Skip to main content

USDoT revamps Safety Band info

Website update is latest salvo in fight for exclusivity of 5.9GHz for transport
By Adam Hill September 29, 2020 Read time: 1 min
USDoT highlights 5.9GHz wireless spectrum's role in improving road safety (© RightFramePhotoVideo | Dreamstime.com)

The US Department of Transportation has updated its Safety Band website with new graphics highlighting the importance of the 5.9GHz wireless spectrum for improving road safety across the country. 

USDoT points out that the Safety Band - set up by the Federal Communications Commission in 1999 - is host to technologies which "generate real-time alerts to prevent crashes, manage traffic flow, warn drivers about hazardous weather conditions, and adjust signals to give emergency vehicles priority in congested traffic".

They have the potential to improve road safety: "That is why federal, state, and local governments have invested more than $2 billion in deploying them," USDoT says.

A new interactive map shows operational and planned locations across the US deploying Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communications technologies. 

There is also a state-by-state index which shows crash fatalities and related economic costs that USDoT says could be mitigated through deployment of technology utilising the Safety Band. 
 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • America fires V2V starting gun
    April 7, 2014
    Leo McCloskey, ITS America’s senior vice president for Technical Programs, talks to Jason Barnes about what the recent NHTSA ruling on light vehicle connectivity means for cooperative infrastructures in North America. In early February the US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT’s) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it had decided to start taking steps to enable Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication technology for light vehicles. In so doing, the many safety-related applicati
  • La Trobe University trials connected motorcycle technology
    June 11, 2025
    Melbourne academics' programme enhances riders’ awareness of hazards
  • Taking the long term view to toll safety, adopting new technology
    July 17, 2012
    OmniAir's Tim McGuckin takes a look at what happens when a tolling authority makes safety its principal operating criterion. The bottom - line effects, he says, are not as onerous as one might think. Replacing an existing 915MHz-based Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system with a new 915MHz system for toll collection is - from a technology standpoint - comparable to trading in your 1999 high-mileage Buick for another 1999 Buick with '0' on the odometer.
  • No compromise on workzone safety
    January 14, 2022
    The National Work Zone Memorial is a sobering reminder of the dangers of working on US highways. More accurate and timely information can help reduce risks, explains One.network’s Simon Topp