Road safety – Bus lanes still under video surveillance –

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Bus tracks still under video surveillance

Road safety - Bus lanes still under video surveillance -

RATP, in collaboration with the Paris Police Prefecture, is continuing its video surveillance experiment to photograph the front and rear plates of vehicles on the bus lanes. Report on line 38.

Bus line 38, which crosses Paris from Porte d’Orleans to Gare du Nord, is traditionally the "pilot" line on which RATP tests its new functions and new equipment..

And since the end of 2003, the experiment in progress consists in equipping the buses with video cameras (one at the front and the other at the rear) to monitor the traffic in the bus lanes and to immortalize, if necessary, the front plate – and back! – unwanted vehicles. Remember that only taxis, bicycles and the like and … buses are allowed to circulate in the bus lanes! The unwanted are therefore delivery men, motorized two-wheelers, private coaches and (rare) private cars..

These digital cameras, although discreet, are easily spotted: one is attached to the front of the bus, at the top right of the windshield in relation to the driver (photo 1) and the other on the rear window, too. on the right side of the road (photo 2). They are both actuated by a button soberly covered with Velcro (photo 3). They should not be confused with internal video surveillance cameras, which allow the exchange to monitor what is happening inside the bus. However, it should be noted that RATP and Thalès have just signed a contract for the supply, within 18 months, of 5,500 color cameras (including 1,300 with an audio device), 1,300 digital recorders, 1,400 removable hard disks and 220 screens for machinists…

Currently in Paris, only 17 buses of line 38 (which has 28) are equipped with exterior cameras. When they were installed at the end of 2003, the drivers received a "quick 5-minute training session on the operation of the device". But following strong union protests – "our job is to drive a bus, not to help the police to issue a ticket", "never in my life will I press this button", "we are not under Petain", "I support that when it is the cops who stopper!", one can notably hear, even today, at the depot of the Porte d’Orleans -, the RATP has put a little water in its rose.

Triggering the camera is therefore simply "optional", and seems to be used only in cases where the offender really shows unwillingness. "I have 80 people on board in a hurry, who pay to get to their destination," explains one of the drivers interviewed by Moto-Net. "When a delivery man who prevents us from passing apologizes and hurries, I let it go. But when he gives me an arm of honor or shows me that he doesn’t give a damn, no problem: I trigger the picture !" Except, of course, when the delivery man hides his plate with the side of his truck…

What about motorcycles? "Motorcycles are different", explains Olivier, "17 years of 38" to his credit: "they never block our way, except for extremely rare exceptions like a courier who is lazy to get on the sidewalk … problem with motorized two-wheelers is that they tend to squeeze to the right or left of the stationary bus, when passengers get off and want to cross. I always take a look in my mirrors and if I ‘see one coming, I honk to warn the pedestrian. I am a biker myself and if I had any advice for you it would be to ride really slowly in the bus lanes. Even if it is true that the the scooters are often more excited … I can no longer count the number of scoots that I have seen fit into a bus shelter, a kiosk, a red light or squarely under my bus … In fact, it is more the bikes that jam us, because because of the narrowing of the bus lanes at each traffic light, we are often forced to stay behind "(photo 3).

In short, if it seems clear that most Parisian motorcyclists will continue to use the bus lanes when the rest of the road is congested, simply for the sake of time, fluidity and safety, no offense to the "green ayatollahs "(© FFMC, read) of the City of Paris, we have every interest in being discreet! All the more so as other drivers questioned by Moto-Net are downright opposed to our presence, just like that of taxis, bicycles or other rollerblades: "bus lanes are for buses! We already have enough responsibilities like that without anyone coming and breaking our hearts …! And it’s a biker who tells you! "

Good. But once the photo is taken by the driver, what happens? There, things get tough … By comparison, getting a detailed plan of the Pentagon’s secret bases would be a piece of cake, just good to keep a young trainee journalist busy! "No idea", explain in chorus the drivers questioned by Moto-Net. "I’m not the one taking care of it," assures the maintenance manager at the Porte d’Orleans depot. "I can’t tell you," apologizes the head of line 38, "but we have enough drivers pushing the button to have a good database to tap into"…

There is only one certainty: no verbalization is currently carried out, the device still being "on trial". According to our information, however, it would seem that it is the Prefecture itself which "regularly" sends its agents to recover the hard disks stored in the buses and managed by the security department of the RATP, "between once a night and once a week".

To do what ? "See if it works, if the images are sharp enough and if the shooting distance is well adjusted, in order to possibly be able to fully automate the system and generalize it to all the lines in clean site". Because the ultimate goal, if the tests are conclusive, is to fully automate the process, with receipt of the ticket directly at home as with automatic speed cameras..

Finally, always according to our information, know that the optimal shooting distance of the cameras is currently 30 to 40 meters at the front and at the back of the bus, with a technical impossibility of photographing a closer two-wheeler and located on the left side of the bus lane.

And at home, how is it going? Are bikers still tolerated on the bus routes in Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Geneva, Brussels ?

Eric MICHEL

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