Bath and North East Somerset Council (B&NES Council) is to deploy a new electric mobile enforcement vehicle (MEV) to enforce a range of civil traffic contraventions across the district.
The multi-tasking vehicle will use a CCTV enforcement platform from Videalert to manage digital resident parking permit zones, for keep clears outside schools, bus stops and bus lanes, to carry out traffic surveys, and monitor and enforce a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) in the city of Bath, which is expected to go live in early 2021.
Chris Major, group manager for transport and parking at B&NES Council, said: “Videalert’s hosted video platform is multi-purpose and allows us to quickly and easily extend the reach of our enforcement activities.
“We can now use fixed and mobile CCTV enforcement cameras mounted on electric MEVs, both cars and bikes, enabling us to achieve compliance whilst demonstrating that we are serious about driving through clean air initiatives.”
The batter-electric MEV is a Peugeot 208e with a 47kW battery giving a range of 170-200 miles from a full charge. The car is fitted with a full suite of traffic enforcement and management software, including two roof-mounted Stingray modules installed front and rear, each with two ANPR cameras and upgraded infra-red lighting, to accurately capture images of reflective number plates at distances of up to 40m.
According to Videalert, number plate read rates of over 98% can be achieved with vehicles being driven at normal road speeds and includes a full colour overview module to capture contextual images of contraventions.
Images of contraventions are transmitted to a hosted digital video platform where evidence packs can be viewed and validated prior to sending to the council’s back office system for the issuance of penalty charge notices (PCNs). And to reduce the number of appeals, PCN recipients can view still photographs and video footage of the alleged offence online.
When used to monitor and enforce Bath’s forthcoming Clean Air Zone, which will give exemptions to private cars and motorbikes but charge higher polluting buses, coaches, HGVs, LGVs/vans, private hire vehicles and taxis, the electric MEV will capture number plates and compare them with those that have been captured by the perimeter static cameras.
If the same vehicle is captured multiple times on the same day only one file is processed before being transferred to the central government’s systems for determining compliance and processing payment.
