Cooperative ITS Corridor

The ‘Cooperative ITS Corridor’ project was marked in a special way with a ‘visitors experience’ on Friday 7 June. Visitors to the ITS European Congress 2019 were shown on the A16 motorway how public and private parties together contribute to the connectivity of Dutch infrastructure.

A “visitor experience” was the conclusion of the ITS European Congress 2019 on 7 June. Visitors could choose to get a glimpse into the kitchen of the “Cooperative ITS Corridor” project on their way from Eindhoven to Schiphol. Ron de Waard explains: “With a bus ride on the project section of the A16, we showed the international guests what this project made possible. Specifically, they were shown traffic measures that are normally on signs above the road – think of a signal that you have to reduce your speed – on their phone or tablet. ”

From Rotterdam to Vienna

The C-ITS project was launched in 2015 to develop cooperative ITS services in cooperation with Germany and Austria that contribute to smart, safe and sustainable transport. In short, Smart Mobility solutions. These will be given a place on the so-called corridor, a route that starts in Rotterdam and leads via Vienna to Vienna. The Dutch part runs on the A16 near Rotterdam to Breda and then via Tilburg and Eindhoven to Venlo, via the A58, A2 and A67.

Public-private cooperation

Not only the content of the project is unique, but also the form of cooperation is special. After all, public and market parties are involved in the C-ITS project. Rijkswaterstaat is involved in the Dutch part of the project. Compass and Swarco have taken the roadside section together, they have placed beacons along the A16 that send information to the passing vehicles (the Road Side Units). V-tron has ensured that this information can be received on the one hand by vehicles (via On Board Units) and on the other hand by drivers (via a Human Machine Interface).

Each has its own expertise

The parties involved have experienced the public-private partnership as positive. “The essence of this entire C-ITS project is: you only go faster, but you move forward together,” says project manager Abraham Bot of Rijkswaterstaat. “Neither Rijkswaterstaat, V-tron, Swarco nor Compass could have carried out this project alone. Every organisation has its own expertise. At the start of this project, we carefully selected the parties for this, because we do not have all that knowledge in-house from the ministry of Infrastructure. Through sister projects, we came across relatively small, agile organisations that also dared to take risks. We really enjoyed that. ”

Future in collaboration

Wim Vossebelt from V-tron is also enthusiastic. “I have to say that it was quite exciting for us, because we had never worked with a road manager before. At C-ITS, road authorities and the car industry often used to work separately. However, the collaboration has proved to be pleasant and educational. The interests of public and private, collective security and individual security have come together nicely. In my eyes, the future also lies in that collaboration. Intelligence will not end up either in cars or in roads, but in both.”