The smart highway market is expected to grow from US$ 24.8 billion in 2021 to US$ 81.3 billion by 2028; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 18.4% from 2021 to 2028.

The development of smart highways involves the integration of advanced technologies, such as IoT and connected devices, in current road transportation structures. Various governing bodies are actively planning to modify their existing routes, especially highways, to support the intelligent transportation systems infrastructure. For instance, smart roads are critical elements in the EU "Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems" (C-ITS) plan, meant to allow road users and traffic managers to share helpful information and coordinate their actions. To further substantiate the plan, in November 2016, the European Commission adopted a European Strategy for C-ITS to accelerate investments and regulatory framework upgrading across European countries. The speeding implementation of information and communication systems is driving the deployment of intelligent transportation systems in smart highways, combining various technologies and services-such as transport management systems, monitoring systems, and automated tolling solutions-to optimize mobility and roadways management, leading to a safer, and more sustainable and efficient transportation sector.

The major stakeholders in the smart highway market include component providers, systems manufacturers, software developers, system integrator, and end users (ITS roadway operators, enforcement agencies and transportation departments). With a growing sales of vehicles across the world, the issues such as traffic congestion, are also rising, thereby highlighting the need for smart highway solutions. Component suppliers provide ecosystems with the essential hardware components such as cameras, sensors, smart signals, and smart streetlights for the implementation of the physical infrastructure for smart highways. These hardware and software systems are then integrated together by the smart highway system integrators to create a complete comprehensive solution for efficient interaction between different components as well as the supporting software. Siemens AG is one of the system integrator that engages in the complete setup and installation of different solutions for smart highways. Furthermore, the law enforcement agencies use smart highway system features for identifying and reporting violations of roadway regulations, including emissions, traffic violations, toll violations, etc. The major customers of these systems for smart highways include transportation departments and agencies implementing intelligent technologies to build a resilient smart highway infrastructure.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Smart Highway Market

The enactment of lockdowns and travel restrictions, shutdown of production facilities, and the shortage of employees had adversely affected the performances of major players in the mobility and transportation industry. Irrespective of the declined growth in 2020, the market gained the momentum from the beginning of 2021. Various industry players have been developing and implementing solutions to keep motorists informed and safe on the roads, to ultimately ensure travelers' safety in a scenario of changing driving behavior. As per the CEO of Flow Labs, California, a smart infrastructure software solution provider, the company's cloud-based autonomous traffic signal timing solution is built on cloud-based artificial intelligence that reduces the costs for transport agencies. In this way, the existing challenges faced by the transportation industry due to the impact of COVID-19, can be subverted by the use of smart and intelligent solutions for mobility.

The overall smart highway market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources. To begin the research process, exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the market. The process also serves the purpose of obtaining an overview and forecast for the smart highway market with respect to all the segments. It also provides the overview and forecast for the market based on all the segmentation provided with respect to five major regions-North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, and South America. Also, primary interviews were conducted with industry participants and commentators to validate data and gain more analytical insights into the topic. The participants of this process include industry experts such as VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers, and national sales managers-along with external consultants such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leaders-specializing in the smart highway market. A few major players operating in the market are Cisco Systems, Inc; Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd; Kapsch TrafficCom AG; Nokia Corporation; Siemens AG; Telegra; Conduent, Inc.; Toshiba Corporation; Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.; and IBI Group.