Connected motorists on the German Autobahn can receive in-car alerts when they are approaching roadworks.

All 1200 mobile barrier boards throughout Germany have a communication system that warns networked vehicles early when they are approaching daytime roadworks on the motorway.

The C-ITS (cooperative intelligent transport system) contributes to increased road safety. Autobahn GmbH plans to advance further the networking of vehicles, service providers and infrastructure.

“With C-ITS, we have brought a key technology for greater road safety to the streets,” said Patrick Schnieder, Germany’s federal minister of transport. “Cooperative intelligent transport systems are the basis for a new era of transport. The fundamental goal is to optimise traffic flow with digital options and significantly increase safety for all road users. C-ITS helps to detect hazards in time.”

Dirk Brandenburger, technical director of Autobahn GmbH, added: “With around 300,000 daily roadworks sites annually, we bear a special responsibility for the safety of road users and our employees. The C-ITS makes daily roadworks digitally visible even before they come into the driver’s field of vision. The potential of C-ITS is significant. Therefore, we will test further services in pilot projects.”

For example, Autobahn is equipping some of its route control and maintenance vehicles operating on the motorways with C-ITS components on a trial basis to improve safety for these vehicle types as well. Another project uses the potential of probe vehicle data (PVD). In the future, Autobahn will receive pseudonymised vehicle data from C-ITS-enabled vehicles via existing infrastructure. This will allow traffic management to react more quickly to current traffic situations such as fog, heavy rain or congestion thanks to real-time data, and to adjust digital traffic signs automatically.

Furthermore, Autobahn is working with various partners such as German automobile association ADAC (www.adac.de), rescue services and the police on the introduction of additional C-ITS services. These include warnings about emergency vehicles from the fire department and police to support the formation of emergency lanes, or warnings about road maintenance vehicles and hazardous locations.

This is how the C-ITS roadworks warning system works. When a vehicle approaches a temporary roadworks site, the driver receives a warning directly on the dashboard display via an ad-hoc WLANp communication system and can react accordingly, for example, by reducing speed. Currently, more than 2.3 million vehicles in Europe are equipped with C-ITS technology and can receive signals from the roadworks warning system. The data are also made available to data platforms such as the government’s Mobilithek mobility library (mobilithek.info), where they are available to external service providers, such as vehicle manufacturers.

Autobahn GmbH des Bundes (www.autobahn.de) is responsible for the planning, construction, operation, maintenance, financing, traffic management and asset management of the German federal autobahn network. Since commencing operations in 2021, Autobahn GmbH has combined the advantages of a centrally organised structure with the strengths of its ten regional branches. With more than 13,000km of motorway, the company is one of the largest autobahn operators in Europe.