Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) enable road vehicles to communicate in real time with other vehicles, with roadside infrastructure (such as traffic signals) and with other road users. This wide range of information-sharing helps improve road safety, traffic efficiency and decision-making. Deployment of C-ITS also lays the basis for the future automation of transport.
EU investment through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Transport supports the deployment of ITS infrastructure and technical harmonisation, facilitating the cooperation among EU Member States and the interoperability of the services provided. This ensures safety, smooth operations, and data security.
The C-Roads platform is a joint initiative by EU Member States and road operators that deploy C-ITS services, particularly along highways and in urban areas:
- Ensures that C-ITS services are harmonised and interoperable across participating countries
- Improves road safety and efficiency, contributing to the decarbonisation of transport and helping cities address challenges related to urbanisation
- Use cases include roads works warnings, in-vehicle speed limits, alerts on weather conditions, green light optimal speed advisory, slow or stationary vehicle warnings
- Under the umbrella of the C-Road platform, +20 CEF Transport projects are deploying C-ITS across Europe, receiving more than €120 million in EU funding
- Over 2,000 C-ITS stations are already operational in the EU, discover them on our interactive map.
C-ITS have been installed across the EU to deliver harmonised C-ITS services aligned with the C-Roads platform to ensure EU-wide interoperability. This is the case of the following examples:
C-Roads in Austria
C-ITS sites have been deployed around Vienna, along the motorway from Vienna to Salzburg, near Innsbruck in Tyrol, and in the greater Graz area. About 420 km of national motorways and expressways are covered by roadside units (RSUs) connected to a central station and traffic management centre.
The rollout will expand by an additional 700 km of motorways on the Austrian TEN-T network, with 175 new RSUs and four new use cases. Graz will implement at least two new urban use cases supported by three RSUs and five onboard units (OBUs), while Klagenfurt will connect 18 traffic lights to improve traffic management in busy areas. Cross-border testing has been conducted with other C-Roads members.
Project fiches with maps:
C-Roads in Italy
The main goal of C-Roads Italy is to implement cooperative systems based on vehicle-to-environment (V2X) technologies under real traffic conditions. These systems target truck platooning, passenger car highway chauffeur functions, and combined scenarios involving both trucks and passenger cars. This requires upgrading infrastructure and integrating vehicle-to-infrastructure (I2V) C-ITS services with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication and vehicle control strategies. Highway sections of the A22, A4, and A28 have been equipped with innovative technologies to enable interaction and information exchange between road operators, infrastructure, and vehicles.
In addition, pilots are conducted in real urban traffic conditions in Turin, Verona and Trento. These focus on green light optimal speed advisory, traffic signal priority requests by designated vehicles, signal violation and intersection safety, on-street parking management and information, as well as traffic information and smart routing. These infrastructure upgrades occur along the Scandinavian-Mediterranean and Mediterranean Corridors.
Project fiches with maps:
C-Roads in Germany
C-Roads Germany developed innovative C-ITS solutions at two sites. The Hessian site introduced four new and expanded two existing services with necessary infrastructure on the Hessian motorway network. The Lower Saxony site deployed three new services on motorways A2 and A39 along key European corridors. These efforts improved network safety and efficiency and raised awareness among decision-makers. C-ITS deployments in Hamburg, Hessen, and Dresden support harmonisation of C-ITS services on motorways and urban areas.
Since 2016, over 236 roadside ITS stations have been deployed in Germany, and the nationwide rollout of the C-ITS roadworks warning service is underway with about 1 500 equipped trailers.
The project will expand deployment to six cities—Dresden, Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg, Hannover, Kaiserslautern, and Kassel—with harmonised specifications aligned with the C-Roads platform. Expected benefits include improved urban mobility, enhanced safety, reduced environmental impact, and deployment of around 270 roadside ITS stations and 1 000 vehicle ITS stations.
Project fiches with maps:
C-Roads in Spain
In Spain, C-ITS services use hybrid communication technologies, covering a substantial part of the national core network with varying service levels. The main objective of C-Roads Spain is to lay the groundwork for future large-scale deployment of C-ITS services. This effort is carried out in close cooperation with other Member States through the C-Roads Platform to guarantee seamless and harmonised services across Europe.
Project fiche with map:
- Project locations
- AustriaBelgiumCzechiaDenmarkFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorwayPortugalSloveniaSpainSwedenUnited Kingdom