To reduce the number of accidents at roadwork sites, Heijmans, together with V-tron, Swarco, NXP and other market players, is committed to legalizing emergency intervention via standardized ITS G5 communication over Wi-Fi. Using C-ITS G5, vehicles can be influenced locally. The short-range communication is visible directly on the driver’s dashboard. In extreme cases, if all information via long-range communication and on the road has been missed or ignored and the driver is not taking action, the system can intervene. This can prevent collisions and save lives.
The safety of road workers must improve. Every year, the industry sadly experiences many incidents which regularly result in physical injury to road workers. Together, market players and governments want to achieve zero traffic fatalities. To make it safer, informing road users via infotainment or smartphone is not enough. Red Xs above the road are ignored daily. A consortium of companies is searching for innovation that will influence the driving decisions of drivers around roadworks. Meanwhile, technology that allows a car to be remotely stopped in a timely manner has been successfully demonstrated. The required V2X technology has already been installed in Dutch vehicles by some car manufacturers since 2018. To enable intervention in extreme cases, public-private cooperation to establish digital trust is the next step.