and selected organisational results from C-Roads. The webinar has been attended by almost 100 experts from more than 20 countries all over and even beyond Europe.
Roberto Arditi (SINA Scientific Coordinator – ASTM Group) and Victoire Champenois (European Commission, DG MOVE) have introduced the policy dimension of the topic and informed about recent EC initiatives in the field (a.o. Green Deal contribution of ITS and C-ITS, revision of ITS Directive, revision of Delegated Acts). Farzin Godarzi (BASt) has presented a brief but comprehensive view on the C-ITS results. The highlighted recommendations have set the scene for the following presentations. Paul Wadsworth (Capita) has shared insight into the process guidance on implementation issues of the entire lifecycle, of how to set up, design and plan, install and commission as well as operate and maintain a C-ITS service. Orestis Giamarelos (BASt) has provided a deeper view on how the C-Roads specifications have been integrated into the Reference Handbook for Harmonised ITS Core Service Deployment in Europe. Peter Lubrich (BASt) has shared the findings of extending the process of proposing, testing, validating and enhancing quality packages for ITS services covered by Delegated Regulations in the scope of the ITS Directive (2010/40/EU) to C-ITS services. Marek Šcerba (VSB) has complemented the set of presentations by sharing the lessons learned from piloting C-ITS services in C-Roads. Martin Böhm (AustriaTech) has addressed the transition challenge from C-ITS pilots to building an ecosystem for fully operational C-ITS service delivery. Carlos Viktorsson (Sweco) finally has taken a look into the future on how C-ITS deployment from the infrastructure point of view can be continued after the initial deployment phase.
All webinar presentations can be watched using the EU EIP YouTube page
Final event of the Web ITS Forum – Best and Innovative Practices in Europe for Road Mobility
23/11/2021
SAVE-THE-DATE AND REGISTER 30th November 2021, 10h00 – 12h30 CET
Best and Innovative Practices in Europe for Road Mobility
Inside the European ITS Platform, the Activity 2 (A2) "Monitoring and Dissemination" is the prime place to foster harmonised ITS deployment on a European scale, across ITS Corridors and special domains. A2 works in close cooperation with all Activities in EU EIP to provide a place to discuss mutual impact and orchestration of their specific results and their impact on ITS Deployment in the future. The activity also liaises with external stakeholders in order to disseminate EU EIP results, discuss framework conditions, elicit requirements and follow ITS deployment in other projects (Urban, C-ITS…) and connects itself and EU EIP as a whole with relevant activities in the vast and still growing landscape of ITS.
A2 is also the platform for ITS deployment corridors to share results of horizontal activities and best practice. In order to fulfil this task and facilitate the exchange of experiences among the ITS Corridors, the Corridor and (sub-) activity leaders meet regularly as a Cross Corridor Cooperation (CCC) Group, where they exchange experiences, issues and solutions between the corridors, focusing on the operational level between the corridors. Information on good practices and results of ITS deployments on the ITS Corridors is fed into the relevant task of A2, providing useful input to the drafting of the Reference Handbook.
In this concluding webinar of the EU EIP Web ITS Forum, selected Deployment References collected will be presented by experts of the CEF ITS Corridors and the European ITS Platform, showcasing a small sample of the full set of Deployment References collected in four years. Totalling ca. 100 Deployment References, the full set is provided as a separate annex of the Reference Handbook for Harmonised ITS Core Service Deployment in Europe, available to download at the website of the European ITS Platform: www.its-platform.eu/reference-handbook
Highlights from the Crocodile 3 – Technical Workshop: National Access Points and the Implementation of Multimodal Travel Information Services
22/11/2021
On 4th November 2021, CROCODILE 3 organised the latest Technical Workshop on “National Access Points and the Implementation of Multimodal Travel Information Services". Within the webinar the CROCODILE partners as well as relevant external stakeholders were able to share their experiences and perspectives with over 50 participants.
The topic was discussed by highlighting:
· the strategic alignment and status of the implementation of the Delegated Regulation for Multimodal Travel Information Services within Europe,
· best practices on the implementation of multimodal travel information services within different European countries and resulting experiences,
· and the future perspective of the harmonisation of NAPs and NBs within the NAPCORE project.
In summary, the presented examples and discussions illustrated:
· A strong will to cooperate and to work together between local, national and EU-related governments.
· The implementation of multimodal travel information services is a complex undertaking, as more relevant stakeholders are involved than for example in terms of individual traffic.
· The initial efforts in regards to availability and accessibility of data are now moving from the core network also towards urban areas, where the majority of multimodal traffic takes place.
· New developments on travel planning and timetable information to new payment possibilities come into account.
· There is an increasing will to have all in open source, where all data is freely available.
· Additional information on other modes of transport, such as e-bikes, e-cars, rental cars, car/bike-sharing are increasingly demanded. In this context, also the different user groups have to be considered.
· And finally: NAPCORE just started, there will be a lot to discover concerning the harmonisation of NAPs and NBs.
For more information please contact us at: Kalojan.Daskalow@austriatech.at
Follow us on LinkedIn to stay updated: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/crocodile-corridor/
Invitation to workshop on Traffic Management and Autonomous Vehicles
10/11/2021
NEXT-ITS 3 invite you to participate in the workshop
Traffic Management and Autonomous Vehicles
Towards a Common Vision for Automated Driving – Integrating Automated Vehicles with Advanced Traffic Management Systems
In the coming years automated vehicles will be a natural part of our way of life. But, how will that affect the traffic system and in particular the traffic management?
The deployment of automated vehicles can only be successful if the automotive industry, road operators and traffic management develop a consistent approach for an intelligent and integrated traffic management which includes the operation of automated vehicles.
An important issue is the future role of the road authorities and especially the traffic management centres. They will need to manage automatic/connected vehicles in different areas like route guidance, traffic control, optimisation of traffic flow, incident management and event management. What are their expectations? And what are the expectations of road authorities and traffic management from the providers of automated cars?
The aim of this workshop is better understanding the approaches and ideas on both the road operators’ and traffic managements side and the automotive industry side. What are the mutual expectations and requirements and where can gaps be identified on which both sides need to co-operate? There will be presenters from road authorities, traffic management centres, and car and OEM industries. There will also be presenters from projects on for example autonomous shuttles, geo-fencing as well as physical and digital infrastructure.
Agenda:
Date and time of the meeting – 01.12.2021, 10:00-16:00
Presentation including short questions: 20 min
10:00
Opening, Welcome etc.
Dieter Sage, Logos
10:20
Automated Driving – Technical Development and Identified Common Interaction Points for OEMs and Road Operators.
Jörg Dubbert, VDI-VDE
10:40
Impact of automated driving on traffic management
Risto Kulmala, Traficon
11:00
NordicWay – Pilots
Anna Johansson Jacques, Swedish Transport Administration
11:20
Coffee Break
11:40
Traffic Management in the era of connected and more automated vehicles and fleet – Swedish approach
Per-Olof Svensk, Swedish Transport Administration
12:00
Contributions of NRAs to a cross sector roadmap for connected, cooperative and automated mobility
Manfred Harrer, Asfinag/Torsten Geißler, BASt
12:20
Shuttles & Co – Autonomous Shuttles in the digital test field for city traffic
Oliver Strop, Strop Consulting
12:40
Lunch Break
13:40
Driver needs for safe and acceptable automated driving: Implications from a European Research Project on vehicles and road infrastructure
Peter Moertl, Virtual Vehicle
14:00
Recommendations for enabling infrastructure-assisted automated driving
Anton Wijbenga, MapTM
14:20
14:40
Cloud Infrastructure Services for Automated Driving in the UNICARagil Project
Raphael van Kempen, Institut für Kraftfahrzeuge, RWTH Aachen University
15:00
Discussion
16:00
End of Workshop
Further information and the link for accessing the workshop will be presented here soon
Welcome!
Mode: Web-based Online-Workshop
Registration: Send an email to registration@logos-hh.de for registration.
Participation: A link to the meeting will be sent to registered participants a few days before the workshop.
Audience: The workshop addresses you who represent road authorities, traffic centres, industry, car manufacturers and others who are interested in the field of autonomous driving and traffic management.
Link to the meeting: Works on mobile, desktop and app
6th Web ITS Forum Webinar – Integrating C-ITS into road operators’ day-to-day-business
20/10/2021
SAVE-THE-DATE AND REGISTER 5th November 2021, 11h00 – 12h30 CET
The European ITS Platform serves as Technical ITS Knowledge Management Center, aiming amongst others at ensuring regular operation of ITS services deployed today on the TEN-T core network of roads and, looking forward, at the best integration of C-ITS pilots and deployments with current ITS. EU EIP collaborates closely with C-Roads for the mutual benefit of both platforms. As EU EIP (2016-2021) approaches the end of the action, it is time to wrap up, to take stock of the C-ITS related achievements and to recommend continued as well as further actions which aim at ensuring that C-ITS is properly integrated into road operators’ day-to-day business but also providing a perspective beyond the C-ITS Day One applications. Please be kindly invited to the webinar which will inform you about these perspectives. The speakers of the webinar will be announced very soon.
All webinar presentations can be watched on the EU EIP YouTube page
European ITS Platform and Corridors contribution to the ITS World Congress in Hamburg
11/10/2021
11th-15th October, 2021 – ITS World Congress in Hamburg
Video
We invite all of you to look at the nice video which highlight the results of Corridors and the Platform by following this link on the ITS Platform YouTube channel.
The video of the European ITS Platform summarizes the report on Digitalisation of road transport in Europe and will be displayed at the EC booth during the Congress.
Reference Handbook
The Reference Handbook for Harmonised Core ITS Service Deployment in Europe, makes its official debut at the ITS World Congress 2021 in Hamburg, Germany. Printed copies will be available at the Congress, as well as relevant videos and presentations.
You can already download the Reference Handbook from the link below:
www.its-platform.eu/reference-handbook
European ITS Platform and Corridors planned sessions
Session
Date
Time
ID
Speakers
Title of the session
TP 2
Monday 11.10.
14-15:30
249
Peter Lubrich, Ronald Jorna, Louis Hendriks
Harmonised Metadata for Transportation Data Portals Room: Messe- B6 – Room 4
Tuesday 12.10
10:30-11:30
CEDR CAD Group
The impact of NRAs (national road operators) on green, digital and automated driving
TP 5
14:00-15:30
874
Holger Drees, Torsten Geißler, Farzin Godarzi, Axel Burkert, Katharina Mehlstäubler
Integrating C-ITS into Road Operators’ Day-to-Day Business (The C-ITS paper is presented by Farzin)
TP 11
16:00-17:00
849
Orestis Giamarelos
Experience in ITS Deployment Condensed: The Reference Handbook for ITS Core Service Deployment in Europe
Wednesday 13.10
10:30-12:00
Keynote speech by Malika Seddi Autobahn CEO Anne Rethmann looking forward to meet the ladies in ITS
Autobahn Women network meets Women in ITS and Mobility
15:00-16:00
Invitation from Autobahn International ITS Cooperation
EU EIP, ITS Corridor and other co-funded projects partners come together Let´s revive our network cooperation
Future mobility trends – digitalisation opportunities
28/09/2021
The European ITS Platform has organized a webinar in cooperation with general secretaries of CEDR and ASECAP. Top experts in the fields of mobility and digitalization discussed the future of mobility together with Massimiliano Salini, member of the European Parliament, and high officers from DG MOVE and key European Stakeholders such as IRU and UITP. Here is the full program. The pandemic had huge impact on mobility, both for cities and for motorways. The European vaccination programme allows citizens to hope for a new social normality. On the other hand, the attitude of citizens is changing: smart working and digital cooperation are expected to have a long term impact on the mobility, possibly even promoting different approach to human settlements, maybe more sustainable. The following questions were answered by authorities, experts and stakeholders.
· How the European mobility has changed in the last period?
· What can we imagine will stay as a legacy for the future of road mobility?
· Which are the key action that the main stakeholder are considering to get prepared for the future?
· How ITS technologies can be helpful?
More than 110 requests from 26 countries were acknowledged: delegates from most European countries but also
from the Iceland, United Kingdom, Turkey and Philippines.
The video of the event can be streamed from the page of the web ITS Forum or from ITS Platform YouTube channel.
5th Web ITS Forum webinar – Future mobility trends – digitalisation opportunities
09/09/2021
SAVE-THE-DATE AND REGISTER 20th September 2021, 09h00 – 12h00 CET
Event program
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PERSPECTIVE:
Policy perspectives and objectives for the future mobility in Europe – Massimiliano SALINI – Member of the European Parliament – TRAN Committee
SETTING THE SCENE:
Future interurban mobility: trends, economy and evolution of transport demand – a European outlook and case studies – Kay W. AXHAUSEN (ETH – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – on behalf of World Conference of Transport Research Science)
Mobility trend analysis from the European perspective – Panayotis CHRISTIDIS Elena NAVAJAS CAWOOD (European Commission JRC)
Making full use of Automation for National Transport: perspectives and opportunities – Risto KULMALA (MANTRA Project Coordinator)
Long distance commuting trips: from the problem to good practices – André BROTO (VINCI Autoroutes)
Cooperative technologies for the integration of services: motorways and cities – Ricardo TIAGO (IMT) – Pedro BARRADAS (Armis)
COFFEE BREAK
PANEL DISCUSSION ON: MOTORWAYS, ROAD TRANSPORT AND FUTURE PRIORITIES FOR DIGITALIZATION, TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND SAFETY IN EUROPE
Steve PHILLIPS, CEDR, Secretary-General
Malika SEDDI, ASECAP, Secretary-General and CEO
Guido DI PASQUALE, UITP, Deputy Director – Knowledge & Innovation dpt.
Raluca MARIAN, IRU, Director EU Advocacy
Ewa PTASZYNSKA, DG MOVE Deputy Head of Unit – Road Transport
ORGANIZER: European ITS Platform in cooperation with CEDR and ASECAP
MODERATOR: Roberto ARDITI, SINA Scientific Coordinator – ASTM Group
Future of road mobility and motorways
Throughout the course of its own studies, the European ITS Platform (Evaluation Group), in conjunction with ITS Corridors and experts in the field, have developed a suite of tools and guidance designed to nurture a harmonised approach to the Evaluation of ITS. The ITS Corridors have in-turn adopted this approach, which has helped to make the benefits of ITS investments across Europe more consistent, more comparable and more visible. Initial Corridor results based on this commonly adopted approach are now presented in a single source – the Digitalization of Road Transport in Europe book – which contains an overview of the overall impacts and benefits of co-funded ITS investment.
Corona as catalyst of change
As of today we have experienced more than a year of individual and social suffering due to this disease. We are heading towards the end of the summer and we are about to reap the benefits of the European vaccination programme that allows citizens to hope for a new social normality, perhaps even a new economic normality. We are therefore in a good moment to reflect and to analyse on what has changed in the world of European roads and on what we can imagine will stay as a legacy for the future of road mobility. For centuries, geographic distance has been a driving cost function for where cities grew, where businesses had to produce/sell, and where families could choose to settle. The presence of road infrastructures has contributed to modulate this cost and consequently shaped the land-use. What if this cost today drops dramatically, thanks to new technologies? If proximity to one’s work were no longer the determining factor in deciding where to live, then the attractiveness of the suburbs could decrease, perhaps favouring small cities and villages. If people could work from anywhere, would crowded neighbourhoods start to thin out? Perhaps European society is not yet there, but it is clear that these cost functions, today, have reduced because of technologies, with a process further accelerated by the coronavirus crisis. The consequences for the organization of the territory and also for mobility are enormous.
Other challenges and opportunities
Safety – the Commission published data on road accidents: in 2020 last year 18,800 people lost their lives on European roads: a reduction of 17% compared to 2019. This is an unprecedented reduction: 4,000 fewer deaths on our roads. Nevertheless senior officials of the Commission noted that the reduction in traffic was not followed by a proportional reduction in the number of victims. From this fact, we can observe that European roads have the possibility of further improvement in terms of “safe system approach”. Can technology contribute to this target? Ageing – The TEN-T network is growing old. It is made up of thousands of km of bridges and tunnels. Many of the bridges were built during the economic boom of the 1950s/60s and are now reaching a critical moment in their design life. Member States are working to preserve the European infrastructure stock. New solutions and technologies are being explored to develop low-cost, large scale and easily deployable systems that could contribute to the monitoring of the large number of civil structures that, at present, are missing a continuous dedicated supervision. This is an additional opportunity to have a data driven management of infrastructure and traffic.
All webinar presentations can be watched on the EU EIP YouTube channel
“ITS projects in Italy – state of play and recent outcomes” at the Working Group Meeting of the “Scandinavian-Mediterranean Core Network Corridor Macroregion “Mediterranean”
15/07/2021
In the morning of Tuesday, 13th July 2021, Pat Cox, European Coordinator of the Scan-Med Core network corridor, chaired the Working Group Meeting of the “Scandinavian-Mediterranean Core Network Corridor Macroregion “Mediterranean”. The meeting aimed at the southern section of Scan-Med i.e. Italy and Malta addressing investments in general – not only ITS.
Italian Ministry invited the European ITS Platform to have an outlook of those CEF ITS projects in Italy within the frame of the session: “TEN-T ScanMed Corridor – Road”. The speech was performed by Roberto Arditi on behalf of Italian Partners.
The participants came from: Ministries, CEF ITS Projects, stakeholders (Ministry of sustainable infrastructure and mobility – Federica Polce, Transport Malta, C-Roads Italy, PASS4CORE, ANAS, Consorzio ZAI, RFI Infrastructure Malta, Malta Freeport Terminals Ltd, Central Adriatic Sea Port Authority and Grimaldi Euromed spa).
This event has been a good opportunity for the European ITS Platform to have an additional step forward to the request of DG-MOVE Director Herald RUIJTERS who pushed Member States in ITS corridors to boost further cooperation and support to transport needs of Core Network Corridors.
The European Mobility Week hosts the 5th event of the Web ITS Forum: “Future mobility trends – digitalisation opportunities”
09/07/2021
The EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK takes place from 16-22 September, 2021 and it is the European Commission’s flagship awareness-raising campaign on sustainable urban mobility. It promotes behavioural change in favour of active mobility, public transport, and Intelligent Transport Solutions.
The purpose of the event is to bring together operators in the sector: companies, public administrations, associations and start-ups.
In this context, on September 20th, 2021 (09h00 – 12h00) is planned the 5th event of the Web ITS Forum Future mobility trends – digitalisation opportunities, organized in cooperation by the European ITS Platform with CEDR and ASECAP.
Speakers are representatives of: TRAN committee, EC DG MOVE, CEDR, ASECAP, EU EIP SINA (ASTM Group Italy), IMT, Armis, ETH – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EC JRC, UITP, IRU, MANTRA, Vinci Autoroutes.
Main topics presented to be discussed:
o Future of road mobility and motorways
o Corona as catalyst of change
o Other challenges and opportunities
EU EIP at the concluding Webinar of the DATEX II Forum
21/06/2021
EU EIP was present at the Concluding Webinar of the DATEX II Forum. The Webinar, which took place on the 9th of June 2021, was an opportunity to look back on the great steps the DATEX II community has made to contribute to the acceleration of the digitalisation of traffic, travel and its related management processes. EU EIP participated in the "Celebrating achievements" section with Roberto Arditi and Orestis Giamarelos describing the excellent collaboration between the two initiatives and going into more detail on the cooperation that led to the development of Recommended Service Profiles for the ITS services included in the Reference Handbook for ITS core service deployment in Europe. Apart from the EU EIP presentation, further demonstrations of DATEX II implementations were presented and underline the relevance of the work done. The afternoon session was focused on the future work and the many challenges ahead, with regard to ongoing digitalisation, extending scopes of adjoining functional and technical domains.
Most presentations of the concluding webinar of DATEX II are already available on the DATEX II website. Presentations and videos from the previous events of the DATEX II Forum are also available on the website. Among the very interesting content to be found there, EU EIP was also present on the first day of the DATEX II Forum with a more detailed session on the development of the Recommended Service Profiles for the Reference Handbook, presented by the experts Josef Kaltwasser and Tobias Reiff.
Resilience of road infrastructures – an Event in Italy
04/06/2021
A new event concerning “Resilienza e cambiamento climatico: l’impatto sulle infrastrutture stradali” (Resilience and climate change: the impact ) was organized Within the frame of the SINA (ASTM Group) school for infrastructure engineering. The event will be in Italian only.
The meeting will be held on June the 8th in collaboration with the Foundation of the Role of Engineers of Milano (FOIM) and with the scientific support of the experts of the PIARC National Technical Committee on "Climate change and resilience of the road networks". The experts will be engaged in deepening the issues related to the resilience of the road network compared to events due to climate change and other risks that negatively affect infrastructure and operation. Top officials of the Ministry of the Sustainable Infrastructure and Transport are listed among speakers.
The program of the event is available online.
Autonomous Driving: Social and Safety Aspects – May 28th, 2021
24/05/2021
PIARC Italy through a working group on Ethical, Social and Safety Aspects from Autonomous Driving has organized a webinar to be held on May 28th, 2021.
The event will be in English only. This page of the PIARC website includes the program and details for, free of charge, participation.
NEXT-ITS Newsletter Nr 3
13/05/2021
The third newsletter of NEXT-ITS is now available.
“Digitalisation of road transport in Europe”: the book is freely available online
23/04/2021
The book “Digitalisation of road transport in Europe”, edited by the European ITS Platform, is now freely available for download through this link.
It provides an insight into the achievements of EU co-funded projects, where implementation of ITS has been used to target mobility inefficiencies, as well as mitigate safety risks and environmental pollution on the trans-European road network.
Looking to the future, the new and improved services that increased digitalisation can be accounted as a valuable result: the European ITS Platform and CEF ITS Corridors have played a significant role in achieving a better efficiency of the transport across Europe. Four chapters of the book are devoted to Corridors who directly assessed results and figures: Arc Atlantique, MedTIS, NEXT-ITS and URSA MAJOR.
The book opens with the introductory notes of three European high-level representatives: Herald Ruijters (Director for Investment, Innovative and Sustainable Transport European Commission DG MOVE), Carlo Secchi (Atlantic Corridor Core Network Corridor European Coordinator) and Dirk Beckers (Director of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency – EC CINEA).
This book was presented and discussed during the 4th event of the EU EIP Web ITS Forum on March 25th 2021. The recording of this webinar is available on ITS Platform YouTube channel and can be accessed using the link below:
EU EIP Web ITS Forum 4th event – 25th March 2021 – Digitalisation of roads in Europe: the great progress under the Connecting Europe Facility.
A CROCODILE 3 statement on the progress of digitalisation in cross-border traffic management
19/04/2021
The partners of CROCODILE 3 used the webinar on digitalisation of cross-border traffic management for broadly communicating their progress and their next steps in this field. The afternoon was started off with a strategic session, featuring representatives of the European Commission and the Austrian Ministry for Climate Action, and followed by in-depth insights to the Traffic Management Plan application from an operator viewpoint.
It is important for the European Commission and ministries as well as strategic and legislative stakeholders to have projects and initiatives like CROCODILE 3 that are very close to the operator perspective. This helps to verify that initiatives are headed in the right direction as well as making progress tangible. Trust is an important topic from different sides as in the end, the users will determine success or failure by either behaving in a way that is intended or not. However when trust methodologies are applied properly, trust will emerge and increase and will lead to a win-win situation for all parties concerned. The differentiation of borders is also important, because borders can occur both within a country (regional) and range across borders, differing in terms of organisational or technical nature. Both have their specific challenges since they involve different stakeholders on operational and political level.
One upcoming challenge is to make data sources converge within purposes, so that traffic management can also tap the fields of C-ITS, CCAD together with “conventional” data sources. In this matter, the private sector must be increasingly involved in order to ensure a consistent message towards the end users. The TMP application is an important step towards this kind of convergence and subsequent creation of harmonised services. A strong statement was given from all sides that tools should not be multiplied but rather connected, which is in line with the harmonisation thought of the CROCODILE corridor.
Follow us on LinkedIn to stay updated on upcoming workshops: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/crocodile-corridor or head to the download section.
Smart Road works of Anas in the Italian A2 "Mediterranean Highway" within URSA MAJOR neo Project
12/04/2021
In the Italian region Calabria Anas’s plan, co-financed by the EC within the URSA MAJOR neo Project, has started for the installation of advanced systems of telecommunication, the realization of enabling platforms and C-ITS services.
The Smart road works in the section between the motorway junction of Villa San Giovanni along the A2 "Mediterranean Highway" and the boarding for the Italian region Sicily have started. It has been announced by Domenica Catalfamo the regional Councillor for Infrastructures. As reported in the note of the Department mentioned by the press, roadworks will be carried out by Anas, on the basis of a project, for an amount of 2.5 million euros and will be financed for two million by the Calabria Region with Pac 2014-2020 Funds and for 500 thousand from the European Commission within the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) funds, through the URSA MAJOR neo Project (Action n° 2016-EU-TM-0044-M).
"The project – reads the note – foresees the construction of the Smart Road infrastructure through the installation of ongoing multimodality workstations and connecting technologies, monitoring and control along the access ramps to the boarding area of Villa San Giovanni, turning the road infrastructure into a real digital infrastructure. Thanks to the "dialogue" between the road and the vehicles it will be possible to further improve safety, reduce accidents, increase travel comfort and mobility info".
"The digital transformation – continues the note – foresees in addition to the installation of advanced telecommunications systems, the realization of appropriate platforms enabling C-ITS services and able to collect and manage data from vehicles/ sensors. In summary, with the creation of an advanced system, integrated with the information systems of the navigation companies, there will be the opportunity to provide information on mobility to data users through the Smart road App on which there will be, for example, information on speed limits, traffic conditions, signalling of slow or stopped vehicles or wrong-way driving, presence of emergency vehicles".
“The real time monitoring will be realized – still informs the Councillorship – also for the evaluation of the queues in access to the boarding for Sicily in the port of Villa San Giovanni. The Smart road data will be made accessible to users, according to the Anas data dissemination policy and in compliance with the legislation on the processing of personal data, through the Smart road App or through in-vehicle devices". Councillor Catalfamo stresses "the importance, also for experimental purposes, of the application of this technology in a strategic access to the A2, whose users will already benefit from the increase of service and safety standards from the end of July". Finally, in line with the proposal submitted to the Ministry of Transports, we will carry on supporting"- the note concludes – that the Government finances through the NRRP the extension of the Smart road to the entire primary road network of Calabria, motorways and major roads".
Read the Italian version on ANAS website.
Euractiv published an Event report on Intelligent Transport Systems
06/04/2021
The event report prepared by Euractiv, available here, focuses on Intelligent Transport Systems. It stresses the effort of European Union to promote ITS as a way to increase road safety and to tackle Europe’s growing emission and congestion problems. It is also the opportunity to take stock of where the EU stands with ITS deployment and identify the roadblocks still lying ahead.
The contents of the report:
1. Digital solutions can stem the economic toll of road congestion, official says
An article drafted by journalist Sean Carroll on the results presented at the webinar of the European ITS platform “Digitalisation of road transport in Europe: the great progress under the Connecting Europe Facility”. In the essay he resumed the interventions of the panel and the conclusions made by the Head of Unit of EC DG MOVE Kristian Hedberg with the perspectives in light of the strategy for sustainable and smart mobility.
2. EU official: Road digitalisation will lead to safer and greener highways
An interview drafted by Sean Carroll to EC INEA senior Project Manager Pierpaolo Tona who talked about Intelligent Transport Systems and its potential to increase road safety and efficiency, cutting emissions and saving lives.
3. The CEF ITS Corridors and the European ITS Platform contributing to the Green Deal and the Digitalisation
This condensed text is a summary of the contents and the results contained in the book of Digitalization, that has been presented during the webinar of March 25th, and explains its structure from the background, to the lesson learnt and vision ending with the general benefits.
In particular, this publication provides an insight into the achievements of EU co-funded projects where implementation of ITS has been used to target mobility inefficiencies, mitigate safety risks and environmental pollution on the trans-European road network. Looking to the future the new and improved services that increased digitalisation can be accounted as a valuable result: the EU EIP and corridors have a role in achieving greater multimodality across Europe.
"Road digitalisation will lead to safer and greener highways" Pierpaolo Tona interviewed by Sean Carroll
The interview “EU official: Road digitalisation will lead to safer and greener highways” to Pierpaolo Tona, EC INEA senior Project Manager, drafted by Sean Carroll is published on Euractiv the network specialised in EU policies. The conversation between the journalist and the EC INEA Project Manager covered several topics related to Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) among which: how ITS makes transport safer and more efficient, its impact on road emission, the costs of implementing such types of systems, concluding on how ITS contribute significantly to the gradual automation of transport. You may read the full article here.
On Euractiv media network an overview of the results of Platform and Corridors
Sean Carroll, journalist of the independent pan-European media network specialised in EU policies, Euractiv, participated at the webinar of March 25th and drafted the article “Digital solutions can stem the economic toll of road congestion, official says”. In which he delivered an overview of the results presented, the figures provided and the conclusions and perspectives outlined by the Head of Unit of EC DG MOVE Kristian Hedberg.
On YouTube the EU EIP web ITS forum "Digitalisation of road transport in Europe: the great progress under the Connecting Europe Facility"
31/03/2021
On the YouTube channel of the European ITS Platform it is possible to watch the recording of the webinar “Digitalisation of road transport in Europe: the great progress under the Connecting Europe Facility” https://youtu.be/w8UCKN6kaoM
More information available on https://www.forumeuropeanitsplatform.com/
On YouTube the EU EIP web ITS forum "Perspectives and contribution of road operators for facilitating automated driving"
On the YouTube channel of the European ITS Platform it is possible to watch the recording of the webinar “Perspectives and contribution of road operators for facilitating automated driving” https://youtu.be/LXHM6Bkq-CI
On YouTube the EU EIP web ITS forum "Actions for Core Network Corridor Digitalization"
On the YouTube channel of the European ITS Platform it is possible to watch the recording of the webinar “Actions for Core Network Corridor Digitalization” https://youtu.be/Qe0DJiXJ0Rw
On YouTube the EU EIP web ITS forum "A preview of ITS Handbook for Road Operators"
30/03/2021
On the YouTube channel of the European ITS Platform it is possible to watch the recording of the webinar “Digitalisation, best practices and best use of the road: a preview of ITS Handbook for Road Operators” (https://youtu.be/UEttS6ZvagQ).
The Italian Magazine Strade&Autostrade relies the platform policy brief
23/03/2021
Lorenzo Merendi, a journalist from the Italian magazine Strade&Autostrade wrote an article titled “The seven key actions for the digitalization of the European Corridors – part one”. The article starts from the policy brief published for the 2nd Webinar – Actions for Core Network Corridor Digitalization (Friday 4th December 2020). The article is published both in the web and in the paper magazine. Part two will be published in the issue n ° 147 May/June 2021 and will be online from Tuesday 18 May 2021.
The article is in Italian language:
Le sette azioni chiave per la digitalizzazione del corridoio centrale europeo – prima parte
https://www.stradeeautostrade.it/its-smart-road/le-sette-azioni-chiave-per-la-digitalizzazione-del-corridoio-centrale-europeo-core-prima-parte/
To have more info concerning the webinar, please follow this link 2nd Web ITS Forum Webinar – Actions for Core Network Corridor Digitalization | ITS Platform (its-platform.eu)
CROCODILE 3 Technical Workshop: Digitalisation of cross-border traffic management
22/03/2021
The CROCODILE corridor unites public authorities, road administrations and traffic information service providers of 7 European Member States. Co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility, they are committed to cross-border data exchange and harmonisation on different layers.
In the course of the pan-European vision of a free movement of people and goods, it is obvious that traffic management strategies must not be limited to national borders. The CROCODILE corridor responds to the apparent need for cross-border traffic management by consolidating authorities and road operators and providing a forum for collaboration. Data is an important basis for modern traffic management and it became apparent that motorway operators already have many relevant management strategies available. CROCODILE has provided the ground for converging efforts on technical, organisational and dissemination level. Five Central European motorway operators have put a common application for the digitalisation and coordination of Traffic Management Plans (TMPs) into place and progressed to self-managing their cooperation. Next steps will include a broad dissemination strategy to introduce the advantages of the application to other operators. On end-user level, this shall help to build up and increase customer trust, thus encouraging behaviour in accordance with the intended operator strategies.
Your benefits from participating in this webinar:
· Get first-hand experiences of European road operators on digital traffic management
· Cut corners on the way to implementation by benefitting from previous lessons learnt
· See the cross-border application in a live demonstration
· Obtain access to the webinar slides and a CROCODILE position paper on digital traffic management
To ensure the smooth organisation and running of this events, you are kindly requested to register by Wednesday 14 April 2021. You will receive further details after registration.
Euractiv published a European ITS Platform opinion on corridor results
18/03/2021
On March 10th, Euractiv published an opinion of the European ITS Platform concerning results of the evaluation on implementations performed by 4 CEF ITS corridors. Euractiv is the independent pan-European media network specialised in EU policies. The article “The CEF ITS Corridors and the European ITS Platform contributing to the Green Deal and the Digitalisation challenges” focus a book concerning Digitalization of the TEN-T network. The book will be presented in the webinar of next March 25th (registration page here). The European ITS Platform prepared this short piece to highlight results achieved and evaluated by four ITS corridors Arc Atlantique, MedTIS, Next-ITS and URSA MAJOR.
The European Union activated an ambitious plan on two of the most fundamental subjects for the life of its citizens, namely the Green Deal and the Digital Strategy. Global climate change can put at risk the quality of life of the people, whilst the rapid introduction of digital services should, and can, bring big benefits. However, it implies also big risks for the security of all the business sectors, and for the privacy of the citizens. DG MOVE, INEA and European road authorities have been working together for several years to implement ITS systems and services in response to the ITS Directive 2010/40/EU, in particular the wider deployment of Safety-Related Traffic Information (SRTI) and Real-Time Traffic Information (RTTI), better traffic management and services relating to the freight industry. One of the European Policies decided in this frame was the funding of five ‘ITS Corridors’ including linear stretches of the trans-European Core and Comprehensive networks.
Please read the article by following this link.
EU EIP publishes annual NAP report 2020
09/03/2021
Since its start in 2016 the EU EIP has published five annual reports about the status of the National Access Points (NAP) across Europe. The annual NAP report 2020 is the final one, describing the deployment status of NAPs in Europe as well as harmonising work on metadata, common features, data standards and common formats, harmonised declaration of compliance, and other issues, related to the Commission Delegated Regulations for ITS Directive priority actions.
download NAP annual report 2020.
We have seen over the last five years that the number of NAPs is still growing, though not in a harmonized way. The so-called NAP map (link) shows the status based on the NAP survey 2020.
The status of implementation of NAPs in Europe is based on a yearly survey sent to all Member States. The survey per country was completed by responsible ministries, National Access Points and related National Bodies. In total 25 MS, Norway and the United Kingdom have responded to the 2020 survey, an almost 100% coverage of the status of NAPs in the European Union.
Harmonisation of NAPs
Besides monitoring the status of NAPs in Europe, this report highlights a number of topics that have been developed by EU EIP supporting international harmonisation:
· NAP Common Features and Level of Service. It can be used by NAP operators and implementers to check the features and LoS of their NAP. The support document can be downloaded here.
· With respect to metadata strategic guidance has been provided in the form of a “Metadata Guideline”. The revised “Coordinated Metadata Catalogue” (2019) includes multi-modal data and services.
· Uniform Declarations of Compliance for priority actions B, C and E have been developed in cooperation with stakeholders.
Tire Pressure system – Final evaluation report available
23/02/2021
As part of the URSA MAJOR neo project, the Dutch national road operator Rijkswaterstaat started a pilot on the A16 (south of Rotterdam) concerning the measurement of tire pressure of trucks.
In the periode 2018-2020 Rijkswaterstaat tested two aspects:
1. is the measurement system reliable, and
2. is the system effective, in other words: did the trial result in less tire-related incidents with trucks and in less congestion?.
Apart from these two questions Rijkswaterstaat also focused on future use of this system.
The results can be found in the evaluation report, which is available at this LINK. The report is in Dutch, but an English summary is also included.
EU EIP sub-activity 4.1 is dedicated to frameworks and guidelines to describe and assess the quality for ITS data and ITS services in Europe. Besides several Quality Packages, being reported frequently on this website, a dedicated task was to explore optimisation aspects in terms of quality, from the perspective of European road authorities.
The goals of this co-called “Optimum Quality” task were:
· to analyse and assess the optimum quality levels for selected ITS services,
· to collect experiences of different quality improvement actions,
· to give recommendations to road authorities on options to improve quality of the different quality criteria,
· to analyse the whole value chain in the wider context, and
· to recommend action and best practices how to maximise societal benefits of the services.
An introduction to these topics was already published in 2019:
https://eip.its-platform.eu/highlights/introduction-optimum-quality-its
In the meantime, the working group has elaborated the items above via an iterative process, looking at theoretical and practical approaches on optimizing quality.
The elaborations are compiled in a recent report, which can be downloaded here.
To crystallize the main take-aways for European road operators, the working group defined the following logical steps to work towards optimum information quality and maximised societal benefits. The recommendations were created in an internal workshop on 22nd October 2020.
1. Know your data quality
Use the EUEIP Quality Package to design the local quality framework and identify the most feasible quality assessment methodologies. Reach for the European community on advice on best practises, since some quality criteria may be harder to measure.
2. Set quality targets
Consider the current quality level and the recommended optimum/target quality levels and consider the different needs in various operating environments when setting the quality targets. The EU EIP Quality Framework provides a validated and agreed baseline for organisations for target setting. Remember, that the EU EIP quality criteria and requirements may serve as a basis for service agreements regarding different companies developing systems for the road operators. Also, knowing the quality requirements and targets on the service side is a good starting point for defining the quality targets in the first part of the value chain, i.e. the content side.
3. Assess the expected quality improvement from the ongoing development projects
Analyse how the technological development (monitoring systems, vehicle data, development of IT systems and automation) will affect the data quality of different information services. This may prove a difficult task since there is a lack of evidence and knowledge to what extent different actions will affect quality locally. Nonetheless, an assessment should be made about which quality criteria will be affected (improved) by the ongoing projects and roughly how much, and which criteria will most likely remain untouched, and need further attention. Many organisations have ongoing investment projects that will lead to “jumps” in the quality levels. From the viewpoint of quality management, it would be beneficial to build in a practise of pre-assessment of potential quality effects at least to the major investment programs and plans.
4. Define and implement the needed complementary actions to reach targets
Identify the complementary actions needed to reach the targeted quality levels using the recommendations in this report. Target especially those of the critical quality criteria that seem to be lacking most behind the targets. Prepare a pre-assessment of the expected quality improvement to overcome the internal hindrances for funding and human resources. Utilise the published evaluation reports from the European community in the pre-assessment.
5. Engage in the collaboration and regulation work with the local and global value chain stakeholders
Facilitate active and continuous collaboration with the global and local service providers and agree about actions that streamline the information flow in the whole value chain. The wide-spread use of European NAPs, based on the ITS Directive, will cater for cross-border collaboration between parties. Participate in the TISA collaboration forums. As authorities have limited resources, regulation is seen as a secondary means whereas ecosystem building and voluntary collaboration that benefit all parties as the first priority. The revision of the ITS Directive may bring new regulations that will further institutionalise the EU EIP Quality framework and also bring more funding for quality assessment and related research.
6. Evaluate quality improvements
Build a local quality monitoring system for continuous quality measurement and use a wide range of incremental quality improvement actions. Evaluate systematically the quality improvements achieved by the projects and actions. Evaluate both the content side (data quality) and service side (may be covered by user satisfaction survey) and compare the findings to the users’ needs. Document the used evaluation methods and datasets. Share knowledge to the European community to strengthen learning effect on the effectiveness of different actions.
The Quality Frameworks developed by the EU EIP project are validated and tested, and therefore mature enough to support all quality improvement activities within the European road operators organisations. A slightly discouraging observations is, however, that during the many years of developing the framework, rather few organisations have built their own systematical quality management schemes and many are still struggling to fill in the action no 1 (Know your data quality). Some quality criteria have been seen as too hard to measure, but the main reason for the non-action may be more of institutional in nature. Quality of information services may be lacking from the strategic KPIs of the organisations, and therefore quality management receives insufficient funding independent of other development projects.
Institutional challenges are rarely easy to overcome. If the quality effect of investments or other actions is not evaluated systematically, the European community cannot develop new knowledge of the effects and benefits, and the situation remains. How to incorporate the quality aspects to the strategic management and investment processes? Based on the analyses and discussions in the working group, the European Commission should either consider clear incentives for road operators to implement the Quality Framework on a policy level, or consider stronger regulation to support deployment in the revision of the ITS Directive.
27/01/2021
SAVE THE DATE 25th March 2021, 09:30 – 12:30 CET
ITS systems and services increase the performance of hard infrastructures, such as roads. This way can contribute to all policy goals: safety, mobility, the environment and climate change. At the same time they provide the data and services for the digitalization of the Core Network Corridors, the comprehensive TEN-T and other networks including urban, building the Single European Transport Area and integrating with the society-wide digitalization.
The evaluation of the ITS Corridor projects of the CEF program, already covering almost all of the CNCs, shows that the specific systems implemented are effective and have a good ROI. Being just a limited subset of what is, or has been implemented nationally, the absolute figures presented in the book therefore may be significantly higher for all of Europe. In future programs, with higher levels of harmonization and integration and an ever-increasing level of digitalization the contribution to European and national policy goals will be substantial.
INTRODUCTION:
The role of digitalization for the safety and efficiency of Core Network Corridors – Carlo Secchi (Coordinator of the Atlantic Core Network Corridor) Digitalization in the EU through the Connecting Europe Facility – Pierpaolo Tona (EC – Innovation and Networks Executive Agency – INEA)
RESULTS OF CEF ITS CORRIDORS::
The evaluation process of the European ITS Platform – Daniel Cullern (Capita on behalf of Highways England UK) CEF ITS Corridor Coordinators: learning from the past results to prepare the future
· Arne Lindeberg (Trafikverket – NEXT-ITS)
· Stephanie Kleine (DieAutobahn GmbH des Bundes – URSA MAJOR neo)
· Thomas Malagié (ASFA – MedTIS)
· Carole Ciliberti (Capita on behalf of Highways England – Arc Atlantique)
· Alexander Hausmann (Austriatech – Crocodile)
PANEL DISCUSSION ON FUTURE PRIORITIES FOR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND SAFETY IN EUROPE:
Mario Nobile, Italian Ministry of sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility – Vito Mauro, Member of the National Italian Observatory on Smart Roads Marjolein Masclee, Rijkswaterstaat Malika Seddi ASECAP, General Secretary and CEO Dr. Johanna Tzanidaki, ERTICO-ITS Europe
Conclusions and perspectives in light of the strategy for sustainable and smart mobility. Kristian Hedberg European Commission DG MOVE
ORGANIZER: European ITS Platform
MODERATOR: Roberto Arditi, SINA Scientific Coordinator – ASTM Group
All webinar presentations can be watched using the EU EIP YouTube channel
14/01/2021
ITS, C-ITS and digitalization in the transport sector as a "laboratory of the future" also related to other fields, from energy to health. The common path is based on two cornerstones identified by the European Commission, the digital strategy and the Green Deal, in which mobility can and must play a key role. As the representative of the ITS Unit of the European Commission DG MOVE Claire Depré explains in this interview.
Please read the article by following this link, or view it directly on the magazine’s website by following this link.
