Medway Bus Station ANPR Camera Snares 2,300 in First 3 Weeks of Operation

[Nigel W]

See The Medway Messenger on Friday.

Medway Council say that people are contravening the restriction purposely!

Therefore Medway Council are inferring that the good people of Medway are lawless in numbers.  Do they honestly believe that that number of people would set about getting fines on purpose?

Sorry Medway it is evidence of one thing only:

Your signage cannot be adequate.

I feel a Hemel situation is fast approaching.

[Monkey Girl]

Im sorry but I agree with MEDWAY Council on this one

There are now plenty of signs and NEW enforcement camera signs,

Some of the drivers are following there Sat Navs, so they should be paying attention to the road signs. Its not hidden!!  like Hemel Hempstead  is) there are warning signs


And the other Cars are going through just because they think they can get away with it now the scamera car is not there anymore. The signage may not be 100% , but that's no reason from some blatant ignorant behavior from some car drivers who use this route as a short cut.

[Nigel W]

MG

The new signage still may not be effective. 

If people knew that they were going to receive a penalty of £60 or whatever would they still go through in large numbers?  Is it worth that penalty to take a short cut?  Are large numbers of Medway people simply breaking the law knowingly?

19th March 2012

Additional LaneWatch Cameras for Medway Council.
A new bus station in Chatham, Medway will be provided with two LaneWatch cameras that will provide automatic contravention enforcement of the main roads in to and out of the bus station to prevent private vehicles from using the station as a short cut through the town. The new cameras will be linked to the existing ZenGrab Digital Enforcement Suite which is already successfully providing attended and unattended contravention enforcement throughout Medway.

http://www.zencosys.com/aboutnews.php

Where else in Medway is 'unattended contravention enforcement' being conducted? The above says it is being used 'throughout Medway.'

[Nigel W]

"A Nice Little Earner"

Chatham bus station camera trap fines 2,238 drivers

   
by Dan Bloom

More than 2,000 drivers have been fined in just three weeks since a round-the-clock camera went up in Chatham’s bus station.

The figure is more than a third of the 6,350 £60 fines handed out since the terminal opened in October.

Bus station drivers have now earned Medway Council £120,000 – and 2,000 of them haven’t even paid their fines yet.

The furious 79-year-old of The Glebe, Cuxton, has complained to ward councillor Ray Maisey (Con). He is one of 90 drivers a day breaking the rules.....

.....Council regeneration chief Robin Cooper said it was “quite shocking” but insisted they were a “small number” doing it on purpose.

“To put it simply, we would be happy if we never had to issue another fine as that would mean no driver is putting bus users, which include children, at risk...

.....But Nigel Wise for anti-CCTV campaign NoToMob said: “Why would that many people deliberately contravene a restriction knowing they’ll get fined? Clearly they don’t know.”........

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway_messenger/news/2012/may/18/bus_station_camera_trap.aspx

To Robin Cooper.

Your admission that a 'small number' of motorists are 'doing it on purpose' means that you accept that the remainder (a large majority) of drivers are being trapped due to poor inadequate signage. Either that or you are inferring that a large number of drivers are going around Medway with their eyes closed!

If you are genuine when you say that you would be happy if you never had to issue another fine as that would mean no driver is putting bus users, which include children, at risk... you will replace the signs there with NO ENTRY signs except buses and taxis.

That would stop your 'nice little earner' at a stroke.

By the way, what makes you think that taxis driving through do not also put bus users, which include children, at risk?

[Monkey Girl]

2,300 cars going through the bus lane, There may well be Nigel 

 Mmm  over a 3 week period +?...... is nothing really in comparison with the 100,000.00 people living in Medway and passing through the A2 every day, There is only 2 paths to take....and if anything the number should go down over the next couple of months, if they don't,, then there's a possible problem with signage, so we have to wait and see.

[NotEvenALondonRider]

There is a short bus lane into Chatham town centre on the high Street, between the old cinema building and the junction by Tesco. Non bus/taxi traffic has to do 3 sides of a square to Slicketts Hill and the traffic lights onto The Brook. There is a camera on there but it looked like the normal CCTV for vandalism, etc type last time I walked down there.

There is a bus lane in Strood, somewhere down Canal Road, one of my colleagues got caught there when lost in a works car recently. I suspect that is the other one with the cameras in Nigel's post.

[tommy the trumpet]

Council regeneration chief Robin Cooper said it was “quite shocking” but insisted they were a “small number” doing it on purpose.

“To put it simply, we would be happy if we never had to issue another fine as that would mean no driver is putting bus users, which include children, at risk...

Why do Medway play at double standards then Mr Cooper, what did you do a few weeks ago when I rang up to complain about Medway road contractors repairing some potholes in the road right on the double bends at Parkfields.
Not so bad in itself until I tell you they had no warning signage out whatsoever, but at that time you did not care about bus users, pedestrians, children or any road users in the slightest so dont pedal that road saftey crap about the bus station if you dont mind.

So what was done about that one then?

And while your at it where is our promised bike parking in Gillingham that you probably couldn't give a toss about?

[NotEvenALondonRider]

And if it's locals doing it deliberately, why are more than half of the people we stop out of towners following their sat navs because they are confused by the road signs. Hardly anyone who stops when I've been down there is a local.....

[The Bald Eagle]

If the council have any common sense they will look at what happened at Hemel Hempstead. Then again, common sense seems to be in short supply at councils at the moment.......

WE ARE WATCHING YOU

[BAILIFFCHASER]

Do a foi.

[Monkey Girl]

There is a short bus lane into Chatham town centre on the high Street, between the old cinema building and the junction by Tesco. Non bus/taxi traffic has to do 3 sides of a square to Slicketts Hill and the traffic lights onto The Brook. There is a camera on there but it looked like the normal CCTV for vandalism, etc type last time I walked down there.

There is a bus lane in Strood, somewhere down Canal Road, one of my colleagues got caught there when lost in a works car recently. I suspect that is the other one with the cameras in Nigel's post.

Yes your right NEALR, there is a camera ANPR camera in the bus lane in Canal Road, Strood, people again getting fined because they use it as a short cut. The warnings signs are there.

[Monkey Girl]

And if it's locals doing it deliberately, why are more than half of the people we stop out of towners following their sat navs because they are confused by the road signs. Hardly anyone who stops when I've been down there is a local.....

  There are warning signs that there is no access to Chatham town center.... even beginning at Star Hill Rochester!!, and along the High Street, and even  more down towards Staples, and then Camera signs and then signs also saying Buses and Taxis only, ,........

Its called not paying attention the the road signs and concentrating and being totally dependent on their Sat Navs, Just because they come from outside the area is no excuse for not paying attention. 

I'm not sure  how good the signage is from your end, I'm going to pop down there tomorrow and do some filming as it maybe that  end, going down towards town is where the problem possibly maybe   

[Virgil]

I dont know if the date of the article is the same as the date these new signs have gone up or if these are the ones that MG refers to, but it would appear they are actively trying to warn people that things have changed....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-18277671

Signs warning motorists not to believe their sat-navs have been put up to try to stop the 90 vehicles a day driving through a Kent bus station. The building of Chatham's new bus station involved changing the road layout in the town centre. Motorists are using it as a shortcut, Medway Council said.
Robin Cooper, from the council, said: "We are asking people to please look out of the window when they are driving instead of listening to their sat-nav. These can quite often be out of date or even wrong. We have already ringed the bus station with 15 signs and other road markings asking motorists not to drive through it. We have also put in place automatic number plate recognition cameras to catch those that do."

[Nigel W]

A sign stating:

"Road Layout Changed Do Not Follow SAT NAV" is a non prescribed sign.  It does nothing to stop anyone going through the restriction.

Why did the not put up signs with this non prescribed wording?:

 'NO ENTRY EXCEPT BUSES & TAXIS WARNING ANPR ENFORCEMENT CAMERAS'

[The Bald Eagle]

Oh dear, oh dear oh dear! Medway really haven't thought it through have they. Bear in mind this sign is about half a mile away from where the road layout has actually been changed, and it is on a completely different road.

"Road Layout Changed. Do Not Follow SAT NAV"

How about this for a scenario. I'm visiting someone in Medway and I have never been there. So being a right thinking and responsible person (who doesn't want to get lost) I download the latest updates for my Sat Nav that includes the massive detour I am now required to make to miss the Chatham bus lane.

So there's me driving down the High Street in Chatham (where the Sat Nav warning sign has been erected) and my newly updated Sat Nav is telling me to turn right at the junction where the warning sign has been erected. So then I think, "Ok. The council are obviously trying to tell me something here so what are my alternatives? Can I go straight on? No, because that is a pedestrian zone."

My alternatives are to turn left or turn around. Instinctively I would probably turn left, all the time obeying the council's instructions. Then, when I finally get to the end of the road I turned into, I am faced with a T junction that is the bus lane where I will be penalised if I turn left or right.

So, far from helping the situation it seems that Medway may have just made it worse.

I can feel an FoI request coming on.