The Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) and Cooperative-Intelligent Transport Systems

The Advent Of C-Its

Technological breakthroughs in digitalization and connectivity uncover tremendous opportunities for coping with the pressing and manifold challenges of mobility (European Commission, 2016a). In Europe, the costs of traffic congestion are estimated at 1% of GDP (Isabella Geis, 2018). In 2019, this amounted to approximately EUR 139 billion in economic losses at the EU-28 level associated with congestion (EUROSTAT, 2020). Although the number of fatal accidents has declined consistently over the past several years, 22,800 people still died in traffic accidents in 2019 across Europe (European Commission, 2020a). Furthermore, the transport sector remains one of the key contributors to greenhouse gases and air pollutants (European Commission, 2016a). With the automotive and transport industry providing millions of jobs, the sector must cope with the increasing pressure to safeguard sustainable economic development spearheaded by technological leadership (European Commission, 2016a; Schulz, Wieker and Arnegger, 2018). There is a strong consensus among scholars and policymakers that integrating information and communication technology into all modes of transportation—comprehensively referred to as Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)—will play a decisive role in tackling these challenges. Furthermore, these systems constitute a key competitive advantage (European Commission, 2016a; Isabella Geis, 2018; Schulz and Wieker, 2016) .