MuniWireless

The European Commission has decided to set aside part of the radio spectrum for road safety and traffic management: 30 MHz of spectrum in the 5.9 Gigahertz (GHz) band which will be allocated within the next six months by national authorities across Europe to road safety applications, without barring other services already in place (such as radio amateur services).

The goal is to allow people to develop wireless smart vehicle communications systems (co-operative systems) that would let cars talk to other cars and to road infrastructure. For example, a car ahead of you (or the road infrastructure network) can warn your car about slippery road conditions or an accident that has just occurred, allowing you to avoid a particular route. Had such a system been in place, it would have saved lives in recent deadly tunnel accidents and fires in Switzerland and Austria.

According to the EU, in 2006, more than 42,000 people died in road accidents in the European Union and more than 1.6 million were injured while every day there are some 7,500 km of traffic jams on the EU’s roads. “Today’s Commission decision is a decisive step towards meeting the European goal of reducing road accidents. Getting critical messages through quickly and accurately is a must for road safety,” said Viviane Reding, EU Telecoms Commissioner. “We should also keep in mind that with 24% of Europeans’ driving time spent in traffic jams the costs caused by congestion could reach €80 billion by 2010. So clearly saving time through smart vehicles communications systems means saving money.”

This is a great example of how people are using wireless technology to create smarter road systems and vehicles. By allocating a slice of the radio frequency spectrum for EU-wide use, the EU is giving manufacturers a greater incentive to develop innovative products and services which they can sell all over Europe.