The European Commission adopted the ITS Directive to accelerate the deployment of innovative transport technologies across Europe and address the compatibility, interoperability and continuity of ITS solutions across the EU. Part of the ITS Directive focuses on safety related traffic information for the end user. TISA has played a key role in the third revision of terms used in traffic communication protocols it issued in February.

“Knowing that more than 80% of road accidents are caused by human error, providing safety relevant information to drivers is of utmost importance. This is why ERTICO launched TMC Forum already in 1998 and has support the work of TISA since 2007. TISAs work and mission are more important than ever in reaching Vision Zero” – said Zeljko Jeftic, TISA Steering Board member and Deputy Director of Innovation & Deployment at ERTICO.

In the Directive 2010/40/EU (“ITS Directive”) the European Commission developed as Priority Action C, an EU Regulation named “Data and procedures for the provision, where possible, of road safety related minimum universal traffic information free of charge to users”. It defines amongst others a single list of categories of safety related traffic information to be provided without additional cost for the end user.

Thanks to the fruitful collaboration among Car2Car Communication Consortium, Data for Road Safety, DATEX II and TISA a third revision of the “Terms and definitions” has been issued on 19 February. The document provides a subset of DATEX II situations, DENM and TPEG2-TEC causes and TMC Events, which shall be defined and declared as the message sets to be used for safety related messages.

 “A harmonised message set for safety related traffic information is a key ingredient towards the effective warning of drivers on the road for unusual, safety impacting situations. This third version of the guideline for safety-related traffic message sets reflects the latest developments and practices in the collection and provisioning of safety-related traffic information. Prepared and harmonized with an increasing group of stakeholder organizations, this effort shows that fostering traffic safety by better information is an enduring focus theme throughout Europe, for both public and private stakeholders alike.”, added Teun Hendriks, Chair of the TISA Technical and Standardisation Committee.

Further, for the selected message sets, a correlation between the four traffic communication protocol standards DATEX II, DENM, TPEG and TMC is defined.

The outcome for this 3rd revision includes:

  • 10 new events (based on a survey to record real world events that are categorised as Safety related messages)
  • New definitions and recommendations to facilitate how these events can be expressed in the mainstream standards in use.

Joost Vantomme, Chair of the Data for Road Safety Partnership, ACEA Smart Mobility Director added: “We know from the Data for Road Safety ecosystem that interoperability plays an essential role in the access and exchange of data across brands and across borders. “We value this document as a means to facilitate increased harmonization across the relevant ITS standards”.

The European Road Operators recognise the great importance of reliable information provision with regard to traffic safety related incidents to the road user. Technical innovations and enhanced detection and warning services enable a substantial contribution to road safety as a whole. “The DATEX II community regards it as a core responsibility to ensure that the safety related data provision is supported by interdependent data standards used. Harmonisation and interoperability among the chain of exchange is key for a reliable information provision as such. With this version 3 document an important step has been made: new stakeholder communities get involved and relevant future harmonisation topics have already been identified. It is great to have such a collaborative coalition of key-actors joining forces contributing tremendously to road safety for all” – concluded Bard de Vries, Chair DATEX II Technical Group, Chair SRTI Working Group.