Opinion of the European Committee of the Regions — A European strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems
Date: 2017-10-10
Institutions: Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget, European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: data protection, information technology, innovation, intelligent transport system, international cooperation, personal data, road safety, road transport, transport infrastructure








C_2018054EN.01002701.xml










13.2.2018   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 54/27





Opinion of the European Committee of the Regions — A European strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems
(2018/C 054/06)












Rapporteur:



Bouke Arends (NL/PES), Member of the Executive Council of Emmen





Reference document:



Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: A European strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems, a milestone towards cooperative, connected and automated mobility
COM(2016) 766 final









POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

INTRODUCTION









1.


states that the European strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) is an important step towards a strategy for cooperative, connected and automated driving. The integrated deployment of C-ITS in transport systems in and between cities and regions can offer considerable societal benefits, such as increased safety, a cleaner environment, better accessibility, social inclusion and more job opportunities;












2.


calls for, in addition to the measures referred to in the communication, more far-reaching measures to be taken in order to tap the full potential of C-ITS and meet the longer-term goals: low-emission fully-automated multimodal transport, mobility as a service, and door-to-door transport, particularly to promote social inclusion;












3.


recognises that other building blocks are needed on the path towards the ultimate goals. These are being developed by the Commission in different packages, partly in parallel and partly in stages, and include measures for low-emission transport, and determining the necessary changes to physical infrastructure;












4.


wishes the EU to play a coordinating role in the development of an interoperable system as regards the standards and rules for transport communication systems and technologies;












5.


believes that the cooperation of local and regional authorities in implementing each intermediate step on the path towards the ultimate goals is crucial, and that the Commission therefore needs to involve them more actively and more widely;












6.


calls on the Commission to make it clearer to local and regional authorities how the various EU activities are interlinked and what they should lead to. This requires more coherent and focused communication with local and regional authorities regarding the Commission's closely linked packages of measures. Only then can local and regional authorities fulfil the role that is required of them to achieve the goals and make interoperability between regions and cities possible;












7.


asks the Commission to take specific measures, delivered with the help of local and regional authorities, aimed particularly at winning public support, as this is necessary to achieve the ultimate goals of automated low-emission transport. Public support is needed not only to be able to exchange the data necessary for C-ITS, but above all for the acceptance of increasingly automated transport. In this context, the technology should be at the service of the users;





EUROPEAN MEASURES TO ENABLE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COOPERATIVE, CONNECTED AND AUTOMATED MOBILITY









8.


notes that most journeys and transport operations take place over short distances within regions. More than half of all goods (in terms of weight) transported by road are moved over distances of less than 50 km and more than three quarters over distances of less than 150 km, according to calculations based on Eurostat data. In the case of passenger transport, journeys are usually much shorter;












9.


thus, also calls for specific measures and funding for deploying C-ITS outside of the Trans-European Transport Network;












10.


urges the Commission to pursue a specific approach to introducing C-ITS in intermodal traffic and transport hubs, in line with the recent shift in the focus of research within Horizon 2020 towards the integration of transport modes and the link to automation. This should be in line with the approach in the corridors, in order to bring about an integrated transport system;












11.


points to the fact that these hubs are primarily located in urban regions and cities where multimodal transport can make the largest contribution to reducing the negative impact of traffic and transport, such as congestion, air pollution, parking problems and low levels of road safety. Cycling is also part of multimodal transport and is also primarily local and regional in nature;












12.


notes that to date the Commission has devoted much attention to road transport by car, but that automated systems are also under development in public transport, inland waterway transport, air transport and rail transport (e.g. drones and the Hyperloop);












13.


requests, therefore, that links and interoperability with public transport and between the different modes be promoted from the outset through targeted measures;












14.


notes that the Commission rightly wishes to adopt measures for vulnerable road users, but that this also means paying greater attention to local and regional circumstances;












15.


calls for specific measures for all vulnerable road users, i.e. riders of motorcycles, scooters, e-bikes and (electric) lightweight vehicles for the disabled, as well as pedestrians and cyclists;












16.


acknowledges that the high traffic density and intricate infrastructure in urban regions creates a complex traffic situation, placing particular demands on C-ITS systems. Thus there are trials and projects underway in these regions and cities in Europe to ensure that C-ITS is also a success in these types of environments;












17.


notes that the introduction of C-ITS in urban areas, and in cities in particular, is complex and therefore less attractive for developing business cases;












18.


calls on the Commission to take steps to remove barriers to introducing C-ITS in urban regions and cities;












19.


also calls for steps to be taken to ensure that systems that are developed and tested there are well integrated with systems for traffic and transport over longer distances, between countries and regions;












20.


believes that, as a building block for automated transport, mobility as a service and door-to-door transport, C-ITS can also contribute to social inclusion. This is true in the case of job accessibility and mobility for those who struggle to or cannot use the transport systems currently available, such as the elderly and disabled people. C-ITS may ultimately help to improve transport services, particularly in rural areas, where public transport is under pressure or has already disappeared. Tailor-made automated transport could become a possibility in more sparsely populated regions;












21.


notes that it is also potentially difficult for more sparsely populated rural regions to develop business cases without the assistance of regional and local authorities;












22.


therefore calls on the Commission to encourage and enable local and regional authorities to also implement C-ITS in outlying and outermost, less developed, island and other more sparsely populated regions;





THE PATH TO IMPLEMENTING C-ITS IN 2019


Priorities for implementing C-ITS services









23.


notes that the C-ITS strategy is still primarily targeted at intermediate stages in the medium term towards automated transport;












24.


asks the Commission to also develop scenarios and measures to prepare for the longer-term development towards fully automated transport which will bring greatest economic and social benefit in the future.












25.


calls for the necessary funding to made available also after 2019;












26.


calls on the Commission to introduce measures for other transport modes, intermodality and broader deployment in the longer term (in addition to the measures referred to in the communication which focus purely on road transport and the very short term);












27.


asks the Commission for a broader, more comprehensive long-term approach that focuses on the concepts of mobility as a service and door-to-door transport, and the positive impact of these on economic development, social inclusion, as well as on low-emission transport.












28.


calls on the Commission to identify what specific steps and measures need to be taken in different scenarios;












29.


calls on the Commission to develop a communication programme for winning public support;












30.


calls for cities and regions, and their representatives such as the European Committee of the Regions, to be closely involved at each stage when further developing EU C-ITS policy;





Interoperability at all levels









31.


considers that interoperability across different transport modes requires additional measures, both for freight and passenger transport services. It must be possible to interlink information flows; however, that requires more than simply coordinating communications systems (5G, etc.), but also the ability to link data from different transport modes. In this process, both local and regional authorities and private entities (vehicle manufacturers, navigation system operators, mobility service providers, etc.) acquire data, but the latter are not required to make their data available in anonymised form to other users, such as infrastructure operators. In order to ensure safe and effective traffic management and to operate their infrastructure, however, infrastructure operators — which in many cases are local and regional authorities — are reliant on information that is as complete and up-to-date as possible. This key element of mutual disclosure and availability of data, which currently applies only to the provision of data by public authorities to private entities (Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information) is not discussed in the communication;












32.


also calls for measures for organising information chains, in addition to the measures referred to in the communication in the area of communication technologies. The relevant question is not only how things are communicated, but above all what is in fact communicated;












33.


notes that some aspects of the information chain can ultimately only be regulated at international or European level, such as the accessibility and availability of vehicle data;












34.


also points out, however, that the support and cooperation of local and regional authorities are also vital for the availability of information from local and regional traffic management systems;












35.


notes that interoperability requires not only measures in the area of ICT but also changes to the physical infrastructure;












36.


calls on the Commission to inform local and regional authorities about this in good time. Investment in local and regional infrastructure should be carried out in a way that meets the requirements of C-ITS. More uniformity is required for interoperability;












37.


notes that interoperability between different transport modes in Europe requires the EU to pay greater attention to the importance for C-ITS of inter-modal transport hubs such as stations and terminals, and that these are located mainly in urban regions and cities;












38.


calls on the Commission, together with (representatives of) local and regional authorities, to highlight bottlenecks impeding the deployment of C-ITS in intermodal transport hubs, and to develop measures to eliminate them;





Legal framework









39.


agrees that, in order to achieve an interoperable system, EU regulation in the area of standards, and legislation and rules in the field of communications systems and technologies are desirable;












40.


calls on the Commission to closely involve (representatives of) local and regional authorities also when developing legal frameworks, given their importance in developing C-ITS;












41.


is of the opinion that, aside from regulating, the following particular measures at European level are essential in order to introduce C-ITS and achieve the ultimate goals of introducing sustainable automated transport, mobility as a service and door-to-door transport:






—


coordination: there is a need for greater coordination between the various inter-related packages of EU measures and between the Commission and local and regional authorities;










—


facilitating deployment and experimentation: while the current developments towards C-ITS are heavily market- and technology-driven, they require additional initiatives by public authorities at all levels to bring about C-ITS in different traffic situations and transport modes;










—


research: for example on the necessary changes to physical infrastructure and the outlining of scenarios in order to develop long-term visions, despite the considerable uncertainties.










—


monitoring and evaluating: for the way forward after 2019 it is necessary to establish at this stage how the implementation of the measures in the first and second phases will be monitored and evaluated, and how monitoring and evaluating will proceed with regard to market and public acceptance, technical development, and the state of play in different types of regions (urban and rural), different types of infrastructure ((inter)national, regional and local) and modes (road, rail and air) and in the area of goods transport and passenger transport;










—


monitoring should be ongoing in order to make it possible to identify which of the possible scenarios is unfolding;










—


communication: targeted communication, together with feedback, is needed both with regional and local authorities in order to achieve interoperability between regions, and — with their help — with the general public in order to win public support;









International cooperation









42.


notes that the Commission communication rightly focuses on international cooperation between countries, but that many activities (should) take place at local and regional level in order to make C-ITS possible. Decision-making is therefore needed at different levels and by different authorities. These must be well coordinated with each other, which requires good communication between the European Commission and local and regional authorities on an ongoing basis;












43.


calls for measures providing proper protection of personal data and privacy of users which is a determining factor for the successful deployment of cooperative, connected and automated vehicles;












44.


therefore calls on the Commission to stimulate international cooperation between local and regional authorities in different countries in order to connect local and regional projects, tests and experiments as far as possible, and to share knowledge;












45.


therefore calls for a detailed approach to be developed and put forward (e.g. similar to the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, in which businesses and actively participating local and regional authorities cooperate with each other, with support from the European Commission).





Brussels, 10 October 2017.


The President of the European Committee of the Regions

Karl-Heinz LAMBERTZ