San Francisco buses to photograph cars parked in bus lanes

One of the many reasons commuters often cite for not riding public transit buses is that they are often late and get stuck in traffic just like cars. So cities have tried to improve the situation by defining bus-only lanes along major routes so the vehicles have an unobstructed flow. This would be great were it not for the fact that these exclusive lanes often are obstructed by illegally parked cars. San Francisco has a particularly serious situation with this and local buses have an on-time rate of only seventy percent.
In order to try and improve the situation, the city is starting to equip buses with cameras mounted behind the windshield. These will be used to photograph cars illegally parked in transit lanes. During the initial part of the test the drivers will just get warnings on their windshield. In about a month the city plans to start issuing $100 tickets to offenders. If cities are serious about getting people to use public transit as a way to resolve pollution and congestion problems, they need to take issues like this far more seriously. If transit lanes are established, they should be enforced immediately and aggressively.

[Source: San Francisco Chronicle, via All Cars All the time]