On 8 March 1994, Birmingham City Council (BCC) in England commissioned the MVA Consultancy to advise on the design and implementation of a trial automated system to deter illegal use of bus lanes. This paper describes the equipment provided by Golden River Traffic Ltd, its installation, the field trial, and the evaluation of the equipment's performance. The Bus Lane Enforcement System uses video camera and vision processing equipment in an operational bus to photograph vehicles ahead of it and transmit their registration numbers to a variable message sign (VMS) on the bus lane. The digital images are stored and can be used for later law enforcement procedures. The VMS advises the driver of incorrect use of a bus lane, and displays the registration number of the offending vehicle. The system's subsystems are the Bus Mounted System, the Bus Station System, and the Roadside VMS. The system was installed during October to November 1996 on a 350m length of bus lane on the A34 trunk road in Birmingham. To assess the effectiveness of the system, surveys of current bus lane offence levels, queue lengths, bus journey times, and junction turning movement counts were conducted before and after installation. Offences were reduced by 60%, average bus journey times fell by 25%, and bus lane queues were reduced.
Samenvatting