This chapter discusses the AUTOPOLIS project of the DRIVE programme, which investigates possible automation of the detection of traffic law violations and traffic law enforcement. Special attention is given to: (1) violations that are suitable for automatic police surveillance; (2) system specifications; and (3) legal requirements for such systems. Two approaches have been used for selecting the most relevant law violations to be handled by automatic enforcement systems. In the first approach, both road users and police officers were asked to indicate which violations they considered serious, and the subjective probability of detection was investigated. High agreement between road users and police was usually found. In the second approach, the role of violations in accident occurrence was investigated by analysing different European accident databases, especially the French REAGIR data. Five types of traffic violations were found to be especially correlated with accidents. At present, semi-automatic systems are used almost exclusively as on-site systems to detect speeding and red-light violations. Experimental systems are being developed for several other types of violations. Various technologies are being used. Considerable attention has also been devoted to legal requirements for effective functioning of systems. The possibilities of automatic policing are largely determined by social rather than technological factors.
Samenvatting