Road marking firm WJ has deployed ANPR cameras to tackle the danger caused by drivers deliberately using the wrong lane during a major junction redesign in Northampton.
Over a period of years, from February 2020 to January 2022, the Chowns Mill roundabout was redesigned as a ‘half-hamburger’ layout as part of a £24m National Highways scheme.
WJ said that in December 2020 the junction was seeing a high number of motorists on the A45 Southbound (right of picture) foolishly skipping queues while turning onto the A6 Northbound – the fourth exit – by using the less busy left-hand lane, which was exclusively for the first exit.
It said that as a result of the queue jumping, several minor collisions were reported on the roundabout and that it was asked by Chevron Traffic Management to provide a temporary solution to deter motorists from performing the dangerous manoeuvre.
The firm’s solution repurposed two of their existing pieces of equipment. The Siemen’s Sicore II ANPR Camera was used to monitor the lanes, with WJ Solar Trailers as the power source.
WJ said that unlike other ANPR camera systems, which are usually powered by diesel generators, the Siemens 24-volt ANPR camera system is compatible with its Solar trailers.
WJ's ITS manager Tom Howarth said: ‘Our engineers were able to work with Siemens to modify the camera system, which is usually used as an average speed camera, to track motorists travelling down the left-hand lane.
‘Because the primary use of the camera is to monitor speed, we had to set the threshold to zero mph, meaning all road users in the left lane would be tracked. Another camera was then placed at the exit, allowing us to start monitoring road users who were using the wrong lanes.'
Vehicles captured by both cameras were identified and their number plates passed on to the appropriate authorities.
Over a three-month trial, it was identified that repeat offenders accounted for 912 violations. Northamptonshire Police issued 72 warning letters to these repeat offenders, which resulted in reducing their re-offending by 95%.
In June last year, there were 5,148 violations, which fell to 2,288 in the first 20 days of August – a pro-rata reduction of 35%.
Alistair Goodsir of Chevron Traffic Management said: ‘We are always looking for new ideas and innovations that can help improve safety and the reduction of queue jumpers speaks for itself. We are pleased WJ was able to support us with this and provide such an innovative use of their speed camera system.’
