Train on bridge – Image by Yves from Pixabay
(BRUSSELS) – The EU Council and European Parliament agreed Thursday on rules for intelligent transport systems that require more traffic data, such as on speed limits, to be available digitally.
The revised 2010 directive on the deployment of intelligent transport systems (ITS) aims to take account of technological developments, such as connected and automated mobility, on-demand mobility applications, and multimodal transport. It also aims to accelerate the availability and enhance the interoperability of digital data that feed these services. The proposal therefore represents an important step towards creating the common European mobility data space.
Today’s provisional agreement preserves the ambition to move forward in the systematic and harmonised deployment of intelligent transport systems but in a gradual manner to take full account of the cost-benefit relation and of administrative capacity.
The agreement retains the structure of the Commission’s proposal, which builds on the framework character of the ITS directive and the various technical interventions by way of implementing and delegated acts.
The necessary types of data, including access conditions for tunnels and bridges, speed limits, traffic circulation plans, permanent access restrictions, road closures, roadworks, temporary traffic management measures, as well as the critical services, such as road safety-related traffic information services, to be made available across the Union, are set out in the annexes to the directive.
The new directive therefore contains an implementation programme covering at least the next 5 years and a precise geographical scope of road network. By way of delegated acts, the Commission may further complement certain aspects of this implementation programme.
Finally, the text of the political agreement clarifies and specifies several provisions of the proposal, in particular the provisional treatment of emergency situations, the protection of personal data, the priority areas for the deployment and use of specifications and standards and the principles applying to the development of EU-level technical specifications.
