The program, which kicked off Wednesday, covers all bus stops on bus lines throughout the agency’s service area.
For the first two months, drivers identified by law enforcement as violating the bus stop law will receive a warning notice that will be sent in the mail to the vehicle’s registered owner. Starting Oct. 7, warnings will be replaced with a $110 citation, which will also be sent in the mail.
The new program follows the success of using cameras equipped with AI to spot illegal stopping and parking at Tempo Line 1T stations and bus-only lanes.
AC Transit has equipped 100 buses with two small forward-facing cameras mounted on front windshields to spot bus stop violators. When a violation is found, the technology produces a 10-second video of the violation, a photo of the license plate, and the time and location of the incident. Police then review the evidence and determine if a citation should be issued to the registered vehicle owner.
In June, AC Transit upgraded its previous software on Tempo buses to more advanced AI hardware and software designed to recognize lane lines, bus lanes, bus stop dimensions and bus sizes, ensuring accurate violation detection, officials said.
The upgrade follows four years of issuing citations for station and bus-only lane violations along the Tempo Line 1T corridor. During a five-week period in June and July, onboard AI cameras documented 1,102 potential illegal parking violations for review by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, resulting in 787 citations.
In comparison, during June and July 2023, the old system, which required manual camera activation, found 879 violations, which led to only 22 citations.
AC Transit says it has deployed the AI-powered cameras while acknowledging concerns around privacy. The transit agency says cameras will not capture anything inside the bus and are angled to focus solely on cars parked in the bus lane.
Any image that does not contain evidence of a parking violation must be destroyed within 15 days. And images of parking violations captured by the system will be destroyed within six months of the incident unless the citation is under dispute. AC Transit say the AI camera system has no facial recognition or other biometric detection abilities.
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