The history of the development of an automated system for video recording of traffic violations
This is not the first time that materials published in «TZ» have evoked responses from readers.
This has often happened before. It is enough to recall the most interesting and noticed by the market controversy caused by Yuri Yurchenko's article «Integratio sapiens».
This trend not only continues, but also intensifies.
Therefore, from this issue onwards, all reader responses to «TZ» publications are «registered» in the new section of the magazine — «Resonance».
The first «Resonance» this year was caused by a note published in No. 6-2007, devoted to the prospects of creating an automated system for video recording of traffic violations in the Moscow region.
This is a very urgent problem, because in a few months the law on automatic recording of traffic violations «by technical means having the functions of photo and film shooting, video recording, or by means of photo and film shooting, video recording» will come into effect.
So, the floor is given to the experts.
Victor ANISIMOV, «New Technologies».
It's good that some progress has begun in this matter.
But not everything is as smooth as we would like.
Like any new business, the introduction of an automated system for video recording of traffic violations has its pros and cons.
The pros are obvious.
After all, it is becoming more and more difficult for traffic police officers to control current traffic flows every year.
As the number of cars on the roads increases, so does the number of violations.
Therefore, the introduction of an automated speed control system is very relevant.
The next plus: solid investments will come into the technical security equipment industry, which is ultimately a gratifying fact for many market participants, both manufacturers and specialists in installation organizations and related industries.
And finally, the experience of installing this large-scale project will certainly help companies developing systems for automatic identification of state registration plates of vehicles in their developments and search for new technologies.
But there may be problems.
For example, in case of unfavorable weather conditions, the problem of the cleanliness of the plate with the number will have to be solved.
The solution to this problem will certainly entail a whole tangle of other problems: organizational issues, legal aspects…
But the decision has been made. We will wait for the next step.
Alexander OSTROUMOV, ROSSI company
Recently, the phrase «safe city» has become fashionable.
Concepts are written, programs are developed, and it happens that individual administrations risk allocating funding for their implementation.
And what is this, «safe city»?
Here is the phrase «cozy home» more or less understandable and, for better or worse, implementable in practice, and therefore today it can already claim to become a professional term.
But the construction of a «safe city», judging by the article I read in the magazine «TZ», does not apply to the Moscow Region administration.
And, thank God.
We are talking about a regular video surveillance system, which (mostly theoretically, but also practically) contains all the advanced technologies developed by domestic and foreign scientists and engineers.
Discussions about creating «some kind of system» of video surveillance in the Moscow Region began back in the last century, the first projects were developed at the turn of the current century, and only by the end of the first decade did things move forward.
What is there to discuss?
It is necessary, it is very necessary!
Video recording of traffic violations means thousands of lives saved; the use of specialized systems means an increase in the level of safety for each of us; the construction of communication channels, information and analytical centers for individual advanced countries of the far abroad — that was the last century, but what about us?
A bad start?
Are we slow to get going and driving fast?
We'll probably just work and see.
And perhaps in the future, the phrase “safe area” will appear in technical literature.
In science, it’s a term, but in practice, it’s a truly safe area.
Igor OLEYNIK, DSSL company
Undoubtedly, installing video cameras to record violations is an effective measure.
As well as the automation of issuing fines for violations that these cameras can detect (for now, only speeding when combined with a radar, and possibly driving through a red light, if the system is competent) is realistic.
Moreover, with mass implementation, such a system could even potentially pay for itself through the fines collected.
Another thing is that the allocated money will only cover a very small number of such video cameras, since most of the pie will be eaten up by telecommunications (building a data transmission network), and without mass implementation, we can only talk about experiments.
If we talk about monitoring intersections, then, as was shown in a recent TV report about Odintsovo near Moscow, 30 video cameras will not provide the proper level of security or control.
But these first steps are very important and necessary.
So that all interested parties can ultimately understand that the desired effect can and will be achieved only by correctly installed video surveillance.
And we need to allocate much more funds to equip our roads with such systems.
For as Winston Churchill said: «You have to pay for security, and pay for its absence.»