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Board weighs $11,000 camera upgrade to improve stop-arm ticketing
Summary
District transportation staff told the board that adding a rear-facing camera to bus stop arms could significantly reduce missed stop-arm violation tickets caused by motion-blurred front images; staff estimated an $11,000 incremental cost and suggested funding from existing budget lines.
Board members heard a recommendation to add a secondary camera to the bus stop arm system to capture rear license plates and reduce missed stop-arm violation ticketing.
Transportation staff and liaisons said a significant share of captured violations are not being ticketed because the front-plate images are blurry when the stop arm deploys and the vehicle is moving. A rear-mounted camera on the stop arm would provide an alternate image capture angle and substantially increase plate-recognition accuracy.
"Putting that extra camera ... would bring us close to 100% accuracy," one board member said, summarizing staff analysis. The incremental hardware cost cited during discussion was about $11,000; staff said the purchase could be made from the same line-item used for the original cameras without requiring additional budget appropriations.
Board members discussed the current program's enforcement split and revenue-sharing: they said the state takes roughly 70% of collected fines while the municipality receives about 30%. District representatives proposed exploring whether some municipality share could be routed to the district to offset equipment costs, and recommended piloting one additional camera first to verify performance.
Transportation leadership also flagged operational details: recordings are stored locally on devices and currently require manual upload; automating that upload or improving wireless transfer will require additional IT/network work. The board asked IT staff to further evaluate upload options and any network requirements.
Next steps: staff recommended procuring a pilot camera to test the additional angle and to report back to the board on ticketing improvements and network needs; board members expressed support for proceeding if the district can recoup or justify the investment.
