ITS Directive and regulations

The EU's ITS Directive 2010/40/EU is a central part of the EU's work to promote intelligent transport systems (ITS). The directive requires the EU member states, as well as Norway through the EEA Agreement, to establish a national access point (NAP) for road and transport data. The aim is to ensure coherent and interoperable transport services across Europe.

In Norway, the ITS Directive is implemented through the ITS Act, and supplementary details are laid down in specific EU regulations, which have been made applicable as national regulations in Norwegian law. These regulations govern the requirements for making various types of transport data available:

Regulation 885/2013 concerns information services for safe and secure parking places for trucks and commercial vehicles. Status in Norway: No official service has been implemented yet.
Regulation 886/2013 concerns the provision of safety-related traffic information. The purpose is to improve road safety by making such information easily available to all actors. More information about the regulation can be found here.
Regulation 962/2015 covers the provision of real-time traffic information. This information helps improve the travel experience and optimise traffic flow. The regulation was updated with new requirements in EU Regulation 2022/670. As of the end of 2024 this has not yet been incorporated into the EEA Agreement, but this will be done shortly. More information about the revised regulation can be found here.
Regulation 1926/2017 governs multimodal travel information services. The goal is to offer travellers easy access to information about combined transport options across modes of transport. The Commission adopted updated requirements through Regulation EU 2024/490, but this has not yet been incorporated into the EEA Agreement. More information about the revised regulation can be found here.

Transportportal.no serves as Norway's national access point (NAP) and is an important platform for meeting the requirements of the ITS Directive. Through the access point, transport data from different actors can be collected, standardised and made available for further use in innovative and user-friendly services. This contributes to increased data sharing, collaboration and the development of smart transport solutions at national and international level.

The revised ITS Directive (2023/2661), which was adopted in 2023, aims to modernise and expand the framework for ITS in Europe. The directive has not yet been incorporated into the EEA Agreement, but changes and consequences are expected that include, among other things:

Expanded scope: The directive now covers more types of mobility services, including shared and automated transport services. Greater emphasis is placed on sustainable modes of transport and climate-friendly solutions.
Reinforced requirements for data access: Stricter requirements are introduced for making data available through national access points, with an emphasis on interoperability and standardisation.
Deadlines and implementation: New deadlines for making specific datasets available have been introduced for the member states. Norway must assess the necessary adaptations to meet these deadlines through the ITS Act and related regulations.
Strengthening data quality and monitoring: The directive requires better monitoring and reporting of data quality to ensure that the data shared via the NAP is accurate, up to date and reliable.

Illustration of Transportportal.no as a national access point

Summary of the content of the revised ITS Directive

The ITS Directive (2010/40/EU) has established a framework for the implementation of intelligent transport systems (ITS) within the road sector, with interfaces to other modes of transport. Since it was adopted in 2010, this regulatory framework has been the EU's tool for ensuring coordinated ITS services throughout the EU, based on European specifications and standards. Intelligent transport systems can help simplify journey planning, reduce congestion, cut emissions, reduce accidents and save travel time.

Following the adoption of five regulations in the period 2013-2017, an evaluation of the directive was published on 9 October 2019. The evaluation confirmed the relevance of the directive, but highlighted that it still did not fully contribute to improving the road transport system. The roll-out of ITS services was still geographically limited and not coherent. Areas such as connected, cooperative and automated mobility, cybersecurity and privacy for ITS should receive further attention, along with ITS in urban areas, freight transport and public transport. The EU strategy for sustainable and smart mobility, published on 9 December 2020, mentions digitalisation as an indispensable driver for modernisation. ITS has clear roles in many of the measures it includes. The Commission's proposal for a revised ITS Directive was presented on 14 December 2021 and refers to this strategy. The proposal was supported by an impact assessment approved with comments by the EU's Regulatory Scrutiny Board.

The amending Directive (EU) 2023/2661, which was adopted on 22 November 2023, aims to adapt the rules to new technological developments such as cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM), on-demand services and multimodal transport. It also aims to increase the availability and improve the interoperability of the digital data that underpins ITS services such as multimodal journey planners and navigation services. Interoperable digital data allows, among other things, vehicles and road infrastructure to communicate with each other, for example to warn of unforeseen incidents such as congestion further ahead on the road.

Digitalisation of especially important data types

The changes involve a requirement to digitalise selected, especially important data types. Previously, there was only a requirement to make available data that one already held in a digital machine-readable format.

Digitalisation involves transforming and structuring underlying information found, for example, in documents on paper, in PDF format or received by telephone, into formats that can more easily be received and interpreted by computers (machine-readable formats).

Digitalisation and provision are required when the underlying information already exists at the relevant authority, regardless of the format or medium in which it is held. However, there is no requirement to set up sensor equipment or take measures to obtain entirely new information. The data that has been digitalised is still to be made available in the national access point (NAP) in a digital machine-readable format, as before.

The data types covered by the new requirements relate to traffic information and navigation services, data for safe and secure parking of trucks and commercial vehicles, data for a mandatory safety-related traffic information service, and static data types for multimodal travel information services. Geographical scopes are defined within which data must be made available in a machine-readable format, with set deadlines in the period 2025-2028. The geographical scopes range from only the core network of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), via the entire TEN-T, only main roads and city centres, and to the entire transport network, depending on the data type.

Selected, especially important data for traffic information and navigation services (RTTI - real time traffic information) covers traffic regulations and the condition of the road network, more specifically conditions for entry into tunnels and onto bridges, speed limits, weight/length/width/height restrictions, one-way streets, traffic plans, permanent access restrictions, zone regulations, road closures, roadworks and temporary traffic management measures. For safe and secure parking of trucks and commercial vehicles (SSTP - safe and secure truck parking), the data covered concerns safety and equipment at the parking areas as well as data on availability in the form of vacant parking spaces. The eight data types covered by the regulation on minimum universal traffic safety information (SRTI - safety related traffic information) are all considered especially important, while especially important data for multimodal travel information services (MMTIS - multimodal travel information service) covers the location and availability of transfers between scheduled modes of transport, including for example lifts and escalators.

The directive sets deadlines for when new underlying information is required to be digitalised and made available for all the defined data types. For some of the static data types, later deadlines are also set for digitalising and making existing information available.

The Commission is given the possibility to set the remaining deadlines for static data and to define new data types as especially important following a cost-benefit analysis and consultations with the stakeholders.

The directive requires the member states to establish a mandatory service for safety-related traffic information by the end of 2026 on the trans-European road network (TEN-T) within their geographical area. This service must be able to inform the driver about, for example, accidents or obstacles on the road that affect road safety. The directive does not provide a legal basis for requiring other mandatory services without a new revision.

Centralised trust model for secure message exchange

The directive provides some framework for the secure exchange of messages for cooperative ITS (C-ITS, Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems). C-ITS involves the exchange of messages between users who have no prior knowledge of each other. The EU has established a centralised trust model (EU C-ITS security credential management system, CCMS) for managing digital certificates in C-ITS. Each country is expected to become responsible for connecting to this trust model by establishing its own certificate issuers, in order to ensure interoperability and harmonised use of certificates across Europe.

The Commission is given the authority to adopt immediately applicable, temporary legal acts in crisis situations, which is particularly relevant for the central trust model.

Technology neutrality is listed as a principle in the development of future specifications. This is expected to be of particular importance for the further development of C-ITS services.

New regulations in priority areas

The revised directive is still a framework directive. It gives the European Commission the right to adopt new specifications as delegated regulations within these four areas:

ITS services for information and mobility (multimodal digital mobility services, road traffic information and navigation services)
ITS services for travel, transport and traffic management (incident management, public transport, architecture framework and freight transport)
ITS services for road and traffic safety (eCall, safe and secure parking for trucks and commercial vehicles, safety-related traffic information and necessary specifications that fall outside the type-approval framework for vehicles)
ITS services for cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM and C-ITS) Concrete measures for revising existing regulations, any new regulations and updates of mandatory data types are to be described in a work programme adopted by the European Commission in an implementing act in December 2024.

The directive requires close cooperation between the countries of Europe with regard to the development and use of specifications and standards within the priority areas.

Obligations for private actors

Private actors are given obligations in the revised directive to the extent that they are involved in the value chains for especially important data types, in the mandatory SRTI service or in future regulations based on the directive. Both public and private actors can be considered service providers for ITS services. The possibility of imposing requirements on the private sector is mentioned explicitly with regard to data collection for multimodal digital mobility services, road traffic information and navigation services.

The regulations adopted under the old directive 2010/40/EU also contain requirements for private actors.

Reporting

The revised directive still entails reporting obligations for Norway, through a requirement to submit a report on progress in the ITS area and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) every three years, starting in 2025. There are strong indications that reporting on the KPIs will become mandatory, and that several new indicators will be created. Until all the underlying regulations under the original ITS Directive have been updated, these will have reporting requirements on their own dates.

Consequences of the revised ITS Directive for Norway

The revised ITS Directive will have several significant consequences for Norway. Transportportal.no must, for example, be expanded to include new datasets. Existing regulations must also be revised to reflect the new requirements of the directive. This particularly concerns the expansion of the data categories that must be available, as well as stricter requirements for the quality and updating of the data. This will require legal and administrative adaptations to ensure that Norway's regulatory framework complies with the European requirements. Furthermore, the implementation of the directive will require increased cooperation between public and private actors, including transport operators, infrastructure managers and data providers. This is necessary in order to collect and share data on shared mobility services, charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and other relevant areas. This cooperation will be crucial for meeting the requirements for availability and quality.