7mo ago

Buses in Wiesbaden, Germany are being equipped with a camera to catch illegally parked cars

www.tagesschau.de

Kameras an Bussen sollen Falschparker in Wiesbaden erwischen

I couldn't find an English language source, so here are some excerpts from the German one, translated with deepl [Stuff in brackets are additions by me]:

Wiesbanden bus driver Antonio Lopes recently got a yellow button next to his steering wheel: if he sees a parking offender blocking the bus lane or a bus stop, he can trigger the front camera. [...] The images are sent to the traffic authorities. Drivers face a fine of around 70 euros. If they park in an environmental lane that is only intended for buses and bicycles, they will also receive a point in Flensburg. [Collect too many points and you loose your drivers licence]

30 comments

It'd be cool if cyclists could sign up for a program like this. Just a little box on the handlebars that you press a button and it takes and sends a picture
- They don't make an SD card large enough for me to take that many photos. I spend almost half of the street portion of my ride dodging cars parked in the bike lane. It's quite the contrast to when I'm in the woods on single track.
- My city has an app for submitting traffic complaints that automatically grabs your location and asks for a photo of the offending vehicle and plate - and they've actually followed-up by sending people to confirm the violation and issue tickets. I've reported so many stupid trucks parked in bike lanes and motorcycles parked on sidewalks lol - carbrains are so obsessed with driving but can't seem to do it properly ¯(ツ)_/¯
  
  Here: you dropped this
  
  That’s sick. What city?
- In germany there is weg.li thats is almost as good. It also fills in automatically most of the infos on the cars so you can send the stuff yourself pretty quickly
- There’s a website called Bike Lane Uprising that has a database of cars violating bike lanes. Could probably raise millions for cities if they allowed cyclists to report violations.

The camera photographs the parking sorcerer, and the vehicle owner will eventually receive mail with a fine notice.
My browser is good at translating
- Wait, you guys don't have parking sorcerers?
  
  parks in bus lane
  Wow I'm surprised you could find parking around here, you must be a parking sorceror
- Fyi "Parksünder" = parking sinner
- Dayam! That notice is fine
- Is this firefox translate beta? It really is bad lol, at least its not by googlr
  
  It's not super great in its current state, but it running local is definitely a good thing.
  
  I think so, I'm using firefox and clicked the translate button in the address bar

Awesome! Every bus should be equipped with this and the yellow button should be used all the time for everything!

Wait for drivers to complain about how unfair this is and how the "fine industry" is out there to get them
- Carbrains often have a victim complex - anytime they're penalized or there's the threat of penalty for doing something stupid and dangerous, they whine and cry and try to skirt the law (tinting windows, radar detectors, license plates that supposedly traffic cams can't see, etc). Biggest bunch of babies.

This is probably better than my proposal of a big plow on the front of the bus that just destroys the blocking car.
The other day I saw a whole intersection (in NYC) blocked up because some asshole was double parked, which blocked the bus, which blocked me on a bike and all the car traffic from proceeding through the intersection.

Should equip them with a bull catcher
- It's just alpr in the bus to avoid separate parking enforcement cars on the bus routes. I'll bet soon garbage trucks, ambulances and all city vehicles will have these. Parking enforcement 5.0
- Your wife?

If they park in an environmental lane that is only intended for buses and bicycles, they will also receive a point in Flensburg.
Are they parking, or playing a tabletop RPG?
- The point system is actually pretty clever, because it solves the issue of rich people just paying their way out. The points allowance is equally scarce for everyone. And it makes the stakes for repeat offenders very clear.
  
  Does it hold the rich accountable when they hire others to drive them around and to break the law for them?

this only serve to collect money and to monitor us. does shit all to deal with the number of cars on the raod and the poor city planning that allows for cars. instead we need a system that allows otherwise drivers to have a cheaper alternative. a system of taxation that focuses on earnings of the driver, the size of the car and city panning and parking that stops drivers moving through cities. we shouldn't be so supportive of surveillance, what is once used to keep us safe is used to trap us.

- I mean, outside of the fact that things that “could be” in effect “aren’t currently”, Germany is not America. I’ll be making some broad sweeping cultural observations, but they’re mine alone as a German-American who is a citizen of both countries.
  Germans don’t like using credit cards because of the implications of a log of transactions that could be tracked. They don’t like digitized forms. GDPR is a thing. Also, public consumption of alcohol is, by and large, legal in Germany so I’m assuming you meant “private property” when you said you could be fined for drinking a few centimeters off. Jaywalking is a crime, but generally there is so much pedestrian infrastructure that it’s not a big deal to find a crosswalk. You’d be more likely to get a “HALLOOOO?!” from a nosy German who is upset that you’re not following the rules than you will any sort of fine, though it isn’t outside of the question.
  Not sure where your examples are coming from. These things are already illegal in America. We already have cameras all over the place in most urban areas. Going a bit over the speed limit? Speed cameras. Drinking beer in public? Public intoxication. Peeing in a bush? Indecent exposure and sex offender list if you’re near a school. Dropping a fry on the ground? Littering. Jaywalking because the nearest crosswalk is two miles down the road so it adds four miles of travel just to legally cross a road? Loud horns in your ears and police questioning at best, death at worst.
  Americans already lost the fight against privacy and freedom thanks to Big Auto and Big Tech. Germany and the EU commission are why some American companies even care about privacy at all. Big Tech continues to get their anticompetitive practices challenged and fined in Europe, so I really doubt that what you’re saying would come to pass there without a significant cultural change.
  So not only did America lose, but those industries have also convinced the majority of Americans that fifteen minute cities are “communism” and that Amazon and Facebook should know if your daughter is pregnant before you do. Big tech is already doing plenty of evil things without AI. The problem is the law and culture, not the technology.
  
  In Germany you only have to use a crosswalk, if it is within 30m of where you want to cross, or 40m in case of a traffic light. Otherwise you can cross wherever you want. Obviously you got to do so in a safe manner.
- These cameras read license plates, not faces so we should save those concerns for when they force pedestrians and cyclists to wear large, easily identifiable license plates.

30 comments