IE11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

3 Firms' Hardware Tested in Carpool-Lane Crackdown

Three companies' products are being tested on Bay Area carpool lanes as authorities seek to use technology to crack down on lane cheaters.

carpool-crackdown.jpg
On an undisclosed Bay Area freeway over the past couple of weeks, a camera system has been counting the people inside every vehicle in the carpool lane in an experiment to detect cheaters. No tickets or warnings are being issued, but that could change if Bay Area transportation officials are convinced that the technology is the next-generation enforcement answer to a growing number of scofflaws who, despite the risk of a heavy fine, use the region’s restricted carpool lanes to shave time off their commute.

In recent months, the California Highway Patrol has increased enforcement, assigning dedicated teams working overtime shifts to catch the cheats, but the agency has been unable to abate the problem. Lanes created to move at a decent clip are sometimes as sluggish as the regular lanes, triggering rising frustration in drivers legitimately using the carpool lane and in those stuck in the slower lanes watching cheaters pass them by.

“If the system breaks down because there’s no trust in the system and everyone’s cheating, that’s a problem," said Randy Rentschler, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which oversees carpool-lane operations for the Bay Area. "I don’t think we can just sit by and do nothing."

The camera technology being tested comes from one of three firms with systems that MTC has decided to look at. All three claim their automated systems can snap photos of a passing vehicle, accurately count the number of passengers and send citations to violators. All three will be tested in turn. The MTC will review the results for reliability and effectiveness this summer.

“The goal here is to demonstrate that (the technology) ... can work with a high degree of accuracy,” Rentschler said.

Even if the technology proves effective, it could still be a long road to employing the system on Bay Area freeways. The MTC would need state legislation allowing passenger-counting cameras to be used to issue citations. And they’d have to overcome privacy concerns about cameras peering into vehicles, reading license plates and keeping records of the numbers of occupants.

But first, Rentschler said, “We can’t even have the political discussions until we prove that we can do it.”

The three companies MTC has contracted with for the tests are Conduent (formerly Xerox), Transcor and Indra. The systems will be tested along the same stretch of freeway in consecutive months. Rentschler said all the companies boast accuracy rates greater than 95 percent in use elsewhere.

The systems employ a variety of tools to enable them to look inside vehicles, even through dark-tinted windshields, to count passengers. They include standard and infrared cameras that can detect human skin, systems that illuminate images to make them easier to read, and geometric algorithms. MTC officials won’t reveal the site of the tests for fear of vandalism or theft of equipment and concern that cheaters might change their behavior if they’re aware they’re being watched. 

The San Diego Association of Governments, MTC’s equivalent in San Diego County, conducted a similar test over 30 days in 2015 with Conduent, then known as Xerox State and Local Solutions, on the Interstate 15 express lanes.

“The results were mixed and inconclusive,” said Jessica Gonzales, a spokeswoman for the San Diego agency. She said the association hasn’t pursued the use of the cameras but is monitoring the advancement of the technology, including tests like the one underway in the Bay Area.

California law limits the use of automated cameras to issuing tickets to red-light runners and toll evaders, so legislation would be required to expand camera use to passenger counts. Legislators, however, have been reluctant to expand camera enforcement, particularly for speeding violations, something San Francisco has sought in recent years.

The CHP, the agency tasked with carpool lane enforcement, does it the old-fashioned way, looking into vehicles and pulling over drivers they suspect of cheating. But it’s difficult for an officer to accurately and quickly count occupants, and there’s frequently no safe place on freeways to pull drivers over. The CHP has not taken an official position on occupant-counting cameras.

State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, has introduced legislation to provide additional resources to the task, including authorizing new approaches.

©2018 the San Francisco Chronicle. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.