Nottingham City Council (NCC) is making use of Tyco Integrated Systems’ innovative new mobile bus lane monitoring and enforcement vehicle to enhance safety around the gates of the UK city’s tram network.
As part of a long-term mission to reduce buss and tram lane contraventions, NCC has already installed and operated a fully digital bus lane enforcement system. Now, in a further stage of work, it has installed LaneWatch unattended enforcement cameras and deployed a mobile bus lane enforcement vehicle to enhance transport system safety.
Working in conjunction with city tram network operator Nottingham Express Transit, NCC is using the new technology to reduce the amount of vehicles using various tram gates as short cuts.
The Tyco vehicle – based on standard Toyota iQ – is part of a data-gathering operation that encompasses Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, digital video recording, Zenco mobile capture software, wireless data transfer interfaces and RAID1 data storage. Once video evidence has been received in the Traffic Control, it can be turned into a Penalty Charge Notice and a fine can be issued.
“It’s a totally different way of working,” said Caroline Stylianou, Nottingham’s service manager for traffic and safety. “We have the freedom to deploy wherever we’ve got hotspots, which is so useful.”
Stylianou says that drivers’ attitudes have already changed as a result of the new approach; there have also been benefits for traffic network management. The system has already been brought to other parts of Nottingham and there are plans to extend its reach even further in the near-future.
