Road users will have their lives made easier by the UVAR Box project

UVAR Box, a recently launched EU-funded project will address fragmented and/or unavailable information on relevant up to date UVARs. The project will provide tools to structure data on UVARs in adequate machine-readable formats for navigation systems and mobile applications.

The current state of national legal frameworks for UVAR (Urban Vehicle Access Regulations) schemes are very varied, with European cities increasingly introducing different, fragmented UVARs. These local-level access regulations address policy objectives like liveability, congestion abatement, and air quality, among others. Currently, the most common typologies of UVARs include Low Emission Zones, Parking Regulations, Congestion Charging Schemes, Limited Traffic Zones and Pedestrian Zones.

It is of utmost importance to provide all road users with relevance and up to date information on UVAR schemes allowing for wider public acceptance and ensuring the free movements of people and goods across the EU. However, Even if the information on UVARs at an EU level is available on CLARS, there is, unfortunately, no digitised static and dynamic machine-readable data available in a standardised or interoperable format – nor is there- as yet- an agreed EU-wide standard for which to do so.

This is where the UVAR Box project comes in with the goal to reconciles UVAR information, by allowing for the integration of information on UVAR schemes in apps, fleet management tools and navigation devices. This will make road users lives made easier when planning journeys across the EU, while supporting local authorities and Member States in setting up digital issuing procedures to comply with European regulations on travel information (i.e. ITS Directive and Single Digital Gateway).

The project will effectively reach this goal with the creation of a structure for UVAR data schemes and the development of adequate machine-readable formats in DATEX II, which will support data collection, maintenance, and accessibility to navigation systems and mobile apps. Ultimately, it will enable entities in charge of UVARs to provide digital, factual, up to date, continuous and interoperable EU-wide real-time traffic information services.

UVAR Box is a pilot project awarded by the European Commission to a consortium led by ARMIS, composed of AlbrechtConsult, AustriaTech, MAPtm, MEMEX, POLIS Network, PRISMA Solutions and TRT, and including Harrod Booth Consulting, Sadler Consultants and U-Trex as subcontractors.

About the project:

UVAR Box was awarded in the framework of the Preparatory Action — User-friendly Information Tool on Urban and Regional Vehicle Access Regulation Schemes, Notice: 2019/S 229-561113, Reference number: MOVE/B4/2019-498.

For additional information on UVAR Box contact: 

• ARMIS Information System - Pedro Barradas, Project Manager, pedro [dot] barradasarmis [dot] pt (pedro[dot]barradas[at]armis[dot]pt)
• POLIS Network - Manon Coyne, Communications Lead, mcoynepolisnetwork [dot] eu (mcoyne[at]polisnetwork[dot]eu)

Article first published first at POLIS Network on 23 September 2020.