Montreal, November 26, 2024 –The Agence de mobilité durable de Montréal today begins the gradual rollout of automated licence plate recognition (ALPR) technology in the borough of Outremont and the western part of the borough of Plateau-Mont-Royal to improve compliance with Montréal’s parking regulations.
The technology uses cameras and GPS to read licence plates in order to check whether a vehicle is in violation of the regulations at a specific time and place, while ensuring the data remain anonymous.
ALPR will serve as a decision aid so that agents can more efficiently check compliance with regulations that are difficult to monitor without technological support, such as in time-limited spaces. Currently, agents must perform a number of manual operations to determine whether a vehicle respects the location’s maximum parking time. With ALPR technology, an infraction in time-limited zones can be detected automatically and then confirmed by the parking agent. ALPR will also alert the agent if a car parked in a residents-only on-street parking zone does not have the corresponding sticker or if it displays a non-compliant sticker.
In the long term, this technology will ensure more effective monitoring by expediting some tasks and helping agents better allocate their efforts. For example, they will be able to better monitor vehicles that block areas that are important for safety in, and accessibility to, public spaces, such as in proximity to fire hydrants.
“This project is part of the agency’s efforts to update its monitoring strategy,” explained Laurent Chevrot, General Manager of the Agence de mobilité durable de Montréal. “With more efficient parking control, the agency can contribute to fluidity, safety and accessibility in public spaces. This technology has already been deployed in Paris, Amsterdam, Chicago and Vancouver. It will allow us, for example, to improve access to parking for residents with stickers and to increase vehicle rotation in time-limited zones, with the goal of facilitating equitable sharing of space.”
Highlights:
- In the coming weeks, two vehicles will begin monitoring streets in Outremont and the west of Plateau-Mont-Royal during the test phase.
- The vehicles will conduct tests to monitor two types of regulations, namely time-limited zones and residents-only parking zones.
- A rollout with a total of 13 vehicles is planned for 2025 in the two boroughs.
- The agency will then aim for a gradual rollout across the city.
- ALPR technology can also be used to collect data, notably to measure curb occupancy. Such data could be used to support the city in its mobility and urban development projects.
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