Achievements of the NEXT-ITS Corridor

Introduction

The NEXT-ITS 3 project (2018-2021) was a continuation of the NEXT-ITS 1 and 2 projects and the long-term VIKING cooperation on the deployment of harmonised ITS in the Nordic countries and Northern Germany. The VIKING cooperation has enabled northern European countries to carry out large ITS projects efficiently and to ensure exchange of knowledge. The VIKING community has promoted cooperation in solving common transport related problems and issues faced by partner countries since the mid 1990’s.

The NEXT-ITS projects covered the Northern part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor, including the TEN-T core road network and the key comprehensive network links. NEXT-ITS activities have contributed to achieving a European integrated road transport system building on the TEN-T core network.

The aim of the NEXT-ITS projects has been to enhance corridor and network safety and performance by full-scale deployment of ITS services that ensure interoperability and continuity of services, support harmonisation, and increase the cost-efficiency in the operation of traffic management.

The ITS Services in NEXT-ITS were the following:

  • Information services enabling the road users to make good decisions
  • Traffic management services to manage traffic flow, enhance safety and reduce emissions
  • Incident Management to restore normal traffic flow as quickly as possible
  • Traffic management from a network perspective
  • Data collection through various sources of information as well as data mining and fusion
  • Distribution and sharing of traffic data to promote wider dissemination

Traffic Management Centres have played a key role in the service provision, regardless of service.

NEXT ITS partners

Beneficiaries and Implementing bodies:

  • Swedish Transport Administration, Coordinator
  • Republic of Finland, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Finnish Transport Agency and Fintraffic Road
  • Danish Road Directorate
  • Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr (BMDV) and the Federal States of Berlin, Bremen, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Hansestadt Rostock.

In cooperation with:

  • Norwegian Public Roads Administration

NEXT-ITS 3 Achievements

  • Enhanced traffic management and information services
    • Traffic management systems integrated to increase the coverage on the core and comprehensive TEN-T network (Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Oulu; Finland).
    • Improved incident and emergency handling on motorways, Denmark
    • Development and deployments of Traffic Information and Traffic Management Services, Germany
  • Enhanced Traffic Management Centre operations:
    • Traffic management infrastructure and systems deployed on motorway E8 south from Oulu, Finland
    • Development and deployments in the national Traffic Management Center in Denmark.
    • Traffic Centre development Schleswig-Holstein (Neumünster), Saxony (Dresden), Rostock, Germany
  • Improved Motorway Control System (MCS) performance:
    • Installation of upgraded MCS in Stockholm and Gothenburg, Sweden.
    • Installation of MCS in Brandenburg, Germany
  • Enhanced cross corridor cooperation:
    • Workshops:
      • Data Acquisition in cooperation with NorSIKT (Nordic System for Intelligent Classification of Traffic)
      • Urban-Interurban interfaces in cooperation with EU-EIP and East West Corridor
    • Road CID (Corridor Information Document) specifying the corridor information including the ITS and other services provided.

Results from Evaluation:

  • Evaluation tool for consolidated, global assessment of impacts and benefits.
  • Network statistics collected for all networks impacted.
  • The estimated impacts of the services are considerable: Traffic flow has been improved, expressed with the KPI vehicle hours driven (reduced by approx. 925 000 vehicle hours per year) and vehicle hours spent in congestion (reduced by approx. 166 500 vehicle hours per year). Safety has been improved, fatalities and injury accidents are reduced by 0.4 and 6.4 per year respectively. CO2 emissions have been reduced; 16 200 tonnes of CO2 are saved per year.
  • The deployments altogether will be beneficial within maximum 3 years.

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