By the order of the City Monitoring Center of St. Petersburg, Urbantech Group of Companies has installed traffic enforcement camera systems at seven accident-prone street crossings around the city. The traffic enforcement camera systems will be integrated into the city infrastructure as part of the comprehensive St. Petersburg Safe Roads Program.
The Program covers traffic areas in the Vyborgsky District (the crossing of the Kultury Avenue and the Lunacharskogo Avenue), the Kalininsky District (the crossing of the Rustavely Street and the Nauki Avenue), the Krasnoselsky District (the crossing of the Petergofskoye Highway and the Partizana Germana Street), the Nevsky District (the crossing of the Kollontay Street with the Bolshevikov Avenue and the Rossiysky Avenue, and the crossing of the Obukhovskoy Oborony Avenue and the Chernova Street), the Primorsky District (the crossing of the Ispytateley Avenue and the Sizova Avenue, and the crossing of the Savushkina Street and the Turistskaya Street).
These districts and crossings have become fixtures in anti-ratings posted by the St. Petersburg Traffic Police Department: for example, the Primorsky District reported the highest accident rate in 2021, while the place where the Petergofskoye Highway crosses the Partizana Germana Street is high on the list of the city’s most dangerous crossings (seven accidents over the year). According to traffic police authorities, the main causes of accidents include overspeeding, tailgating and passage priority breaches, as well as poor lane changing.
Urbantech specialists have installed automatic traffic enforcement camera systems with cryptographic data protection, implemented secure telecommunication channels and integrated the equipment control software with the data system operated by the Traffic Police Department’s Center for Automatic Capturing of Traffic Violations (CAFAP). Besides, network hardware, backup power supply units, IP video cameras, etc. have been installed at each of the crossings.
The systems capture 29 types of traffic violations, including overspeeding by 20, 40, 60 and 80 kmph, wrong way driving, non-observance of traffic signs and road marking, violations of railway crossing rules and parking requirements in the vicinity of pedestrian crossings and public transport stops. CAFAP inspectors will use the data gathered from the traffic enforcement systems to handle respective administrative offense cases.
“The primary objective solved by the new systems is to reduce the accident rate and the number of those injured in traffic accidents,” notes Daniil Khazov, Chief Commercial Officer at Urbantech. “Our experience of installing and servicing the traffic enforcement camera systems in Moscow and the Moscow Region shows that such a road safety enhancement system allows to reduce the number of traffic accidents by as much as 33%, and the number of accident casualties, by 26-34%, depending on the number of systems installed. We are confident that this effect will not take long to manifest itself in the Petersburg roads as well, so that these seven crossings will become safer for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians alike.”
On average, 400 traffic accidents happen in St. Petersburg every month. According to the official statistics of Russia’s Traffic Police, about 3,900 people got injured and more than 120 people died in traffic accidents over January through November 2022. In September 2022, for example, Traffic Police reported 11 deaths and 410 injuries. At the same time, Traffic Police statistics did not register a single traffic accident in locations where stationary traffic enforcement camera systems are installed.
Source: Urbantech Group’s press service
Photo: Lahta Center