The American Highway Users Alliance recently joined a series of other organizations in supporting efforts to preserve the 5.9 GHz Safety Spectrum.
The American Highway Users Alliance was among the groups forwarding correspondence to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows regarding the matter – expressing concern with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considering reallocating spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band away from transportation safety.
“Reducing the amount of spectrum available to Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technologies undermines our shared interest in reducing the number of traffic fatalities and injuries that occur each year on U.S. roadways, improving motor vehicle safety and improving the operational performance of roadways by reducing congestion across the transportation system,” the organization’s wrote. “Such a decision would also harm U.S. global competitiveness with respect to next-generation automotive safety technologies.”
The Safety Spectrum preservation advocates noted the 5.9 GHz spectrum band is currently reserved for intelligent transportation systems.
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) predicts that the safety applications enabled by V2X technologies could eliminate or mitigate the severity of up to 80 percent of non-impaired crashes, significantly reducing the nearly 37,000 lives lost and three million injuries that occur on U.S. roadways each year,” the groups concluded. “Preserving the spectrum for V2X would provide greater benefit for the American people than reallocating the spectrum for unlicensed devices.”
The American Society of Civil Engineers, American Traffic Safety Services Association, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, Consumer Reports, and Greyhound Lines, Inc. are among the organizations joining the American Highway Users Alliance in signing the correspondence.