The next generation of enforcement cameras will have powers above and beyond recording straightforward speeding offences.
The so-called ASSET cameras now under development will be able to record five common traffic offences, ranging from speeding to tailgating, failure to display a valid tax disc, not having insurance or failing to wear a seatbelt.
That’s not all either. Technology is also under development that can even record whether your tyres and brakes are in safe and legal condition by measuring the heat signature with thermal imaging cameras.
This does address the common criticism that speed cameras are a blunt tool and can’t address many of the equally common – and potentially more dangerous – misdemeanours many motorists commit.
Currently ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras mounted by the road and in some Police cars can check whether a car is taxed, MOT’d or insured. And the traditional speed cameras are effective at catching speeding motorists.
But the new ASSET cameras, under development by a pan-European body of scientists and researchers, will be able to combine the roles of ANPR and speed cameras into one single unit.
Broadening the scope of enforcement cameras in this way does, it’s clear, help address the menace of uninsured drivers and those who persist in driving too close to the car in front.
Clearly law-abiding motorists have nothing to fear from the new cameras, due on test in 2013. But those fearing increased Big Brother style law enforcement may find this increased automation of traffic policing disturbing.
