Evaluation of the impact of ITS

The evaluation of ITS begins and takes root within a European policy focused on the diffusion and enhancement of ITS. This section briefly introduces the history of the European policies and actions supporting these technologies to describe their scope in Europe. ITS apply information and communication technologies to make the transport of people and goods easy and flowing. The potential of ITS was expressly mentioned in several White Papers of the European Commission (EC), which considers them as a way to reduce congestion and bottlenecks. The implementation of traffic management plans, information services before and during the journey, goods management services, assistance and emergency services in case of emergency as well as electronic fee systems is therefore a priority and shall contribute to reduce the saturation of the road network. To support the extension of services in Europe, the European Community supports ITS in the road sector by co-financing several projects. Community policies for the development of the Trans-European Road Network (TERN) aim at establishing the interconnection, the interoperability and the continuity of services, above all on long-distance corridors and at borders. Traffic management advanced systems were implemented before 2001 in many European areas. National and regional ITS services were never coordinated, thus resulting in a fragmented mosaic. Aiming at a wide diffusion of ITS services all over Europe, the EC launched the programme Trans-European intelligent transport systeMs PrOjects (TEMPO) in 2001-2006. The key objective of the programme TEMPO on ITS in the road sector was to promote a harmonious and coordinated development of ITS in the member states of the Union, as well as the cooperation among the several countries, and the safety and quality of the service on the TERN network thanks to the cooperation between bordering regions by means of the so-called Euroregional projects. The programmeTEMPO 2001-2006 includes sixprojects: ARTS, CENTRICO, CORVETTE, SERTI, VIKING and STREETWISE. The project CONNECT and the project ITHACA were added to the six projects, thus covering the whole Europe.