Vehicles that park in the bus lane “a short time”, as the drivers usually apologize, are exposed from May to being fined for a car equipped with the latest technology that will spend the day traveling the lanes reserved for public transport to hunt offenders. As of today, it will be seen from an hour away, with eye-catching white and red vinyl, without any kind of camouflage, despite the fact that for the first two months it will work on a trial basis and without fines.
Both private vehicles parked in the bus lane and vans carrying out loading and unloading tasks will be subject to a financial penalty. Motorcycles – and some cars – that tend to slip into the moving bus lane will not, for now, receive any fines. In this case they may be sanctioned by the officers of the Guardia Urbana, as is the case now, although there is a rather generous wide sleeve.
In the new vehicle, two cameras installed on the roof make it possible, on the one hand, to read the number plate of the offending vehicle and, on the other hand, to read the context to technically ensure that the car or van in question is stopped in a lane bus and do not make a turn or merge maneuver from a service lane or a similar situation. The technological system is the same one used by a vehicle of the Metropolitan Area of ??Barcelona (AMB) to control cars that circulate without a label in the low-emission zone.
The invention brings back to the scene a class of sanctioning vehicle that began in 2004 and operated until 2012. At that time it was in charge of the Urban Guard. It is now in the hands of Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), who will go in pairs in the vehicle without the need for any police on board after the delegation of sanctioning powers to TMB through a mayoral decree signed by the mayor of Barcelona , Jaume Collboni, who gives the go-ahead to an agreement signed by the City Council and the public company in 2021 and which had not been developed until now.
In the new car, there will be an employee of the public transport company driving and another managing the tablet with which detected violations are channeled, both automatically and manually. From the device, the data is sent to the Municipal Institute of Finance so that the corresponding fine is issued, which will range between 60 and 200 euros, depending on whether the driver is inside or has left the vehicle parked.
The car, a 100% electric Nissan Leaf with the explicit indication “Bus lane photo control”, will circulate through the streets of the city following a pre-planned route. Aware that with only one vehicle it is impossible to include the 221.8 kilometers of bus lanes in the Catalan capital, the scope of action will focus on the areas where a higher level of non-compliance has been detected regulations In this way, TMB hopes to improve the commercial speed of the bus, one of the drawbacks of this means of transport that makes it less attractive due to its slowness in certain areas of the city.
Stricter control of respect for the bus lane is precisely one of the historical demands of the driving staff. In addition to affecting the speed of the bus, cars parked in the lane reserved for public transport force drivers to carry out maneuvers with vehicles of 12 or 18 meters to avoid those who have decided to stop where they cannot. In this sense, the CEO of TMB, Xavier Flores, rejects any collection effort and points out that the incorporation of the photo control car “improves road safety and reduces accidents”.
All in all, the proposal of a single car going around Barcelona is far from the measure implemented in New York, where the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has installed penalty cameras on the fronts of 623 buses that cover 21 routes for fine cars that block bus lanes from the same vehicle. From May, motorists who block the passage will also begin to be fined.