Flashing...But Out Of Hours!

Councillor Phil Bateman reported the fact that some car drivers using the City's bus lane's had been surprised when they had been 'flashed' by the new camera and information deterents on the City's bus lanes......Read on for the outcome!

Phil reports "I received complaints from car drivers who were traveling in the bus lanes outside of the restricted time limit. They were surprised by the flashing lights of the cameras as the new equipment went off and displayed their car registration plates on purpose built display units erected on the side of the highway ...Well as you can imagine that has not gone down too well.

So here is the reason for the little [hiccup] problem and why it happened. The response is from a senior City Council officials.

"The Bus Lane Deterrent measures recently installed along Wednesfield Road have also been installed along Stafford Road inbound (outside Jaguar) and along Willenhall Road outbound near Hurstbourne Crescent.

I must apologise for the fact that your complainant got flashed while travelling in the Bus Lane along Wednesfield Road when permitted to do so. The system was switched on during 11 March 2004 . The Engineer forgot to configure the timeswitch settings that controls the activation of the system. This led to the system being operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Obviously this has led to several motorists being flashed while travelling in the bus lane at permitted times. The timeswitch settings have now been corrected and checked and this problem should no longer happen."

Phil further adds "I am sure that this error will not have caused too much consternation, this was not malicious it was a flashing cock-up. What really pleases me is that officials have told it as it was. No real harm has been done. But we all know that the system is now working and will obviously be a real deterrent in keeping cars out of priority lanes for buses...at the right times of course!