Since August 16, an unmarked car has been crisscrossing the streets of Toulouse with a very specific mission: to check whether the owners of cars parked in one of the city’s 16,300 paid spaces have not forgotten to go to the parking meter. Equipped with the Automated License Plate Reading (LAPI) system, the vehicle uses cameras to scan all license plates before comparing them to those recorded in the parking meters, the resident parking listing, the Park Now app or the list vehicles declared by persons with reduced mobility.
A municipal agent then validates the verbalization for those who have forgotten, voluntarily or not, to pay. And they are numerous each year to adopt the attitude “not seen not taken”, since only 30% of motorists pay their parking meter. Setting up the ANPR car is a way of increasing the pressure on free riders. For the time being, after a month of operation, it has not resulted in a rain of fines under the “post-parking package” in the amount of 30 euros.
Deploy ASVPs on blue zones
“We manage to check all the paying places on the road at least once every two days with the ANPR car. From September 1 to 17, there were as many fines as last year, a few thousand. It’s not hype, ”says Emilion Esnault, the deputy mayor in charge of security.
For the latter, the arrival of this new device above all gives the possibility to the public highway surveillance officers, dedicated to this parking control mission, to refocus on other parts of the city. “They have been redeployed to the blue zones. Before, they checked them every two days, now they pass daily, ”continues the elected official who will continue to strengthen these teams.
But the arrival, this Wednesday, of the second car equipped with the automatic license plate recognition system should change the situation. They will now be able to check paid parking spaces at least once a day. With this increase in power, fraudsters should be flushed out more easily. In Lillequickly after its implementation, the number of tickets for unpaid parking rose from 10,000 to 40,000 per month.
In Toulouse, nearly 260,000 30-year post-parking passes are issued each year. A stable figure over the past few years but which could now increase.