The COTER commission approved today by majority the draft opinion on 'A European strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems' by PES member Bouke Arends, Member of the Executive Council of Emmen (Netherlands).
"Developing a smart mobility system is important not only for the market and the technological progress but also and mostly to guarantee the security of the users", stressed the rapporteur by recalling that, according to the European Commission's road safety statistics, the number of fatalities on the road in 2016 was of 25,500.
He went on underlining that “Most transport movements are concentrated in regions and cities which are responsible for infrastructure and traffic management systems. They must therefore be better involved in developing new forms of transportations".
In his draft opinion, the rapporteur calls for taking more far-reaching measures to tap the full potential of C-ITS and for meeting a series of longer-term goals, including low-emission fully-automated multimodal transport, mobility as a service and door-to-door transport (in particular in order to promote social inclusion).
The rapporteur also underlines the need for the EU to play a coordinating role and for the European Commission to pursue a specific approach in introducing C-ITS in intermodal traffic and transport hubs; for specific measures for vulnerable users; to remove barriers to introducing C-ITS in urban areas, and EU legislation in the areas of standards and more uniformity for interoperability.
