Enforcement

The Southcote Lane site in the UK town of Reading is a notorious shortcut for motorists travelling into the town centre. The resultant congestion at the end of the bus lane, when motorists tried to re-enter the main traffic flow, caused congestion and disruption to bus timetables. Reading Borough Council wanted a cost-efficient, effective solution to accurately capture bus lane violations and improve bus travel times. Reading became the first local authority in the UK to deploy Siemens's LaneHawk fully auto

Two reckless speedsters were caught having a road a race in Western Australia by a Vitronic PoliScanspeed camera, the company reports. The speed measuring system revealed they were 105 kph (65 mph) and 117 kph (73 mph) above the official speed limit. The two were sentenced to high fines and long-term suspension of their driver licenses.

Chile's Ministry of Transport has reported that the number of cars using bus lanes reserved for Transantiago buses has fallen by 46 per cent as a result of the cameras that have been installed along the public transport system. Incidents of cars using lanes reserved for Solo Bus vehicles have fallen by 73 per cent, which equates to an overall reduction of 60 per cent on average. This has enabled the buses on the system to travel 24 per cent faster. Transantiago plans to increase the number of cameras from 1

Q-Free has announced revenues of US$21.11 million during the first quarter 2012 compared to US$29.66 million in the corresponding quarter in 2011, while order intake came in at $44.29 million, $6.45 million more than in previous quarter and $2.96 million more than in Q1-2011, reflecting, the company says, that its general optimism regarding demand is well grounded.

McCain has announced the successful use of its QuicNet advanced traffic management system (ATMS) central control technology by the city of Carlsbad, in California, to identify the illicit use of red light preemptive technology. Using QuicNet, the city was able to identify how, when and where the illegal use was taking place.

German company Vitronic and its subsidiary Vitronic Baltica together with the Latvian company SIA Komerccentrs DATI Grupa have won a tender for 130 speed enforcement systems to be deployed throughout Latvia. 100 systems will be operated in 160 stationary housings, while 30 units will be used for mobile speed enforcement.

Optotraffic has entered into a contract with Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, to provide a complete automated speed enforcement programme in a school zone on state highway 261. Town officials say they are responding to a long-standing issue of speeding in the resort town. “We selected Optotraffic because it is a well known Maryland company that uses an innovative technology, capable of enforcing in two directions simultaneously with only one piece of equipment,” said James L. Parent Jr., town administrator.

In the context of a wider relationship between Safran and Finmeccanica, Morpho (Safran group) and Selex Elsag (Finmeccanica Group) have signed a “Partnership Framework Agreement” for development of commercial and industrial operations in the field of road enforcement and safety equipment which could lead to a joint venture.

Tests of a new drug testing kit are now being carried out by the police. A number of parallel trials are being carried out of the kits, which can detect a number of illegal drugs. The kits are manufactured in the UK and are already supplied to police forces in Australia and Italy, where they have been used successfully for some time. Should the UK trials prove successful the kits will be introduced across the country during early 2012.

Sweden-headquartered Sensys Traffic working in a consortium with Armenian companies Security Dream and Ellips GA and has announced that Security Dream has signed a build-operate-transfer contract with the Armenian police force for a national traffic monitoring system for 25 years.