Single device as multiple solution provider

Improving safety continues to be the number one driving force behind enforcement solutions, combined with the global challenge to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads. The constant advancement of technology is seen in all walks of life and the enforcement market is certainly not isolated from this.

The use of digital cameras has constantly been on the increase since many years now. The cameras are used everywhere – right from smart phones to quality control in the manufacturing industry. Combine this with the increase of on-board processing power and the expansion of video analytics and machine vision and it becomes clear why this is proving beneficial to the traffic enforcement market. Police and road authorities are now able to enforce more types of traffic offences from a single device, whilst at the same time recording the number plate of every passing vehicle.

This technology and market evolution back-drop provided the ideal conditions for Siemens to invest in and develop its latest generation of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and enforcement platform. Sicore II builds upon Siemens’ Sicore ANPR product that was launched in 2010 and had met with market success around the world. Along the way, it gained important approvals in numerous markets including the UK Home Office and Dutch NMi for average speed enforcement.

Historically, it has been common for different enforcement applications to use different technology platforms. Sicore II changes this and provides a common platform to provide road user charging and city tolling solution, low emission zones, average speed enforcement and civil enforcement, such as yellow box enforcement.

‘Yellow Box Junction’ (YBJ) and ‘Don’t Block the Box’ (DBTB) enforcement

On both sides of the Atlantic, the requirement to enforce YBJ or DBTB is gaining momentum. Many local authorities in the UK are asking why YBJ is only allowed to be enforced inside London?

In the US, the DBTB enforcement topic is increasingly being legislated for on the basis of “Vision Zero” with a particular focus on pedestrian and cyclist safety. The safety of pedestrians, especially when vehicles block the intersection and, the cross-walk in particular, is a key focus for many. From recent evidence on a project in the US, this was reinforced by the traffic blocking much of the entire intersection, thereby creating over 1,000 contraventions in a single week. A mother and daughter in a pushchair were narrowly missed by a motorist who, when blocking the intersection, decided to reverse out of the box on red without observing the mother on the cross walk behind him. Blocking a box, intersection or junction is dangerous. It creates network inefficiency and arguably more pollution irrespective of the city or country the drivers find themselves in.