The recent activation of cameras monitoring the A3 carpooling lane may have alarmed some drivers as they entered their test phase on Monday 1 December. The cameras are to check the number of passengers in the vehicles using the lane allocated for carpooling purposes. Only cars with at least one passenger may use the lane, as well as public transport.
Minister of Mobility Yuriko Backes confirmed that vehicles transporting a child will be permitted to use the lane. “If the camera identifies a child or baby in the back of the vehicle, they will consider the child a second person”, Backes wrote in response to a parliamentary question submitted by the ADR’s Fred Keup. The devices are “equipped with cameras which can identify silhouettes” as well as determining “the number of people in the vehicle”, said the Roads and Bridges Administration.
The cameras will spend an indeterminate period in the test phase, but once they are fully operational, motorists who seek to exploit the system and use the lefthand lane without passengers can be sanctioned.
