This disclosure provides systems, methods and apparatuses for wireless communication that may allow a user equipment (UE) to determine its relative position and distances to other UEs more accurately than standard vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications allow. In some implementations, a UE (or other wireless communication device) participating in a positioning operation may transmit and receive positioning signals on an unlicensed radio band, and may transmit and receive non-positioning signals on a V2X channel (or on another suitable channel) of a radio access network (RAN). The positioning signals may include positioning reference signals (PRSs) associated with observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) positioning operations, ranging signals associated with round-trip time (RTT) positioning operations, or other suitable signals from which the position of the UE can be determined.