Watch out for the plum! From this Tuesday at Toulousea new system comes into effect to detect cars that have not paid for their parking. It’s the system ANPR, automatic license plate recognition system. A car equipped with cameras criss-crosses the streets and scans all the plates. The system makes it possible to know who has paid and who has not paid for their parking. The idea, by automating these controls, is to gain in efficiency. The system already exists in several cities in France: Lille, Paris, Marseille or even more recently Thonon-les-Bains.
How does the new ANPR system work?
These are unmarked cars equipped with cameras that roam the streets of Toulouse and its more than 16,300 paying places. The plates are read and analyzed immediately. The technology therefore immediately detects whether you have paid for the parking lot or not, since it is now necessary enter your license plate when you go to the parking meter. A considerable speed gain which, logically, allows a greater number of controls.
Does this result in increased HP?
We will have to wait to see but in cities where the ANPR system is already in place, overall, it’s on the rise according to our colleagues from the regional daily press. In Nice, for example, the fines have almost doubled in one month. They would have quadrupled in Lille. When we know that in Toulouse nearly 70% of drivers do not pay for their parking, we can imagine that the bill can quickly be steep.
Concern among some people with disabilities
His arrival in Toulouse arouses concerns among some people with disabilities. Indeed, those who have the badge, ie the parking card for disabled people, have the right to park for free everywhere. It is a right because the parking meters are often not accessible to them. The problem is that the system ANPR does not make the difference with a lambda car. The town hall of Toulouse proposes to circumvent this difficulty by asking people who have this badge to register their plate in a particular system, or to declare themselves via an application or a parking meter. Unacceptable for Odile Maurin, president of the Handi social association, and opposition municipal councilor.
“What rots the lives of people with disabilities in general? (…) It’s the repeated administrative procedures. So, while this free parking is by right, the mayor of Toulouse arrogates to herself the right to worsen the living conditions of disabled people, by asking them to go to an inaccessible parking meter, by asking them to use an application which is not even accessible to the visually impaired, or by initiating formalities to register a vehicle.”
I will have to register a different carer every day in the device?
“Implementing this system is ignoring that the majority of disabled people do not have vehicles, they use third-party vehicles. I have people who contacted me and told me: I have a different carer every day. So I will have to register a different carer every day in the device?“
In Paris, 17,000 people with disabilities were abusively fined in 2019. More generally, the arrival this Tuesday of ANPR in Toulouse does not meet with greater success among all drivers. It’s the least we can say.