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A new generation of road camera which can deduce how many people are in a car is to be tested for the first time.It will initially be used to monitor car-sharing lanes in Leeds, but councils across Britain are said to be interested in using the technology.Four out of five cars driving into cities at rush hour have only one person in them.The government believes encouraging people to share journeys will help combat congestion. It wants councils to look at building more "high-occupancy vehicle" lanes.Enforcing the lanes has previously been a problem. In the US drivers often trick police and cameras with dummies and even large dogs to allow them to use lanes reserved for more than one person.The new camera, developed at Loughborough University, can see how many people are in a car by detecting water and blood content.The technology could lead to a big increase in the number of car-share lanes on British roads.The inventor of the camera, Professor John Tyrer, believes the camera is key to reducing congestion."It allows you to automatically count people. That means you can sort out the congestion on the roads now the lanes now actually work properly," he said."That pools through to the congestion charging so they can charge differently or reduce the rates dramatically if you've got more people in the cars, and the same with car parking."Car-sharing lanes are already in operation in areas of Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol and North Somerset.In Birmingham - on the A47 Heartlands spine road - only cars carrying at least two people are allowed to join motorbikes and cycles in using the lane, in a bid to ease congestion into the city centre.Work is currently taking place on the M1 in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire to widen the road for a car-sharing lane.Environmental benefits
Roads minister Rosie Winterton welcomed moves encouraging car sharing."We're certainly encouraging local authorities to look at innovative solutions to the problems that are created by congestion," she said."High-occupancy vehicle lanes can be part of that because they certainly encourage car sharing. It also contributes to improving the environment and can cut the cost of travelling as well."But Edmund King, president of the AA, said that in practice, car sharing does not work."Most of us today work flexible hours. We don't go to work or come home from work at the same time," he said."Plus they're incredibly difficult to enforce, and if not many people use them they're actually a waste of road capacity."
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