Electronic ’spy in the road’ may replace traffic wardens

New satellite technology may be about to achieve every frustrated motorist’s ultimate fantasy - the end of the traffic warden. A British firm has invented a system of sensors that could wipe out the legions of peak-hatted parking enforcers patrolling the country’s towns and cities.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that their replacements will be even more unbending in their enforcement of local parking regulations than their despised forebears.

Worse still, there will be nobody there for outraged drivers to take out their anger on. All they will be able to see is a tiny metal implant in the road, about half a centimetre square.

Resembling a conventional cat’s-eye, the aluminum road studs can be installed in the road surface in seconds. Using a tiny satellite receiver they immediately sense when a car has parked over them because the signal is blocked.

When vehicles park in no-parking zones or overstay their time limits, even by a second, a message is sent to a central computer. This could then prompt an automatic camera, similar to those used in bus lanes, to photograph the offending vehicle. The first a motorist would know about it would be when a fine turns up at their home.
Paul Alexander, the man behind the technology, is in talks with two English local authorities - he refuses to say which - about trials of the system. He first had the idea 17 years ago. “I was walking through Cheltenham, when I saw two traffic wardens just standing there having a chat.

“I thought: ‘That’s not a very efficient use of taxpayers’ money’ and then thought about how it could be changed.” His solution, to use automatic sensors, has become viable in the past few years, with progress in wireless technology. This meant they could be installed without the huge cost of laying cables.

His company, Partem Limited, is marketing the system in Canada, Japan, Holland and Australia.

© 2006 Independent News