Transport For London (TFL)

 

Congestion Charging in London Congestion Charging in London Congestion Charging in London

Congestion Charging in London

Congestion Charging in London

Congestion Charging in London

Published: 08.05.2009

Sector: Roads & Tunnels

Project brief

COE was commissioned to provide the fibre optic transmission solution to gather tolls from all vehicles entering a designated area within central London for the TFL congestion charging scheme. This would be performed via number plate recognition technology.

Analysis

Transport for London required an infastructure which would allow a designated area to be monitored with high quality images transmitted to control centres for processing and analysis. Key parameters which needed to be met for the transmission network included: exceptionally high quality of transmitted image to enable Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) accuracy; a high channel count per optical fibre to minimise fibre usage and redundant design to eliminate the risk of system downtime.

Solution

The area to be covered for congestion charging is defined as a ring that falls within the boundaries of the M25 orbital motorway and encompasses the City, West End and areas north and south of the river Thames. Toll billing and ticketing was to be managed through a comprehensive video network of some 1300 cameras, with clusters of cameras located at each road junction that intersects the ring. These cameras were to be a mixture of fixed and pan/tilt/zoom. Highest quality video information is then analysed for number plate identification and subsequent ticket checks.

Benefits

• Guaranteed picture quality for computer number plate recognition software.
• Dual redundant fibre paths to protect transmission routes in the case of cable breaks and equipment failures.
• Remote system-wide monitoring of all equipment from Central Control.
• High channel count, minimising fibre usage.