Brussels, 16/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 16 December, the European Commission adopted an action plan for the deployment and use of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in road transport. The Commission is hoping that the use of these information and communication technologies will help reduce road congestion by 10% (estimated costs of between 0.9% and 1.5% of GDP) and reduce related accidents by 5,000 and subsequently make road transport more fluid, environmentally-friendly and safer.
The Commission is planning action between 2009-14 in six major areas: road and traffic data use; traffic and freight management; road safety; integration of ITS in vehicles; data protection and reliability; ITS cooperation and coordination throughout Europe). It is also proposing: by 2010, definition of information service provider procedures for traffic and routes in real-time Europe-wide for application to services provided by the private sector (traffic information, security information) and the public authorities (information on traffic rules); definition and identification of ITS useful for goods transport (development of eFreight concept); elaboration of regulatory framework for user/machine interface and integration of roaming equipment (mobiles, navigation systems, pocket computers); measures on secure parking areas. From 2012, other action will begin to: optimise the gathering of data and the provision of road data (maps, traffic rules, recommended routes); definition of contents and procedures for free minimum information service on road traffic (universal traffic message); development of national multimodal door-to-door route planner systems and implementation of interoperable tele-toll routes (2012/14). The Commission is also planning measures to develop and assess cooperative systems for promoting infrastructure interaction (2010), between vehicles and infrastructure (2011) and between vehicles (2013). At the same time, Commission services will work on the mandate for standards bodies to elaborate harmonised norms and ITS implementation (2009-14). Orientations for public funding of ITS and connected services are expected to be drawn up in 2010. The Commission is currently planning €300 million to go to ITS from the T-TEN (Trans-European Transport Networks). The draft directive sets out the legislative framework for the action plan's implementation by obliging member states to facilitate access to road transport data and data exchange between control and information centres. The Commission will be assisted in its task by an ITS European committee made up of representatives from member states and chaired by itself. Member states will have 24 months to transpose this directive into national law. (A.By./transl.rh)