Skip to main content

Videalert enforces low traffic neighbourhoods

ANPR cameras used to issue fines to drivers without relevant residents' parking permit
By Adam Hill January 20, 2021 Read time: 2 mins
Videalert: keeping an eye on out-of-borough motorists

Videalert's CCTV enforcement cameras are being used to monitor temporary vehicle restriction zones in London.

Low traffic neighbourhood schemes have become prevalent in the UK capital, but the knock-on effect is of motorists 'rat ranning' through streets to avoid closures and restrictions.

In the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, around 92% of traffic in the area came from people who live outside the borough, leading to a six-month trial closure of Harwood Terrace.

Now nine Videalert cameras are capturing the licence plates of motorists using this and several surrounding roads - and if they do not hold a valid Hammersmith and Fulham residents' parking permit, then fines are issued.

As well as reducing traffic and improving bus transit times, the council hopes the scheme will reduce noise, air pollution and vehicle emissions in line with its climate emergency strategy.  

The ONVIF-compliant HD cameras capture high-quality images to minimise discard-rates and help reduce the number of appeals, Videalert says.

There is an ‘exempt list’ of permitted vehicles including buses, taxis, emergency services, refuse trucks and council service vehicles. 

A similar scheme was introduced last year by London's Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, utilising Videalert’s hosted digital video platform and cameras at five locations to enforce moving traffic offences such as no entry pedestrian zones, box junctions, banned turns and one-ways. 

Elsewhere in the UK, Salford City Council last year installed Videalert CCTV enforcement cameras to capture vehicles parking on 'keep clear' markings outside schools when children are arriving at, and leaving, the premises.

In a three-year deal, cameras have initially been installed at four schools where irresponsible parking has been identified as a major safety risk - the first such roll-out in the Greater Manchester region, the company says.

Videalert's solution automates the capture of video evidence and number plates of vehicles stopping in keep clear zones without any manual intervention, using video analytics to only capture vehicles that actually commit an offence by being stationary in a defined ‘watch area’ and exceed the ’watch time’.  

Related Content

  • February 2, 2012
    Making the case for ALPR in enforcement
    Federal Signal's Brian Shockley uses examples from around the world to make the case for the greater use of automatic license plate recognition technology in the US. It is time, he says, to consider the possibilities of a national network and the use of average speed enforcement
  • June 7, 2016
    Southampton City Council deploys bus lane enforcement solution
    Southampton City Council in the UK is introducing CCTV enforcement of bus lanes in key areas of the city using Videalert’s DfT Manufacturer Certified hosted solution. The new fixed bus lane cameras will go live on 20 June 2016. The Videalert solution has been procured through Balfour Beatty Living Places (BBLP) which has a ten-year contract to manage all highway infrastructure assets on behalf of Southampton City Council. Videalert’s hosted platform does not require any hardware or software to be i
  • July 23, 2012
    Is road user charging the first stop for congestion management?
    David Hytch, Information Systems Director at the Greater Manchester Public Transport Executive, considers just where congestion pricing schemes should sit in transport planners' hierarchy of options for managing demand. On the face of it, Greater Manchester in England's proposed congestion charging scheme hit just about every sweet spot possible when it came to convincing the general public of the need for and benefits of such a venture. There was the promise from national government of almost £3bn-worth of
  • December 21, 2016
    Videalert automates rising bollards at UK university
    A Videalert CCTV-based ANPR system has been installed at the University of Hertfordshire to control rising bollards at two main entrances to the De Havilland Campus at Hatfield. The installation has been completed by Eurovia Infrastructure (a Vinci Group Company) on behalf of Ringway, a provider of highway maintenance services to local authorities under the seven-year Hertfordshire Term Contract. The new system will provide a safe pedestrian area within the busy campus which houses over 2700 members of st