Britain’s streets are more crowded than ever — and for once we’re not talking
about the traffic. Drive anywhere in the country and you will be observed by
speed cameras, traffic-monitoring cameras, traffic-flow sensors, CCTV
cameras, automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras, bus lane cameras,
parking cameras and, in London, congestion charge cameras.
Tony Blair claimed last month that plans to introduce road user charging were
not about creating a Big Brother state. No wonder: with all those cameras
and sensors, it’s already here. There are now 36 safety camera partnerships
operating cameras at 6,000 sites across Britain. Local authorities have
taken over control of parking from the police in many areas and an
increasing number are using cameras to help boost revenue.
Fines have soared. Motorists outside London last year paid out an average of
£275,000 per day in parking fines and the number of fines rose by a fifth
between 2005 and 2006. Across England income from parking charges (including
fees, fines and clamping) has risen from £638.5m in 1997 to more than £1
billion and speed cameras now fine about 2m drivers each year.
Legislative changes and rapid developments in computer, radar and camera
technology have paved the way for an ever more sophisticated armoury of
automated spyware. Digital cameras make it possible for new-style speed
cameras to store thousands of images. The cost of replacing film in
old-style Gatsos meant that drivers stood a sporting chance. Only one in
four were “live”. No longer: the latest cameras work round the clock.
ANPR cameras can match registration plates against Driver and Vehicle
Licensing Agency records to enable Transport for London to charge motorists
£8 per day to enter the centre of the capital. Police can use the same
cameras — in vehicles or in conjunction with fixed CCTV cameras — to search
the police national computer and insurance company databases to catch
uninsured or unlicensed drivers.
Cameras can now be used to fine motorists who jump red lights, who drive the
wrong way down a one-way street or perform illegal U-turns. And legislation
is currently going through parliament that will enable local authorities
across England to use cameras to police yellow box junctions. Those who get
caught sitting in a stationary vehicle on the yellow grid will be fined.
Such cameras are already being used in several London boroughs.
Road user charging could add yet more roadside spies, with the authorities
already testing “tag and beacon” systems using giant roadside gantries
fitted with microwave transmitters that read an electronic device in your
car. And of course even more cameras.
Vehicles could even be fitted with “black boxes” in future to record times and
locations of journeys to enable the government to charge drivers by the
mile. Some drivers have even signed up voluntarily to have their journeys
monitored as part of a pay-as-you-go insurance service from Norwich Union.
Britain is now the most spied upon nation in the free world, according to the
results of a study by the government’s privacy watchdog, published in The
Sunday Times in October. The report found people were caught on a national
network of 4.2m CCTV cameras an average 300 times a day.
The biggest difficulty for motorists is keeping track of the escalating number
of devices — at the roadside, on overhead gantries, lampposts and poles or
embedded in road surfaces — and knowing when they are being watched. But the
answer is increasingly simple: always.
In January Home Office documents revealed controversial plans to introduce
x-ray cameras. These would be fitted to street furniture at key security
sites to take x-ray images that would reveal whether passers-by were
carrying weapons in bags or under clothing.
The growing number of wireless broadband networks springing up in towns and
cities is adding to the confusion and clutter, with radio transmitters also
appearing on lampposts. More than 100 Wi-Fi devices have gone up in the City
of London in the past few weeks in preparation for the launch of a broadband
service next month.
Of course many people will welcome these developments and many of the devices
now lining our road network can help motorists by offering information on
traffic conditions, accidents, weather conditions and hold-ups. But so
bewildering is their number and variety few drivers are likely to be able to
distinguish friend from foe. The gallery of pictures shown here demonstrates
the problem.
Directs gantries
These 25ft steel structures near Leeds are part of a government study testing
technology that could be used for road charging. Directs is an acronym for
Demonstration of Interoperable Road-User End-to-End Charging and Telematics
Systems
Cyclops
Tested near Edinburgh and between Leeds and Bradford, these cameras are
designed to catch commuters who cheat their way into car-sharing lanes by
travelling with a shop dummy or blow-up doll. Such a lane is to be trialled
on the M1 next year. Cyclops uses two frequencies of infrared to identify
human skin by the way it reflects light
Multi-camera system
Dubbed “super-Gatso”, this device can monitor four lanes of motorway and its
three digital cameras can hold up to 60,000 images. Not currently installed
in Britain, it can take a picture of the rear of a car, like a conventional
Gatso, or the front (to identify the driver) — even at night
Road user charging beacons
Transport for London is conducting a road user charging trial in Southwark
involving 500 vehicles equipped with tags that can be picked up by 21
gantries fitted with cameras and electronic beacons
Trafficmaster sensors Infrared devices on 1,100 motorway bridges and
gantries. They help drivers avoid jams
Trafficmaster cameras Great news — these are not speed cameras. Located
at 3,000 sites across Britain they measure traffic flow. Trafficmaster, a
private firm, sells data on hold-ups to sat nav companies
Specs cameras Catch drivers who think they can slow down before a
camera and then speed up again. They measure average speed between two
points. There are 60 Specs sites on urban 20mph zones and motorway
contraflows around Britain
Gatso cameras The original, first tested in Britain in 1992. There are
now thousands of these yellow boxes across the country using radar beams to
measure speed, and the word Gatso has become a generic term for speed camera
Truvelo cameras These can prove who was driving the vehicle and thus
prevent drivers trying to fob off their points onto somebody else. Unlike
traditional Gatso cameras, the 700 Truvelos on UK roads face oncoming
traffic to snap the vehicle and driver
Truvelo D-Cam Two traps for the price of one. Now on test on the A4 in
London, this is the first to act as both a traffic light camera and a speed
camera. The £30,000 digital system can store 100,000 images. More are
expected on UK roads later this year
Parking/bus lane cameras CCTV installed by some authorities in London
and other major cities to take the place of wardens. They watch for
illegally parked vehicles and car drivers who use bus lanes
BelAir200 These boxes on lampposts in the City of London are not
spyware but part of a Wi-Fi zone going live in April. At least 14 urban
centres, including Manchester and Birmingham, have similar systems
Traffic light cameras These catch drivers jumping red lights by using
radar or sensors in the road. An increasing number of local authorities are
installing them, including ones in London, Essex, Somerset, Bristol and
south Wales
Yellow box junction cameras Currently only in London although
legislation now going through parliament will allow other local authorities
to install them to catch drivers contravening yellow hatching rules
Highways Agency cameras The agency’s 700 cameras monitor traffic flow
on motorways and trunk roads. They relay images to regional control centres
and the national centre in Birmingham. The information is used to warn
drivers of jams and accidents
Congestion charging cameras There are now 338 automatic numberplate
recognition cameras across the London congestion zone, which stretches from
Kensington and Chelsea in the west to Tower Hill in the east
