Skip to main content

New hand-held technology to bolster traffic enforcement in South Africa

Provincial Traffic Officers in South Africa have been issued with new hand-held devices by the Department of Transport and Public Works as a fast, information-verifying tool that will assist enforcement. These devices have been entirely developed and tested over the past two years by the Department and will be in operation across the Western Cape; a first of its kind in South Africa.
December 22, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

Provincial Traffic Officers in South Africa have been issued with new hand-held devices by the Department of Transport and Public Works as a fast, information-verifying tool that will assist enforcement.

These devices have been entirely developed and tested over the past two years by the Department and will be in operation across the Western Cape; a first of its kind in South Africa.

The devices allow traffic officers real-time access to the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera system, which is linked to the eNaTIS database where all vehicle and driver information is stored.

The cameras read  the number plate of a passing vehicle, immediately relaying details of that vehicle’s make, class, registration status, roadworthy status, offences, warrants, and ownership to a central back office. This information can then immediately be relayed via a 3G link back to traffic officers in the field, positioned close to the ANPR, allowing them to stop a vehicle that has been flagged by the device for having offences attached to it.

The device also allows traffic officers to scan and read vehicle licence discs and drivers licences to verify their authenticity, as well as to pull information relating to past offences and possible warrants of arrest.

The system will also serve as an information gathering tool for traffic management component, assisting the Department to plan resource deployment better in areas where it is needed most.

Related Content

  • Measuring the effectiveness of winter VMS
    August 5, 2013
    A survey into the effectiveness of weather-related variable message signs on a trans-mountain highway has some interesting results, as Alexis Bacelar told ITS Europe. A study in the Massif Central region of France evaluating the usefulness of winter weather warning signs has highlighted the effect of variable message signs on driver behaviour. During the winter of 2009-2010, road operator Massif Central Direction Interdépartementale des Routes (MC DIR) started installing bad weather-specific variable messag
  • Standardised technology aids low cost wireless communication
    November 13, 2012
    In the UK, the necessary radio spectrum has been identified and standardised technology developed to allow cost effective wireless communication between cars, devices and other ‘machines’. This by Professor William Webb. A world free of traffic congestion, with intelligent systems directing vehicles and alerting drivers to free parking spaces may sound a far off fantasy to motorists stuck in seemingly endless queues on the outskirts of London. Yet this is a scenario not confined to the world of science fict
  • Smart phones offer smarter way to pay for travel
    December 16, 2013
    David Crawford reviews developments in near field communications for mass transit payments. ‘A carefully-designed and well-implemented mobile near field communications (NFC) solutions can give passengers a compelling experience that will encourage them to make greater use of public transport.’ That was the confident conclusion of a recent joint White Paper drawn up by the International Association of Public Transport and the global mobile operators’ representative group GSMA.
  • Traffic enforcement driving ANPR growth: report
    February 10, 2015
    According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research, Automatic Number Plate Recognition Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020, the automatic number plate recognition market globally is forecast to reach US$1,023.2 million by 2020. The key factors driving the growth of this market include increased adoption in traffic enforcement and surveillance applications and increasing trend of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) integrati