Enforcement

District 7 of Caltrans has been conducting trials to see whether the use of a single inductive loop to measure vehicle lengths and so identify heavy trucks is feasible. So far, the results have been very promising, according to Lead Transportation Engineer Steve Malkson. Between them, the adjoining ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the US's two biggest, cover some 10,700 acres (43km2) and 68 miles (109km) of waterfront.

Amsterdam City Council has chosen to move away from manual enforcement of its environmental zone, which is intended to keep highly polluting goods vehicles out of the city centre, and is installing an automated, ANPR-based system. The signs are not much to look at: white with a red circle and the all-important word Milieuzone ('Environmental zone'). But these signs mean that Amsterdam's city centre is strictly off-limits to polluting goods traffic. At the moment compliance is monitored by special wardens wh

Andrew Rooke and Dave Marples of Technolution B.V. take a look at what can be done to address a long-standing problem: the all-or-nothing approach of automated enforcement. To start, a brief history of speeding: on 14 November 1896, the first Veteran Car Run was staged in England from London to Brighton. It was organised to celebrate new British legislation to raise the maximum speed of vehicles from four to 14mph while also removing the need for a person waving a red flag to walk in front of the car and wa

Across the board, technology is being brought to bear to improve the efficiency of enforcement. Bus lane monitoring, parking and controlled access have all benefited from systems introduced in recent months. While speed and red light infringements tend to attract the most attention, there remain several other areas of enforcement where automation can bring significant operational and efficiency benefits. Lane monitoring and access control also continue to benefit from technological development.

German company Vitronic and its Estonian partner Alarmtec have received an order for an innovative project for the monitoring of red light violations in combination with bus lane enforcement for the city of Tallinn. The solution developed by Vitronic is mounted in an attractive housing called City Design Pole which fits nicely into the urban environment.

Redflex Traffic Systems in the US has announced it is expanding its student safety division with the acquisition of SmartBus Live. Since 2008, the SmartBus Live safety camera programme has helped school districts and municipalities monitor and deter drivers who illegally pass school buses while the stop arm is deployed. It will now operate under Redflex’s safety camera programme, Redflex Student Guardian.

American Traffic Solutions (ATS) has commissioned a cost-benefit analysis the results of which it claims show the direct economic savings to communities that result from using red-light safety cameras at dangerous intersections. The analysis was carried out by John Dunham and Associates, an economic research firm specialising in economic and fiscal impact studies.

Car insurance made cheaper by telematics has returned to news headlines in the UK this year. Will it really take off this time and can vehicle tracking provide an effective tool for enforcing or encouraging insurance compliance? Jon Masters reports Will 2012 go down as the year that telematics-based car insurance took off? In the UK at least, a groundswell of new policies, with premiums priced on the basis of tracked and analysed driving style, suggests a turning point has been reached. Some would argue t

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has signed into law a bipartisan bill that requires all convicted drunk drivers to use ignition interlocks on their vehicles to prevent future offences. Missouri is the 17th US state to mandate this requirement. Beginning in October 2013, the new law requires first-time drunk driving offenders use an interlock for 75 days. If the interlock shows a vibolation during this period of restricted driving privilege, the person's license will not be reinstated until they complete an addi

An innovative electronic vehicle registration system is being rolled out across Bangkok in Thailand, with road safety and speed enforcement the principal aims Equipment contracts and partnerships relating to a system of electronic vehicle registration (EVR) have been forming in Bangkok over the past couple of years. EVR can be applied to tackle a broad range of problems for transport authorities, including tax evasion, crime and insurance fraud. For Thailand’s Department of Land Transport (DLT), its EVR sy