CODIA (COoperative systems Deployment Impact Assessment) presented its preliminary findings at a workshop on 22 September 2008. CODIA is an EC-funded project designed to provide an independent assessment of the safety, traffic and environmental impacts, costs and benefits of a set of five cooperative systems, and to support political decision making.  The systems assessed were:

o        Speed adaptation due to weather conditions, obstacles or congestion

o        Local danger/hazard warning

o        Reversible lanes due to traffic flow

o        Post crash warning

o        Cooperative intersection collision warning

For each system, assumptions were made about the technical details and functions, the rate at which they will penetrate into the vehicles on European roads, the likely spread of the infrastructure needed to support them, and the costs involved.  A series of scenarios were developed for changes in traffic and safety and market penetration of the systems.  An appraisal of the mechanisms by which the systems would affect traffic and safety enabled an assessment to be made of the likely impacts of these systems. 

The analysis identified which systems have the greatest potential to reduce injuries and prevent fatalities in two scenarios in future years - 2020 and 2030.  Modelling of traffic impacts was used to identify the potential for each system to improve traffic flows and the resulting impacts on traffic emissions and noise on European roads.  The results show that some of the systems offer considerable safety benefits but that from the analysis to date, the traffic and environmental impacts are less certain.  Further work to refine the traffic modelling will be carried out before the full socio-economic assessment is completed.  A series of issues surrounding uncertainties over system deployment and long term impacts on driver behaviour and traffic behaviour were identified.  The EC-funded Field Operational Tests (FOTs) were identified as an opportunity to obtain data on the actual impacts of such systems, which could be used to refine the assessments carried out within CODIA.  The project final report is expected to be available by the end of 2008.

ITS Radar International will report again when the results are available

Keywords: Cooperative vehicle systems, Environment, European Commission, Project, Safety