Next for Victoria: point-to-point speed cameras at every light, facial recognition for cyclists, drones to monitor hoons: UPDATE
Australian traffic light manufacturer A1 Lighting and Road Solutions has pioneered a world-first point-to-point speed camera system built into a traffic light module, with the Federal Government announcing it will roll the technology out nationally from 2018.
The inbuilt system uses a host of sensors built into the red and green lights that monitor traffic flow and speed every 5ms, working across eight lanes of traffic. The data is then used to compare the time taken for the car to travel between traffic lights, with an infringement issued for any vehicles that exceed the speed limit by more than 0.2 per cent.
April Fuller, head of research and development at A1 Lighting and Road Solutions, told CarAdvice that the technology has the potential to drastically reduce the national road toll overnight.
"This new technology ensures that road users on bicycles and drivers in cars and trucks will be less likely to speed if they know their speed is being constantly monitored," Fuller said.
"We are utilising the National Broadband Network (NBN) to transport infringement data, which the government has agreed to roll out six months earlier to facilitate this new revenue stream."
Law-breaking cyclists will no longer have free reign over the road, with red light runners, speedsters and hooning cyclists also photographed with facial recognition technology matching faces to driver's licences. The only issue they have faced so far is cameras being dazzled by excess lycra.
Aprils also said that the technology has inbuilt GSM monitoring technology that can also issue an infringement when higher levels of GSM data are detected, reducing the incidence of mobile phone use at traffic lights.
The announcement comes on the same day Victoria Police announced that unmanned drones will be rolled out across Victoria to combat the high levels of gang and stolen vehicle activity.
The drones feature inbuilt high-definition cameras and speed monitoring capability to ensure that zero tolerance speed enforcement can be policed without wasting police resources.
Victoria Police figures seen by CarAdvice show that the police force won't have access to any affordable high performance vehicles after 2018 with the demise of Australia's local car industry, making drones a more efficient option.
Do you support this new technology? Will it help reduce the road toll, or will it just deliver more money into government coffers?
UPDATE:
Okay Okay, so perhaps this future isn't as close as we thought.
Happy April Fools everyone!
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