Enforcement comes in many guises

Colin Sowman looks at some enforcement case studies from around the world.

It is a sad fact of life that unenforced laws are not adhered to by a sometimes sizable proportion of the public and once enforcement is seen to be lacking, some drivers can take this to extremes and authorities must decide how to regain control.

This problem was faced by authorities in Mexico where speed limits have been largely ignored with up to 96% of vehicles exceeding the posted speeds on some sections of road. The country’s annual toll of road deaths is around 17,000 (equivalent to an estimated 12.6 deaths/100,000 population). In 2014 Mexico City recorded 16,830 crashes and 871 fatalities - almost 500 of which were pedestrians.

Now 8448 Autotraffic, 79 Jenoptik’s Mexican distributor, is working with the authorities in the five largest cities to help reduce the problem. One project is designed to protect pedestrians and cyclists, which account for 78% of the mobility environment in Mexico City as well as in other large conurbations around the country.

Having identified Mexico City’s 100 most dangerous intersections, the authorities commissioned Autotraffic to implement changes and install automated enforcement at an initial 42 of those locations (plus two mobile units).

Last November saw Jenoptik’s multi-functional TraffiStar SR590 cameras starting to be installed and in December the authority made it illegal to cross a red signal to turn right and to invade pedestrian cross zones. 

“If you allow motorists to cross the red light then there is never an opportunity for pedestrians to cross safely,” points out Autotraffic’s CEO Alfonso Vélez.

The cameras contain a 3D tracking radar and detect speed, red light compliance, illegal turns and pedestrian crossing zones as well as monitoring the intersection and providing photo evidence of offences. Other algorithms within the cameras detect pedestrians and cyclists waiting to cross the road and when detected interact with the light controller to extend the red light period to provide them with extra time to cross the road.

When first installed, the cameras detected an average of 600 drivers per day crossing the red light at each of the instrumented junctions. Within a month the average had fallen to 100 per day per junction and within four months to 50 per day at each intersection. With fewer than half of the worst 100 junctions instrumented so far, since December the fatality rate has been 14% lower than the previous year. 

If required, the cameras could also be used to enforce Mexico City’s air quality-related vehicle restrictions whereby vehicles with registrations ending in particular numbers are banned from entering the city one day per week.

Besides controlling these intersections, the project includes two mobile laser systems (Jenoptik’s TraffiStar S350M) to detect drivers using a mobile phone, not using seat belts, invading cyclist restricted lanes and motorcyclists without helmets. Autotraffic developed a back office processor to filter the drivers that could be using the mobile phone with the results verified by manual inspection before any enforcement action is initiated.

Combined with the laser system’s ability to classify passing vehicles as a car, truck or motorcycle, the bespoke back office system is being used to filter each class of vehicle and apply different detection criteria, and to isolate particular violations such as motorcyclists not using a helmet.

In the first month of operation some 2,700 seat belt or mobile phone offences were detected and this has already fallen to 400 per month.

Across in the Gulf States, 147 Vitronic has been working with the various authorities in the region, seeking ways to deter, detect and prosecute errant drivers committing a number of offences - and with some success. Abu Dhabi has recorded a 27% decrease in road traffic fatalities and a halving of crashes caused by speeding following the implementation of a new enforcement regime.

In 2014 the Abu Dhabi police began to install new Vitronic PoliScan radars (nicknamed Al Burj or ‘the Tower’). The system uses non-invasive LIDAR to detect the speed, lane and class of each vehicle in real-time to enable authorities to simultaneously enforce a number of violations.

It now has 505 installations of the latest PoliScan units in pillar-shaped housings to provide speed (LIDAR), tailgating and minimum/slow speed enforcement. They also function as control points for average speed enforcement.  In addition, a further 90 gantries cover larger road sections with six lanes.

Data is transferred over Abu Dhabi Police’s own 4G network to its processing centre for case processing and fine collection. In keeping with Abu Dhabi Traffic Police’s transparency strategy, motorists were informed about the radars’ locations through signage boards on both sides of the road which also urged them to reduce speed. While exact figures on speeding have not been published, the Abu Dhabi Police impounded almost 13,000 vehicles for exceeding speed limits by more than 60km/h (37mph) in a way that poses a serious threat to life.

This type of multipurpose enforcement is also being implemented in Dubai where a number of PoliScan units were installed throughout 2015 – not only to catch speeders but also to enforce red light- and lane-related violations. According to the Dubai police, the LIDAR systems documented more than 51,000 violations in the first eleven months of 2015 – and that figure does not include incidents of speeding. Almost 21,400 of the violations were for overtaking on the hard shoulder (including some of the 6,000 trucks identified as leaving dedicated lanes); 20,780 involved passing red traffic lights; and there were more than 6,500 cases of vehicles tailgating. In total the Dubai police now operate 155 PoliScan systems.

83 Kria’s flagship T-Exspeed 3D camera system is another example of the multifunctional equipment increasingly being deployed by authorities in a number of ways. The system, which already incorporated enforcement, security intelligence and infomobility capabilities, now has a ‘Transparentizer’ feature, enabling it to produce face recognition-grade images. Miniaturising the processing unit means it can now be integrated into the main camera housing instead of requiring a separate unit.

This type of multifunctional system has provided a solution to enforce no-through transit regulations in some small Swiss towns.

The units combine section speed and ALPR to detect and enforce unauthorised through-transits in residential areas in the Ticino canton of Switzerland. While the authorities wanted to ban through traffic in the centres of these historic towns to reduce pollution and congestion, local businesses required their customers to be able to drive to their stores.

To cope with these competing demands, Kria’s section system checks if vehicles are travelling between the towns’ entry and exit points in a time that can only be achieved if drivers do not stop to visit businesses or residents. Drivers passing directly through the towns are fined, whereas if the travel time is longer it is accepted that the drivers have visited the stores or local residents, while residents’ vehicles are whitelisted.

In Italy and Switzerland Kria has supplied systems that not only detect speeding, they also check blacklists to detect suspected or wanted vehicles and provide real-time notification of any matches. Both countries also utilise the ANPR function of the company’s speeding and red light devices to detect dangerous goods by identifying the Kemler codes (Hazchem) for reports, traffic statistics and security purposes.

Across in Alberta, Canada both the red light and speeding devices are part of a child abduction alert system. The system checks every detected vehicle, no matter if legally or illegally driven, against the Amber Alert vehicle list and will again notify any matches in real-time.

Furthermore, the company sees future expansion and consolidation with other enforcement applications such as weigh-in-motion (WIM). It says its technology can help with speed variation and trajectory enforcement over weight sensor areas to improve the number of correct detections.

In its first month of operation with the Ottumwa Police in Iowa, a vehicle fitted with 113 RedSpeed International enforcement equipment has issued 252 citations. According to police chief Tom McAndrew, the average speed captured is 22.5km/h (14mph) over the posted speed limit which attracts a fine of $80 ($160 in a construction zone) and he was surprised at speeds of 80km/h (50mph) around a local school.

“What we’re trying to do is get the high numbers down. We’ve got speeds as fast as 52mph (84km/h) in a 25mph (40km/h) zone and we’re hoping those speeds will come down,” he said.

Motorists are warned about the location of the vehicle on the police department’s website.