WSP has recently published in support of the Office of future Transport’s development of Draft Principles for National Approach to Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems. C-ITS is a viable technology, as proved in Australia and internationally. However, there has been no harmonised C-ITS ecosystem available to all vehicle manufacturers and governments to share information that can deliver all Australians the desired road safety, efficiency, sustainability, and accessibility benefits that these technologies have to offer. To address the problem, three policy approaches (PAs) were considered: PA1 Market-led, PA2 Government leadership and direction and PA3 Introducing obligations for C-ITS services and data to be required in new vehicles. The policy analysis resulted in the preferred approach of PA2: Government leadership and direction, given that it can help break the chicken-and-egg dilemma by acting to encourage and leverage industry development and investment. This creates certainty for industry to progress towards delivering solutions that align to strategic societal objectives. A cost benefit analysis showed the introduction of a national framework with government-led infrastructure (roadside stations, central stations, security, etc) encourages an economically sustainable deployment.  ​

To provide leadership and direction, the analysis found that policy should provide certainty by aligning to a European standards suite. This leverages the development and testing undertaken to date. Given vehicles imported to Australia are based on European designs using the harmonised standards of WP.29, C-ITS should follow a similar path to encourage consistency. Research in the Austroads supports a single standard suite and vehicle manufacturer representatives (through the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI)) have noted their support for using a standards suite based on the European approach. ​

Analysis found that the technology approach for short-range communications should also align with Europe as this provides the certainty and consistency for C-ITS interactions on Australian roads. Europe provides support for DSRC (ITS-G5) as the mature deployed technology for safety-related use cases. Potential to use DSRC (ITS-G5) or C-V2X for other use cases that add benefit to users and society should also be considered based on their ability co-exist and not detract from Day 1 safety deployments. ​