Smart Highways Market Size, Share, Industry, Forecast and outlook (2024-2031)

Global Smart Highways Market is segmented By Component (Software for the Smart Highways Industry, Hardware, Services), By Deployment Model (Cloud-based, On-Premise), By Technology (Intelligent Transportation Management System, Traffic management system, Communication System, Monitoring System, Others), and By Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa) – Share, Size, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2024-2031

Smart Highways Market Overview

150 pages report analyses the global Smart Highways Market size, recent trends, competitive intelligence and future market outlook. The market is poised to grow at a CAGR of 17.95 % by 2031. The increasing vehicular population raises the demand for smart highways. The competitive rivalry intensifies with ABB Ltd, ALE International, AT&T Inc., Cisco System Inc., IBM Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, and others operating in the market.

Smart highways and roads are the types of roadways that exploit the technological advances in the field of electronics and ICT (Information and Communications Technology) to resolve the issues of current transportation. A road that monitors the traffic flow through a centralized monitoring system and provides solutions to ensure effective transportation is an instance of a smart highway.

Smart Highways Market Summary

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Smart Highways Market Dynamics

The global market of smart highways is affected by drivers like the need for better and sustainable highways, increasing demand for smart cities, supported by the government in developing better transportation methods, increasing vehicular population, and innovation in information and communication technologies.

Need for better and sustainable highways

One of the major problems faced by commuters daily is traffic congestion. According to TT Traffic Index 2019 report, traffic congestion has gone up globally for the last decade and so has the opportunity cost of extra time spent on the road by people. The most congested cities in the world are Mumbai in India, with 65% extra time spent in traffic by its drivers, followed by Bogota in Colombia with the percentage to be 63%, Lima in Peru with 58%, New Delhi in India with 58% and Moscow in Russia (56%).

Another problem faced by commuters is traffic accidents. According to the World Health Organization Report on Traffic,2020, approximately 1.35 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes, road traffic crashes cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product, and road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29 years.

It can be solved to a significant extent by incorporating technology in vehicles and roadways. By integrating Networking and Machine Learning technology in traffic lights, the roads become smart enough to respond to real-time demand. One use case is when the traffic at certain roads intersections is uncontrollably higher than on other connecting roads. Smart traffic lights can collect and analyze real-time data to cooperate with other traffic signals on the same road and maximize road capacity.

For instance, Barcelona has adopted the Dynamic Forecasting System which has two aspects Parking management and traffic control cameras that try to improve traffic congestion. There are sensors installed at parking spots and video with analytics that provide real-time data on parking availability, which are transmitted through the city’s Wi-Fi infrastructure, linking devices belonging to the end-user and local authorities. Traffic control cameras are connected by fiber optics to the transport authority to monitor traffic in real-time, providing the control center with means to increase or reduce the frequency of green lights according to the traffic conditions.

Another purpose that the integration of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) and electronic technologies accomplish is avoiding and increasing response time to accidents on the highways.  A substantial number of accidents are caused due to vehicles, especially trucks being overweight and traveling at non-permissible speeds. Weigh-in-motion (WIM) devices are installed at entry points which collect the weights and size of the vehicles, thus alerting the highway system of the potential threat. Sensors lined on highways are used to detect accidents.

The Eastern peripheral expressway in India which is the first and only finished smart highway project in India has WIMs installed at every entry point with two gates one leading to the expressway and the other for a U-turn. This application of WIMs has considerably reduced the frequency of accidents in contrast to other national highways where traffic congestion is comparable.

Clean Energy and Drop-in Fossil Fuel Consumption

Nations around the world are investing actively and hugely in smart city projects. For instance, China has over 300 smart city projects and India is going to invest trillions in over 100 smart city projects.

 The rapid transportation of goods and commodities has enabled the scaling of businesses and the creation of new cities. While transportation is commonly viewed as a classical civil and structural engineering problem, it is increasingly becoming digitally enabled with info-communication technologies.

Solar panel technology used in smart highways attempts to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and provides clean energy for the environment. According to a report by World Health Council, in 2021, the global energy demand is expected to double by 2050. To meet this demand smart roads can be used to capture, store and redistribute energy.

The world’s first solar road opened to public traffic in Jinan, Shangdong, China in 2017. It is said to generate enough power for 800 homes. In its first 14 weeks of testing the photovoltaic cell(solar) road generated 96 MW of energy. The power generated is expected to power street lamps and signposts. The solar technology innovators in China predict that with the advancement of solar technology in China the cost of installation of the photovoltaic cell on the roads will considerably drop. They further claim that if two lanes of every highway are installed with solar cells, then it can produce nearly 7 million GWh per year which is 1.3 times the total power consumption of China in 2015 and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.2 billion tonnes.

One use case of smart highways is reducing the carbon emission of vehicles by using electrified roads. The general population of the smart cities will tend to use electric vehicles and the recent surge in the market of electric vehicles points towards it. A person can only charge his vehicle at the nearest charging station. These stations are rarely located near each other; hence the electric car companies use high-capacity batteries. The installation of electric lines on the roads will change the way one charges an electric vehicle. The vehicles can be charged while in motion. This allows the electric vehicles to use batteries significantly smaller in size thus reducing carbon emission by about 80-90%.

Sweden was the first nation to implement this technology on a 1.2-mile stretch of road in Stockholm. The stretch has embedded electric rails which charge the batteries of trucks and other electric vehicles. The country has planned to expand this project throughout the country to become fossil-fuel-free by 2030.

The Global Smart Highways Market is also affected by restraints like lack of infrastructure, government funding, technical knowledge and training, and strict laws imposed on construction companies.

Covid-19 Impacts on Smart Highways Market Growth

The operations of different projects had taken a halt in various countries due to the lockdown. Investments in smart highway architecture have also decreased due to the increased investment in medical infrastructure and economic drop throughout the world. However, economists think that investments in highway infrastructure are essential for reviving the economy.

In May 2021, an NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) official said that the second wave had minimal impact on the operations.

Smart Highways Market Segmentation Analysis

The global smart highway market is segmented based on the component, deployment model, technology, and region.  In terms of components, it is split into hardware, software, and services. In terms of the deployment model, the software market is bifurcated into on-premise and cloud. In terms of technology, it is divided into the intelligent transportation management system, intelligent management system, communication system, monitoring system, and others.

The component segment of the market is dominated by hardware as is evident from the graph. The Intelligent Highway Management system uses smart traffic lights which are embedded with IoT devices, video imaging cameras, and other hardware devices. In August 2020, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution "Improving global road safety", announcing the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, with the ambitious target of preventing at least 50% of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030.

 The Weight in Motion devices includes sensors, charge amplifiers, an inductive loop system, measuring system, and video imaging cameras. Overloaded trucks and lorries can cause various kinds of hazards such as mechanical failures and structural deformation, which causes accidents, and it is an illegal and punishable offense in many countries. For instance, according to the South African National Road Traffic Regulations, driving an overloaded vehicle leads to prosecution for an offense under regulations in the National Road Traffic Act. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, vehicle conditions and road/environmental conditions are the two factors that are collectively responsible for 5.2% of road accidents.

The software component is becoming increasingly efficient with the advancement of technology and hence there is a rise in its deployment. For instance, in May 2021, a Finland-based company called Wirepas announced the world’s first intent-based non-cellular 5G technology. This will allow any network to work autonomously and allow systems to automate it to its purpose. This will allow more IoT devices to be installed as the cost of connecting these devices would reduce significantly. Thus, a greater number of traffic signals would be able to communicate with each other.

Global Smart Highways Market Geographical Share

In terms of region, the global smart highways market is divided into North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle-East, and Africa. Among all of the regions, North America dominated the market. It is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecasted period due to advanced technology and raise government investment for sustainable development with growing traffic followed by the Europe region. According to a report by Forbes, in 2020, six of the ten smartest cities in the world are located in North America and Europe.

For instance, in 2018, Eberle Design Inc, a US-based manufacturer and developer of electronic intersection monitoring and detection products for traffic, launched a traffic data aggregator called iCITE® Data Aggregator – an innovative way to collect and analyze traffic safety metrics for more intelligent traffic management. The useful interpretation of the data collected into real-time information provides for effective action by traffic engineers.

According to the Urban Institute of Brooking Institution Tax Policy Center Organization in 2017, the United States state and local governments have spent around USD 181 billion on the development of highways. Approximately 6 percent of direct general spending on road and highway development includes smart devices and software expenditure.

Smart Highways Market Companies and Competitive Landscape

The global market of smart highways has many key corporations including ABB Ltd, ALE International, AT&T Inc., Cisco System Inc., IBM Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., LG CSN, Honeywell International Inc., Schneider Electric SE, and Siemens AG. The different growth strategies adopted by the companies include product launches, improving relations with the state and central government, initiating environment-friendly projects, and various others. The broad array of technological products that are launched from time to time and the opportunities available due to a wide spectrum of problems make the market highly competitive.

A US-based start-up called SURTRAC creates software that aims to reduce traffic congestion, and waiting time and decrease pollution in urban cities. One city which has witnessed these results is Quincy, Massachusetts where the software is installed in around 20 busiest intersections. With the success of examples like Quincy, the federal and state transport authority is looking forward to installing SURTRAC (the name of the software) in highly populated cities.

In the Netherlands, a construction company called Heijmans developed a cheaper solution to ensure safety on the highways by deploying glowing lines as a pilot project. The roads are painted with a certain chemical that charges during the day and glows for around 8 hours during the night acting as the partition of the roads and borders on the curves of steep slopes. A solution that uses minimal resources attracts contracts from the government.