Barcelona has recovered, after more than ten years, the car that sanctions violators who park in the bus lane. After a period of two months in the testing phase, the Transports Municipals de Barcelona (TMB) car has already fined drivers who stop in the lane reserved for the bus since May 8, a measure aimed at improving the flow of traffic in the city.
This car, a Nissan Leaf, a 100% electric vehicle, is easily identifiable by its distinctive white and red color, as well as by being labeled with the inscription “Bus Lane Photo Control.” Another characteristic aspect is the box attached to the ceiling, equipped with cameras inside, which constitutes the tool used to identify offenders. It does not go unnoticed by citizens, who can detect its presence from a distance.
Until the entry into force of the new regulations that allow violators to be punished with fines of between 60 and 200 euros, the vehicle caught an average of 60 violations daily, according to the Barcelona Urban Guard when announcing the end of the testing phase. and the beginning of the sanctioning regime. Although there are more than 100 kilometers of bus lanes in the city, the car preferably circulates in those areas where more cases of improper parking have been detected, in response to a historical claim by bus drivers.
This car is not the only vehicle equipped with cameras that the citizens of Barcelona can see patrolling the streets in search of offenders. In addition to this Nissan Leaf, the authorities have deployed a fleet of other vehicles equipped with similar systems to guarantee compliance with traffic regulations in Barcelona. These are the cars that penalize drivers who park improperly in the blue and green areas.
The fleet of Barcelona Serveis Municipals (B:SM) vehicles in charge of controlling these parking areas is made up of eight examples of the Nissan Leaf model. Like the car that drives along the bus lane in search of offenders, these cars are easily identifiable, not so much by the color -white-, but by the signs on the sides and, above all, by the cameras they carry. in two trunks placed on the roof of the vehicle.
Each car has two surrounding cameras to record the place where the vehicles are parked and two other license plate reading cameras. They patrol every day in two shifts within a time slot that goes from 8 in the morning to 8 in the afternoon and they do so preferably in the peripheral neighborhoods of Barcelona. According to sources from B:SM, the company in charge of management, they supervise a total of 63,000 regulated parking spaces.
The operation of the ‘multacars’ is simple and follows the same pattern: cars equipped with cameras capture the license plates of parked vehicles. This information is sent online to a central system that verifies whether the vehicle has a valid ticket or authorization to be parked. If the vehicle is unauthorized, images are sent to the central system and then to a room at B:SM headquarters for further verification.
If the check confirms that the vehicle is unauthorized, the evidence is sent to a parking meter officer. This agent travels on a motorcycle to the place where the vehicle is parked and reads the license plate again to check if the vehicle is still unauthorized. If you do not have the necessary authorization, then a fine is issued.
B:SM sources indicate that in 2023, vehicles operating in the SER zones of Barcelona carried out 3.2 million license plate readings. Of this, 330,000 pieces of evidence reached the motorists, who filed 66,000 complaints.
This system has also been implemented in other cities in Spain, such as Madrid, Valencia and Seville, where ‘multacars’ play an important role in parking management and traffic regulation. In Madrid, this system has gained notable relevance due to its notable deployment in recent years, after an initial period in the testing phase that began in 2015.
These vehicles, manufactured by the Deltacar company, are part of the Regulated Parking Service (SER) and are responsible for patrolling paid parking areas to identify license plates and detect infractions such as parking without a ticket or overtime. These cars are equipped with 16 overhead cameras that cover a 360-degree radius and, thanks to their infrared rays, can also issue fines at night.
On the other hand, the Madrid City Council has also implemented another type of camera control vehicles called SACE (Parking Control Support Service), operated by the Municipal Transport Company (EMT). These vehicles have the specific mission of finding and sanctioning vehicles improperly parked in bus lanes, thus ensuring that these spaces reserved for public transport remain free of obstructions and improving the flow of traffic in the city.
