Wallonia’s highways have been equipped with new cameras to provide drivers with additional services, according to Sofico, which manages the region’s roads. The cameras allow the registration plate of a vehicle to be detected, provide a global view of traffic, calculate a vehicle’s speed and determine its bulk.
However, “these radars are in no way being used to issue tickets to users,” Sofico stated on Monday.
On the other hand, the system will be used to count vehicles using the highway network and calculate their driving time per vehicle size.
The information collected in the field will enable the PEREX Centre to inform users in real time on the state of traffic, whether through installed infrastructure, such as updatable notice boards throughout the network, or within vehicles, via Smartphone or on the vehicles’ screens.
About 100 fixed points – a gallows next to an emergency stop strip – will be placed on Walloon roads and highways in the next two years. The first were installed in March last on Highway E42/A16 at Hautrage (two points per site), followed by a second set on E411/A4 at Perwez. The next highway sites will be set up by the end of July, after which it will be the turn of the national roads.
At the same time, about 30 mobile installations set up since February on bridges above highways have been travelling around the network. They remain for two days in each location to supplement the data received from the fixed points.
The total budget of the operation is 18 million euros, Sofico stressed.
The Brussels Times
