The Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) is working with the City of Sacramento to launch a Bus Stop Enforcement Program that is aimed at improving safety and accessibility for riders and SacRT employees.
SacRT explained that unauthorized parking in bus stops makes it challenging for bus operators to safely pull up to curbs. This forces passengers to board or exit buses away from the designated stop area, which can be unsafe and inconvenient.
SacRT is combatting this issue by equipping 100 SacRT buses with front-facing cameras powered by artificial intelligence (AI) from Hayden AI. The cameras detect and record instances of illegal parking in bus stops. When a violation occurs, the system captures a short video and a photo of the vehicle’s license plate, and the exact time and location of the incident. This information is then sent to the City of Sacramento for review and citation processing.
Prior to launching the new program, SacRT conducted a 70-day pilot program this past summer on two busy downtown routes to assess the impact of vehicles illegally parked in bus stops. During the pilot, SacRT buses detected 286 parking violations obstructing bus stops. SacRT said the high volume of violations confirmed the need for a targeted enforcement program to ensure accessible and safe boarding for all passengers.
In addition to improving security for bus passengers, the violations will also enhance reliability by enabling buses to stay on schedule with accessible bus stops. The new program will also enforce bike lane violations to decrease the number of vehicles obstructing bike lanes.
The new program was made possible by Assembly Bill 917, which gives California transit agencies the authority to use forward-facing cameras to enforce parking restrictions in transit-only lanes and designated transit zones.
Sacramento joins Oakland, Calif., Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and New York City in deploying automated bus stop enforcement with bus-mounted camera systems.
