Technology is a helper
Machine learning (ML) has been one of the hottest topic of these years. Countless start-up companies using the ML have seen seen the light of the day in the last couple of years. MTA might be slow, but when it takes action, it considers many aspects of its operational part. This includes the average speed of buses across town. Or to be more precise, the factors which have adverse effects on the public transit. Bus lane violators are such a factor.
60 day period
Starting from October 7, 2019 MTA has started to test an automatic system that identifies bus lane perpetrators. For two months, the system is warning the owners of abandoned (read parked) vehicles that hamper the bus lane traffic. The idea is to raise the general public awareness about the importance of the public transit.
Over that period of time, MTA has collected 15000 individual license plates on just two major bus axes. This is huge. The equivalent figure for the whole city of New York would be several orders of magnitude higher. Thousands and thousands of cars force the buses to take evasive maneuver, slow down or even stop, thus leading to a decrease of the quality of the public transit network.
Progressive fines
Since December 6, 2019 the system is operational. The same license plate will be subject to an increasingly higher fine over the 12 month period from the first incident: each time the fine will go up by $50, up to the maximal value of $250. This is not a cash cow for the city, just a deterrent.
The video below is explaining the reasons of putting in place the automatic bus lane enforcement.
Procedure
The buses are equipped with front cameras. They take picture of the license plate of the cars who should not be on the bus lane. Interestingly, as the video explains, the procedure will be enforced only during morning and afternoon peek hours. It is expected that other towns will follow New York’s application of modern technology for a better public transit experience.
The best part of it ? No need for a real time feed. The images can be downloaded from the bus at the end of the day. This could be implemented in large and small communities in the same way.
The Spline 