Enforcement
Jalisco State scores
safety success
A programme of road safety education and enforcement in the State of Jalisco in Mexico
has reduced speed related fatalities by 40% in nine months
2
3
1
1.Technology of Jalisco’s enforcement programme includes eight radar speed monitoring units used in rotation around 16 fixed installation sites. 2. Fixed and
mobile MultaRadar units automatically detect which lane a speeding car is travelling in – preventing failures due to images showing more than one vehicle.
3. An educational campaign included signs over the El Periferico and messages put out through television, radio, internet and magazine advertisements
S
peed enforcement equipment will appear in
greater number and visibility around the city
of Guadalajara over coming months, as the
Mexican State of Jalisco expands its road
safety campaign. This comes hot on the heels
of an initial programme of traffic speed education and enforcement in Guadalajara, which
has yielded remarkable results, reducing speed
related fatalities by 40% during its first nine months of operation.
Road safety practitioners will be aware that insufficient time has
passed to allow credible evaluation that stands up to scientific scrutiny.
Officials in Jalisco may experience some ‘regression to the mean’
when analysing the statistical results of their enforcement programme
over coming years. Nonetheless, it is very likely that casualty figures
will continue downwards where speed enforcement equipment is deployed in and around Guadalajara.
There is also a distinct possibility that safety improves on roads in
the city and state where equipment is not in place. Jalisco’s strategy
is underpinned by a concerted educational campaign employing substantial media resources to spread key road safety messages applying
to all of the state’s roads.
This is not to say that all is rosy for motorists on Jalisco’s roads.
The state’s speed enforcement programme was instigated to combat
a very big problem. During a single year at least 250 road deaths were
recorded on Guadalajara’s El Periferico orbital highway, prompting
the state to sign up to the UN Decade of Action on Road Safety and
38
ITS International May/June 2012
to draw up its own six point action plan. This would target speeding,
wearing of seat belts, alcohol, motorcycle helmets, fitting of child seats
and pedestrian safety as priority issues to be addressed.
“For tackling excessive speeding, Mexico’s national university in
Unam carried out an analysis exercise to plot the locations of accident blackspots with the highest casualty rates across the state,” says
Jalisco State Minister for transport and traffic Diego Monraz. “The
study determined that of the 10 points with highest recorded numbers
of fatalities, eight were situated on the El Periferico highway. The
statistical analysis also showed that of the 250 victims per year, the
main cause was high speed.”
A two-pronged attack
Jalisco’s Traffic Safety Agency (TSA) established the state’s strategy
for reducing traffic speed, with the support of the Pan American
Health Organisation (PAHO). Guidance from PAHO led to a two
pronged attack; addressing the issue of speeding with technology and
educational initiatives.
“Initial work focused on amalgamating and improving all traffic
signalling on Guadalajara’s orbital highway. We also set new more
appropriate speed limits where the road design and conditions necessitated and we established our own special traffic sign for speed
enforcement,” Monraz says. “Secondly, we established a financial
strategy for the project. Government funding is not commonly available for financing such infrastructure, so we had to devise our own
strategy to make it work. With this knowledge we designed a project
Re-Vamped, Re-Freshed, Re-Launched, Re-Visit | www.itsinternational.com
Enforcement
and its specifications with the aim of it becoming self financing within
two years. This was the only way to make the project feasible.”
For design and delivery of the scheme, TSA assembled a team
consisting of Mexican traffic control systems company Autotraffic and
the international enforcement specialist Jenoptik. “For defining the
systems, we focused on solutions by providers with high experience
in Mexico and internationally – not just for the technology, but with
the service provided with it viewed as equally important,” says Monraz.
“The offer from Autotraffic and Jenoptik was a good fit with these
requirements and suited the financial stipulations of the contract.”
The technological side of Jalisco’s enforcement programme would
consist of eight radar speed monitoring units to be used in rotation
around 16 strategically located and fixed installation sites. Furthermore, five mobile speed enforcement systems would be operated on
the El Periferico by Autotraffic personnel for TSA. “Both fixed and
mobile units are from our MultaRadar series, based on non-invasive
doppler radar technology,” says Jenoptik area sales manager Miguel
Valdivia. “The equipment automatically detects which lane the speeding car is travelling in and indicates this on the script line. This gives
more evidence to the image evaluator and so greater certainty over
which car was the offender, even when more than one car is shown
on the image. Systems without this feature typically discard up to 20%
of images due to uncertainty over which car pictured has committed
the offence.”
Education campaign
Autotraffic would provide back office services for TSA – serving citations and processing these with the state authorities. But before that,
prior to the system being launched and going live with enforcement
in March 2011, a comprehensive social education campaign was put
into action. This would include signs erected over the El Periferico.
“The messages were used to communicate the dangers of speeding
and to advertise or inform the public of the enforcement project,”
Monraz says. The same messages were put out through television,
radio, internet and magazine advertisements. “The educational
campaign was an essential part of the overall project. Gaining public
acceptance was one of the main aims, along with saving lives and
making the project self financing so it could be sustainable after 24
months,” he adds.
Over the first two months of the enforcement project after the
MultaRadar sites and back office functions were activated for the first
time, speeding offenders were sent ‘preventative’ citations. These
displayed the image and speed captured by the equipment, but also
informed recipients that the offences were not being enforced for
that limited period of time. Offenders also received a copy of TSA’s
speeding and road safety leaflet as part of the overall effort to get
motorists used to the idea of the project. Monraz says: “This helped
to reinforce the message that the main objectives are to save lives
rather than to focus on raising money. To begin with, the people of
Jalisco were generally quite fearful of the enforcement programme.
But acceptance has grown as awareness of the project has spread
and particularly since we were able to release the first statistical results
from the project.”
Reach extending – safety improving
A total of 497,529 enforcement notices were issued during the first
12 months of the programme up to March this year, including the
50,000 non-enforced educational citations delivered during the first
two months. The exact figure for the reduction in speed related fatalities during the first nine months is 38.89%, in comparison to the
same period in 2010. Also significant is the apparent decrease in
drivers’ speeds on the El Periferico. According to TSA’s reports, the
numbers of speeding offences recorded have gone down by between
30% and 50% at the 16 fixed enforcement sites.
Jalisco’s TSA is extending its enforcement programme to more
roads in the state. According to Monraz, use of the mobile MultaRadar
units has already spread to five more principal roads in Guadalajara.
Seven Autotraffic enforcement teams will be using them on more
roads within the city this year and additional equipment is due to be
installed for red light as well as speed enforcement.
“Mexico’s agency for prevention of accidents has requested the
specific details and specification of this project, so it can be used to
demonstrate best practice in road safety,” Monraz says. “Road traffic
accidents are the second highest cause of death in Mexico. The Jalisco
government is convinced that such problems have to be addressed
with solutions based on technology and scientific study and analysis,
with society involved.
“A multi-sectoral approach, including the public, is important,
as is determination of a financial structure to fund the project. The
state of Jalisco had the necessary authority and capability to operate
the enforcement programme itself, but contracting a service provider
held two advantages: it prevented misuse of the equipment for uses
other than enforcement; and it made possible more efficient use of the
administration’s human resources.”
The stats:
nts
nouncemetions
n
a
io
d
a
r
24
ifferent sta
on eight d onths
for three m
24 educative displays showing
drivers speed installed through
the monitored road
Advice
ced
nfor
50,000 neosnseent in the
44
advice notic nths
first two mo
mph
FINES
497,529 fines
Advertisements shown on 4 separate TV channels
38.89% reduction in speed
related road fatalities
awarded from April
2011 to March 2012
Re-Vamped, Re-Freshed, Re-Launched, Re-Visit | www.itsinternational.com
8 MultaRadar units rota
5 mobile MultaRadar
ted through 16 fixed
installation sites
teams extended to 7
ITS International May/June 2012
39