Technical Guidance for the implementation of EU specifications
In the framework of Directive 2010/40/EU, EU specifications have been adopted in order to ensure compatibility, interoperability and continuity for the deployment and operational use of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) for the provision of EU-wide safety related traffic information (SRTI) and real-time traffic information (RTTI) services.
For that purpose, Member States need to set up and manage their national access points (NAP), where the relevant data needs to be easily available for exchange and reuse.
In order to further support the harmonised implementation of the specifications under the Directive 2010/40/EU, related to both:
- Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 886/2013 of 15 May 2013 with regard to data and procedures for the provision, where possible, of road safety-related minimum universal traffic information free of charge to users;
- Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/962 of 18 December 2014 with regard to the provision of EU-wide real-time traffic information services;
- Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/670 of 2 February 2022 with regard to the provision of EU-wide real-time traffic information services
The following resources may be used on a voluntary basis and aim to provide technical guidance to all stakeholders seeking to improve the accessibility, exchange, re-use and update of the road and traffic data required for the provision of high quality and continuous safety-related and real-time traffic information services across the Union.
National Access Points Coordination Organisation for Europe (NAPCORE)
The National Access Point Coordination Organisation for Europe (NAPCORE) project was started in 2022, to work on a better alignment of the implementation of EU specifications in the Member States.
NAPCORE is a Programme Support Action co-funded by the EU under the Connecting Europe Facility.
NAPCORE has been launched as coordination mechanism to improve interoperability of the National Access Points as backbone of European mobility data exchange. NAPCORE improves the interoperability of mobility data in Europe with mobility data standard harmonisation and alignment. Also, NAPCORE aims at increasing access to and expanding availability of mobility related data by coordinated data access and better harmonisation of the European NAPs.
More information on https://napcore.eu/
Standardisation
Datex II EU harmonised profile for the implementation of safety-related traffic information and real-time traffic information services
For the purpose of making these data accessible in the DATEX II format (CEN/TS 16157), EU harmonised profiles are essential, allowing DATEX II users to customise their implementations according to their own requirements, whilst keeping interoperability on common parts (publications, operating modes) with other users.
The concept of profiling for DATEX II is the method to limit the options for the information transfer on an exchange link for traffic- and travel information/data, i.e., making information exchange more strict, slim, and explicit. The provision of EU harmonised profiles was only possible after the publication of the current version of DATEX II Version 3.
A substantial DATEX II support ecosystem is available at https://datex2.eu/.
The European reference profiles for Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 886/2013 (SRTI) and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/962 (RTTI) can be found here: Datex II Docs: Recommended Reference Profiles (datex2.eu)
The European profile for Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/670 should be available in Q1 2024.
Technical Specification on data exchange on changes in road attributes
CEN/TS 17268:2018 defines the content specification for the exchange of road-related spatial data, and especially updates thereof. Based on the content specification, this document defines also a physical exchange format (structure and encoding) for the actual data exchange. In addition, it defines web services needed to make the coded data on updates available. This technical specification addresses specifically static data in the remit of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/962 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/670, and aims at helping keeping digital maps for ITS up to date. Although the focus of this technical specification is on providing information on updates, the technology described in this document in principle also enables the exchange of full data sets.
More information on this topic on https://tn-its.eu/.
Coordinated Metadata Catalogue
A detailed and standardised dataset description – the so-called metadata - is required to create a searchable, easy manageable and high-quality register. Users searching for data through the EU Member States’ national access points should experience no difference in wording or meaning between the metadata there provided, even if in different languages. Thus, to support easy data exchange and to prevent data errors when exchanging data between databases, it is necessary to define data fields and data field definitions. In previous works, some common concepts have been elaborated, namely the “Coordinated Metadata Catalogue” with however limited acceptance and interoperability with other data domains.
To foster EU-wide harmonisation, the NAPCORE project will enhance this “Coordinated Metadata Catalogue”. A formal data specification will be elaborated, including maintenance and governance structures and a common approach will be developed as an input for a conceptualisation for a cross-border metadata registry.
More information on https://napcore.eu/.
Data Dictionary
Having well-defined data types can facilitate the development of interoperable NAPs as well as the harmonisation of data across different NAPs. By clearly defining each data type, there is less room for confusion, ambiguity, and misinterpretation among different Member States. The NAPCORE project provided definitions for all data types included in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 886/2013 (SRTI) and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/962 (RTTI). For each of the data types an initial, yet inclusive, definition and description of critical aspects with the aim of clarifying, to the extent possible, each data type is provided. This set of definitions and descriptions is addressed and referred to as a simplified NAP data dictionary/glossary.
More information on https://napcore.eu/material-hub/.
The current version will be updated in the near future including producing definitions for data types for Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/670 and providing a description of the process that will be followed until the development of a stable version and guidelines about its future maintenance.
Quality Package
Member States and ITS stakeholders have been encouraged to cooperate to agree on common definitions of data quality with a view to use common data quality indicators throughout the traffic data value chain, such as the completeness, accuracy and up-to-datedness of the data, the acquisition method and location referencing method used, as well as quality checks applied.
The European ITS Platform or EIP projects provided a recommendation on quality requirements for the European services of Safety-Related Traffic Information (SRTI) and Real-Time Traffic Information (RTTI) as well as the data content of them. EIP also provided a recommendation for the quality assessment methods to be used in evaluating the services against the evaluation criteria and requirements specified by EIP. An accompanying document “Practical Guidelines” also serves as a compact, hands-on guidance for quality practitioners, e.g. at Traffic Information Centres (TIC) or a Traffic Management Centres (TMC). Finally, the validation activities are also documented, providing references to recent quality tests in real-world conditions.
More information on https://www.its-platform.eu/achievement/quality-of-european-its-service…
The NAPCORE project concluded that he current version of the SRTI and RTTI Quality Package presents validated quality definitions, ready to be used in every-day practice by all SRTI and RTTI services and stakeholders in Europe.
However, further validation, research, and development efforts are required and taken up in NAPCORE. The update of these quality frameworks will include:
- quality-related effects of near future technologies, e.g., their potentials to improve quality levels, and
- new or different user requirements, e.g., when data is used by an automated vehicle instead of a human driver.
Self-declaration
In order to make sure that these specifications are correctly implemented, Member States are required to assess the compliance with the requirements concerning the accessibility, exchange, re-use and update of the road and traffic data by the road authorities, road operators, digital map producers and service providers. To avoid administrative burden to all relevant parties (NAP operators, information service providers, data providers, digital map producers, road operators), the EU EIP project in cooperation with TISA (Traveller information Services Association) has developed a uniform Declaration of Compliance.
Within NAPCORE compliance assessment processes for the Commission Delegated Regulations (EU) No 886/2013 and 2015/962 will be harmonised. This should lead to a common assessment of the implementation of these Delegated Regulations across Europe and allow for comparability of the assessment of international private organisations.
The necessary processes required forms and quality and evaluation criteria have been discussed and harmonised in NAPCORE, where appropriate. Common strategies to address private organisations and ITS-related platforms to deliver data on the NAPs in full compliance with the Delegated Regulations have been worked out.
All mentioned templates on https://napcore.eu/national-bodies/.
Implementation guidelines and forms on https://napcore.eu/material-hub/.