Rick Bidgood, parking compliance manager Auckland Transport, chats about the new licence plate recognition vehicle. Video / Michael Craig
Is new technology just a way for Auckland Transport to make more money from motorists? First bus lane fines jumped 1000 per cent with CCTV technology, now parking fines from high-tech camera cars have doubled. Ben Leahy takes a closer look.
Auckland motorists last year paid twice as much in parking fines issued by camera cars as they did in 2021 as transport authorities ramp up the use of new technology.
The cars, which drive the streets checking tens of thousands of number plates to identify whether vehicles have parked too long or in the wrong spot, hit Auckland motorists with $3.2 million in parking tickets last year.
That’s more than double the $1.5m in fines the cars gave out the year before.
And with AT set to put two more cars onto the roads this year – taking the total fleet to 10 – motorists could soon be paying even more.
Sarah Geard, the Automobile Association’s senior policy adviser, asked whether motorists are being given fair warning, such as easy-to-read parking signs before they are fined.
“The purpose of enforcement is not to raise revenue, but to make sure the transport network is working for everyone,” she said.
“The key question to us is therefore: is AT doing everything it can to help people do the right thing?”
AT’s shift to new parking fine technology follows its earlier introduction of CCTV technology to monitor bus lanes – a change that led tothe number of bus lane fines skyrocketing.
Bus lane fines skyrocket
Bus lane fines jumped 1000 per cent in the five years around 2017 when AT shifted to a wholly automated CCTV system to monitor the lanes, the Herald reported in 2020.
AT figures show it gave out 13,642 bus lane fines in 2015.
By 2022, it issued 12 times as many fines – with its cameras issuing 168,620 tickets.
At $150 a pop, bus lane fines generated $25m in revenue last year.
AT had earlier relied on officers patrolling bus lanes to check if motorists were illegally driving more than 50m along the lanes.
The agency told the Herald in 2020 the shift to CCTV had improved the well-being of these officers, who previously suffered in bad weather and faced the ire of fined motorists.
Keeping bus lanes clear also improved public transport’s efficiency and encouraged more people to use it, AT said.
However, the AA said at the time the huge increase in tickets needed investigating as the public might suspect the key goal of the new technology was to boost revenue.
Community service or money maker
AT mounted high-tech parking cameras on its cars in 2019.
It first trialled the cars – formally known as licence plate recognition vehicles - in residents’ parking zones before expanding to also patrol areas with paid parking machines.
In 2020, AT told the Herald, the cars issued about 200 tickets per day compared with about 50 to 60 tickets for a parking warden on foot.
However, it’s hard to get an accurate picture of how much more efficient the cars have become since 2019 and how much more money motorists are paying in fines compared to when wardens patrolled solely on foot.
That’s because AT has delayed or refused to provide a collection of data requested by the Herald.
That includes AT failing to say how many fines the camera cars issued in their first two years of use in 2019 and 2020.
AT’s group manager for parking services and compliance John Strawbridge said data more than two years old is archived offsite and “not readily available”.
Camera cars are more efficient at patrolling Auckland's parking spaces than wardens on foot. Photo / Mark Mitchell
That “not readily available” data has still not been passed on to the Herald three months after it was requested.
The Herald also hoped to give motorists a picture of the new technology’s efficiency by comparing the most fines issued by one of the new cars in a year against the most fines issued by a warden on foot.
AT said this is not possible.
Strawbridge said the transport authority doesn’t track how many fines each individual camera car issues.
This apparently means the cars are fitted with modern, high-tech software capable of scanning hundreds if not thousands of number plates each shift but does not provide easily tracked data about how many fines they issue.
AT also refused to say how many fines have been issued by parking wardens on foot.
It estimated it would take five hours to compile the information and said this was too much work.
Working from home leading to more parking tickets in permit zones
The increase in people working from home post-Covid-19 could be one reason for the jump in fines, AT’s Strawbridge said.
“As more members of public are introduced to flexible working arrangements following the pandemic less people are commuting to work and may have never had their vehicle parked at their residence before,” he said.
“This in turn could be leading to more vehicles requiring on-street parking, thus leading to illegal parking behaviour and more complaints being received,” he said.
He said camera cars patrolling permit zones were welcomed by residents in those areas because before the cars, they would have to make a complaint before an officer would issue tickets, Strawbridge said.
AA’s Geard said technology “is certainly making it easier” to hit motorists with tickets.
She said AT should look at what more it can do to help people, including checking that parking signs are clear and visible, if enough parking is available and whether people have enough alternatives, she said.
“Ticketing people won’t fix these things,” Geard said.
How the cars nab motorists
AT has eight cars mounted with high-tech cameras that patrol resident permit zones with two-hour parking limits and paid parking zones with ticket machines.
It plans to get two more cars this year.
The cars do not yet find and ping motorists who have expired registrations or warrants of fitness.
The cameras mounted on the cars scan each vehicle’s number plate and work out if it belongs to a resident with a permit for that zone.
If not, the cameras capture an image of the car’s surroundings, such as street markings and trees, its position on GPS, and the exact position of the air valves on its tyres.
Two hours later, the AT cars return, driving the exact same route to check whether a car has moved - even by an inch - thanks to the position of the air valves.
At the end of each day, all potential fines are reviewed by a parking warden before tickets are issued.
In paid parking areas, the cars capture the rego of every parked vehicle then return 10 minutes later checkingwhich vehicles have not paid or have expired tickets.
The cars can do multiple patrols in one day and are normally on the roads 40 hours per week.
The cars drive at 30km/h and typically have enough light to operate until 10pm in the city centre.
They will not pick up a covered registration plate number but if camera car drivers pass a car with covered plates, they will call for another officer to come out in person and ticket the vehicle.
Strawbridge said images of the parked cars are stored for seven years as evidence and are not shared with other agencies, such as police investigating crimes.
