Vigilans looks to sensors and big data to replace bollards

You might think that a static metal or concrete bollard would be a cheap way of marking off a restricted area or car park. But it can cost up to €30,000 to install a bollard. And costs continue to be incurred, as bollards will typically be damaged by vehicles five or six times in a year. In fact, it is five times cheaper to install a camera and link it to licence plate-reading software and a ‘white list’ of vehicles that are allowed to enter the restricted area, says Erik Dijkshoorn, director of Vigilans, w
April 6, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
You might think that a static metal or concrete bollard would be a cheap way of marking off a restricted area or car park.


But it can cost up to €30,000 to install a bollard. And costs continue to be incurred, as bollards will typically be damaged by vehicles five or six times in a year.

In fact, it is five times cheaper to install a camera and link it to licence plate-reading software and a ‘white list’ of vehicles that are allowed to enter the restricted area, says Erik Dijkshoorn, director of Vigilans, which handles the training of municipal authorities or companies that buy the camera system.

Vigilans is owned by 2114 ARS Traffic & Transport Technology, which sells or leases these camera systems and creates the relevant software. There are around 7000 bollards in the Netherlands and ARS believes that 80-90% of them will be replaced with cameras in the next four years.

“It’s all about big data now, and sensors,” says Dijkshoorn. “A camera system is a type of sensor and, in future, governments will buy data.” Vigilans and ARS are in talks with several countries over purchasing their system.

Related Content

  • June 15, 2022
    Jenoptik measures out the future
    The speed of tech changes means Jenoptik is redrawing how it sees itself. Adam Hill catches up with Stefan Traeger and Kevin Chevis at Intertraffic Amsterdam to find out more about ‘extended reality’…
    Read More
  • June 17, 2016
    Joining old and new in Canada’s Highway 407
    David Arminas visits Canada’s Highway 407 ETR to see how the concession is working and hear about new arrangements for the roadway’s extension. The Toronto region is North America’s eighth largest metropolitan area and its roads become notoriously congested. In 1997 Highway 407, a 68km concrete toll motorway which skirts the northern edge of Toronto, was opened and initially operated by the province and CHIC - a consortium of four leading Ontario-based companies. Finance came from the Ontario Financing Auth
    Read More
  • August 21, 2018
    Big wheels keep on turnin’
    Many of the great and the good in the global mobility sector gathered at this year’s Movin’ On event in Montreal. Measured regulation of technologies and safety issues were major themes, reports David Arminas. *Bibendum is the original name for the Michelin Man, the symbol of the Michelin tyre company Autonomous vehicles, platooning, smart intersections and safety – these were the talking points over two-and-a-half days of the Movin’ On event in Montreal, Canada. Everyone in the mobility sector is at the
    Read More
  • December 3, 2012
    Machine vision standards definition moves forward with establishment of new forum
    The new Future Standards Forum will homogenise standards develop in the machine vision and partnering sectors. Here, machine vision industry experts discuss developments. By Jason Barnes At the Vision Show, which took place in Stuttgart at the beginning of November, the European Machine Vision Association, the US’s Automated Imaging Association and the Japan Industrial Imaging Association (JIIA) established a joint initiative, the Future Standards Forum (FSF). This, said the EMVA’s President Toni Ventura, a
    Read More

Highlighted Content