The Council of the European Union has adopted a framework to boost the roll-out of intelligent transport systems (ITS).

With a view to accelerating digital transition and smarter mobility in the EU, the council has adopted a framework on the deployment of ITS by revising the 2010 directive.

“Intelligent transport systems can save us time, reduce emissions and congestions, and simplify journey planning,” said Raquel Sánchez Jiménez, acting Spanish minister of transport, mobility and urban agenda. “The adoption of the new directive is a milestone on our way towards smarter, safer and more efficient mobility across Europe.”

The revised directive 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 services, such as multimodal journey planners and navigation services. This will allow vehicles and road infrastructure to communicate with one another, for example to warn about unexpected events such as a traffic jam ahead.

The revised law therefore represents a step towards creating a common European mobility data space.

The revised law extends the scope of the previous directive to cover emerging services, such as multimodal information, booking and ticketing services (for example, apps to find and book journeys that combine public transport, shared car or bike services), communication between vehicles and infrastructure, and automated mobility.

The directive also sets targets for the digitisation of crucial information, such as on speed limits, roadworks and multimodal access nodes, and the delivery of essential services, such as information on road safety. The benefits for transport users will materialise in a wider coverage of real-time information and more accurate intelligent speed assistance systems.

The law retains the framework character of the 2010 ITS directive and the various technical interventions by way of implementing and delegating acts. The revised directive therefore contains an implementation programme covering at least the next five years and a precise geographical scope of road networks for which reusable data must be available as a baseline requirement. By way of delegated acts, the commission may further complement certain aspects of this implementation programme.

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, and critical services, such as road safety-related traffic information services, to be made available across the EU, are set out in the annexes to the directive.

Following last month’s formal adoption by the council, the directive will be published in the EU’s official journal in the coming weeks and will enter into force the twentieth day after this publication. Member states will have 24 months after the entry into force of the directive to comply with its provisions.

The European Commission adopted in December 2020 the communication on a sustainable and smart mobility strategy that proposes a fundamental transformation of the European transport system to achieve the objective of sustainable, smart and resilient mobility. Digitalisation is an indispensable driver of this transformation and will make the entire transport system seamless and more efficient. It also aims to increase levels of safety, security, reliability and comfort. The strategy identifies the deployment of ITS as a key action in building a connected and automated multimodal mobility system. ITS integrate telecommunications and information technologies with transport engineering to plan, design, operate, maintain and manage transport systems.

Directive 2010/40/EU (the ITS directive) was designed to be the framework for accelerating and coordinating the deployment and use of ITS applied to road transport and its interfaces with other transport modes. Due to key technological developments since then, a radical reform of the legislative framework is necessary. To this end, in December 2021, the commission submitted a proposal for the revision of the directive. The proposal is part of a package of legislative initiatives aimed at contributing to the goals of decarbonisation, digitalisation and resilience in transport infrastructure. The council reached a general approach on this proposal in June 2022 and, following interinstitutional negotiations with the European Parliament, a provisional agreement on the text of the revised directive was reached in June 2023.

The directive can be found at data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/PE-35-2023-INIT/en/pdf.