Automatic traffic enforcement systems : international approaches.

There has been a world-wide increase in recent decades of the use of automatic measures to enforce traffic regulations. In particular, red light cameras at signalised junctions and speed cameras are widespread in many countries, with fines being posted directly to the vehicle owner. Other applications include camera enforcement for bus lane and HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane violations, passing railway level crossing when the warning lights are flashing (or weaving through the crossing barriers), evading toll payment and driving dangerously close to the vehicle in front. Such automatic enforcement systems have resulted in a significant drop in violation rates where they have been deployed, and a fall in the numbers of accidents and casualties. They have also raised significant additional fine revenue for the public authorities. However, there are a number of issues related to technical, operational, financial, legal and public acceptability aspects. These include: (1) the performance of various types of camera and optical character recognition (for registration plates), particularly at night and in poor weather conditions; (2) the acceptability of automatic photograph evidence in courts; (3) the resources required to operate the systems; (4) the issue of whether the vehicle owner is responsible for the violation in the case of someone else driving the vehicle at the time, and whether the owner has a duty to identify the driver; (5) privacy issues; (6) the need to demonstrate to the public, politicians and interest groups (e.g. motoring organisations) that automatic systems have an important safety role and are not just a tool to raise additional revenue from the motorist; and (7) the financing of such systems, which can often be a problem in cases where the police or local authority are responsible for the implementation and maintenance but all fine revenue goes to central government. This paper examines different approaches to these issues in Europe, North America and Australia, including examples of pioneering systems and novel approaches, together with examples of successful efforts to make automated enforcement financially viable and to win public support.