Overview
Being a part of Intelligent Transport Systems, cooperative ITS (C-ITS or cooperative systems) encompass a group of technologies and applications that allow effective data exchange through wireless communication technologies between components and actors of the transport system, very often between vehicles (vehicle-to-vehicle or V2V) or between vehicles and infrastructure (vehicle-to-infrastructure or V2I).
The deployment of C-ITS is an evolutionary process that will start with the less complex use cases. These are referred to as “Day-1-services”, encompassing messages about traffic jams, hazardous locations, road-works and slow or stationary vehicles, as well as weather information and speed advises to harmonise traffic. Using probe vehicle and infrastructure-related data, all C-ITS services shall be transmitted directly into the vehicles in a way that allows users to get informed but not distracted. The deployment of C-ITS faces many important issues still unresolved, such as legal, organisational, administrative, governing aspects, technical and standardisation issues as well as implementation and procurement issues.
C-Roads is a platform of Member States working on the deployment of harmonised and interoperable C-ITS services in Europe. The C-Roads Platform will pursue cooperation among Member States for issues related to the deployment of C-ITS, such as sharing experiences and knowledge or user acceptance. It will follow a bottom-up approach that will include national pilots. These will form basic elements for a later pan-European C-ITS implementation. The national pilot initiatives will move on to cross-site testing which will allow them to grow together and achieve transnational interoperability. In this way C-Roads will ensure European cohesion of C-ITS deployment in the European Union with regards to a long-term roll-out.
C-Roads Czech Republic will extend the C-ITS infrastructure within the Czech Republic located on the Rhine-Danube-, Orient-East Med- and Baltic-Adriatic Core Network Corridor (D1, D5, D11, D52 and the cities of Plze?, Brno and Ostrava). At least 75 roadside units will be installed as part of the Action, together with at least 120 on-board units placed in vehicles. At least 5 vehicles will be equipped with C-ITS technology to perform pilot testing at each road/motorway deployment site.
A dedicated C-ITS back office and an integration platform will be developed as part of the existing traffic control centers and existing / new data sharing platforms for national and international use. Dedicated partners of the project will integrate their solutions into the common integration platform to secure compatibility as part of the Action. High-speed cellular networks will be available on the pilot sites as the infrastructure for data exchange and transfer in order to provide C-ITS services. New emerging technologies will be tested as well within the testing, e.g. LTE direct.
In addition, railway crossings field tests will be performed at least at two railway sites where drivers will be warned when they approach the active railway crossings. Urban-related C-ITS use cases will be tested in the cities of Ostrava and Plze?. The C-Roads Czech Republic pilot will focus on at least the following C-ITS services: Emergency vehicle approaching; Slow or stationary vehicle(s); Traffic jam ahead warning; Hazardous location notification; Road works warning; Weather conditions; In-vehicle signage; Probe vehicle data; Signal violation/Intersection safety; Priority of public transport vehicles;