Summary: How to Improve Public Transport with C-ITS

News

Read our summary of our fourth international webinar.

The C-Roads webinar “How to Improve Public Transport with C-ITS” on 12th March 2026 brought together around 100 participants from all over the world to dive into Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) and how these can improve the efficiency, safety, and reliability of public transport services. Experts from Germany, Czechia, and Austria shared practical deployment experiences and lessons learned from real-world implementations.

Introduction – Martin Böhm

Martin Böhm opened the webinar on behalf of the C-Roads platform, which coordinates C-ITS deployment activities across 21 European countries in close cooperation with the European Commission since 2016. He highlighted that, approximately 2.5 million vehicles are equipped with C-ITS technology. 6.000 roadside units (RSUs) have been implemented on public infrastructure, and 4,000 public service vehicles have already been equipped with onboard units (OBUs). The focus of this webinar was with these 4.000 public service vehicles.

Germany – Thomas Otto

Thomas Otto from the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI presented the status of C-ITS deployment in German cities. He explained that the most widely implemented use cases today are Traffic Signal Priority (TSP) for public transport and emergency vehicles, as well as Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory (GLOSA).

These services help reduce travel times, improve timetable stability, increase safety, and optimise traffic flow. Thomas Otto also highlighted that transitioning from analog systems to C-ITS requires long-term deployment strategies, as infrastructure and vehicles need to operate with both old and new technologies in parallel during deployment phases.

Czechia – Ivo Herman

Ivo Herman from Herman Electronics shared experiences from public transport deployments in Czechia and an example from Porto, Portugal. Around 2.600 public transport vehicles in Czechia are already equipped with OBUs, with deployments in cities such as Brno, Hradec Králové and Třebíč. These cities show that C-ITS can be used in cities of various sizes.

He emphasised that public transport is an ideal starting point for C-ITS because it delivers immediate operational benefits and allows cities to adapt solutions to their own needs. The Porto Bus Rapid Transit is a perfect example of how C-ITS can support the efficiency and stability of travel times of a bus line.

Austria – Georg Brenner

Georg Brenner from Wiener Linien presented Vienna’s C-ITS activities. Around 180 traffic lights are already equipped with RSUs, while several trams and buses are currently participating in pilot operations.

He explained that interoperability between different hard- and software providers and manufacturers remain a major challenge despite ongoing harmonisation efforts within the European C-Roads Platform. Vienna currently focuses on public transport prioritisation and on replacing older, less reliable communication technologies.

An important lesson learned from the pilot phase is the importance of involving drivers directly and collecting feedback from daily operations. According to Georg Brenner, especially new drivers currently benefit significantly from the additional information provided through C-ITS services.

Conclusions

The webinar demonstrated that public transport continues to be one of the strongest use cases for C-ITS deployment. While challenges related to interoperability and system integration remain, the presentations clearly showed that C-ITS already delivers measurable benefits today and will play an increasingly important role in the future of connected mobility in Europe.