Skip to main content

EU rolls out intelligent information services

The European Commission has adopted two regulations to promote the roll-out of intelligent information services, such as real-time warnings about dangerous road conditions ahead and information on safe and secure parking places for truck drivers. They can be provided through different means such as variable road signs, the radio and mobile phone applications. The Commission wants these information services to be interoperable and compatible across Europe, and available to as many drivers as possible along t
May 16, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The 1690 European Commission has adopted two regulations to promote the roll-out of intelligent information services, such as real-time warnings about dangerous road conditions ahead and information on safe and secure parking places for truck drivers. They can be provided through different means such as variable road signs, the radio and mobile phone applications.

The Commission wants these information services to be interoperable and compatible across Europe, and available to as many drivers as possible along the trans-European road network.

Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, said: “Smart systems are already part of most citizens’ daily life. Timely and accurate information can help us enhance road safety and security as well as transport efficiency.”

The number of road fatalities decreased by nine per cent in 2012, meaning that member states are back on track towards the objective of halving road deaths between 2010 and 2020.

Estimates suggest that intelligent information services could reduce the number of road fatalities by up to seven per cent, as well as the number and severity of accidents. They will also decrease delays caused by road accidents, CO2 emissions and the cost of repair of infrastructure. Moreover, they can reduce the time spent by lorry drivers searching for parking spaces up to thirty per cent.

The new regulations do not make the roll-out of information services mandatory. However, if and when member states, operators and service providers want to develop and deploy such services, they will have to comply with the regulations’ requirements.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Kapsch offers EETS–compliant Tolling Services
    June 7, 2017
    Kapsch’s Bernd Eberstaller explains how the company’s new Tolling Services will help expand the number and capabilities of EETS services providers. By 2017, the European Electronic Tolling Service (EETS) should have been in operation for several years but it still remains some way away and with several significant hurdles still to be addressed. The concept behind EETS is simple enough: road users should be able to drive across Europe using only a single transponder to pay for all tolls, with the account-han
  • Europe’s road safety record suffers as austerity bites hard, traffic police chiefs are told at TISPOL 2017
    March 7, 2018
    Europe’s leading traffic police chiefs are struggling with the challenge of how best to manage the region’s road network in an era of austerity. Things are changing fast, and not for the better, reports Geoff Hadwick. Europe’s road safety record is under threat. Police budgets are being slashed, staff numbers are falling and a long-term trend towards ever-fewer road deaths has ground to a halt. The line on the graph has flat-lined. Does Europe’s road network face a far more dangerous future? Lower and
  • Extra enforcement key to cutting road casualties in The Netherlands
    November 27, 2013
    While The Netherlands already has some of the safest roads in the world it has ambitious plans to make them safer still, as Jon Masters discovers. In virtually all periodical studies and comparisons of countries’ road safety performance, the Netherlands is consistently in the top three and often leads the world, depending on how casualty figures are compared. According to the International Traffic Safety Data & Analysis Group (IRTAD) of the International Transport Forum, road deaths per capita have falle
  • OPINION: ITS must be included in EU Green Deal
    September 14, 2022
    To reach the objectives of the European Green Deal, a classification system has been developed to identify environmentally-sustainable activities. However, Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom is worried that it might not have the intended effect – and ITS could lose out as a result…