Road transport: framework for the deployment of intelligent transport systems and for interfaces with other transport modes

This Commission Staff Working Document concerns the progress and review of the intelligent transport systems (ITS) Action Plan.

This progress report examines the current situation in implementing the ITS Action Plan. It reviews all actions since its adoption in December 2008, assesses the impacts of individual actions and their combined influence in accelerating ITS uptake in Europe, and makes recommendations for follow-up initiatives.

Main findings: overall, implementation of the Action Plan is well advanced. A significant number of the 24 actions are considered to be well on track (i.e. more than 70% completion), with substantial outcomes realised.

Five actions have been completed:

• a dedicated legal framework has been established supporting the harmonised deployment in the EU of ITS solutions in road transport;
• specifications for data and procedures for the free provision of minimum universal traffic information services have been defined with the adopted specifications under the ITS Directive;
• the introduction of eCall has been supported through the proposed comprehensive regulatory framework for eCall deployment by October 2015;
• the promotion of multimodal journey planners;
• the Urban ITS platform has been set up to provide a dedicated forum to raise awareness among the ITS community about the specific needs of local authorities.

Furthermore, actions on EU-wide real-time traffic and travel information services, and on secure parking places for trucks and commercial vehicles, benefited from the work completed under the ITS Directive on specifications for safe and secure parking places and for road safety related minimum universal traffic information.

A number of actions have experienced delays or have been suspended during their implementation.

Achievements in the implementation of the ITS Action Plan include mainstreaming ITS and raising awareness, boosting stakeholder cooperation and promoting multimodality. Issues to be dealt with include the lack of prioritisation and the diversity of stakeholders and vested interests.

The report concludes that the ITS Action Plan is still relevant in addressing the objectives of all the defined priority areas. Implementation of the remaining actions of the ITS Action Plan should therefore be pursued, especially through taking forward implementation of the ITS Directive.

To ensure better effectiveness, it is envisaged to define or complement, as appropriate, a detailed work plan for each of the remaining actions. Based on feedback from the stakeholder consultations, the following areas may be considered for future work: (i) transport data dimension multimodality dimension; (ii) connectivity (ICT networking) dimension and; (iii) coordination platforms.