ALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) — Starting Wednesday, dozens of AC Transit buses in Alameda and Contra Costa counties will have windshield-mounted cameras that use artificial intelligence to identify vehicles illegally parked in the bus lanes.
The AI-enabled cameras can identify vehicles parked in the way, capture the plates, timestamp the photo and record a 10-second video. Eventually, a ticket will be sent to the vehicle’s owner.
Violators from now through Oct. 7 will receive only a warning. After, tickets could cost up to $110.
Photos and videos of violations will be destroyed within 60 days of resolution, and videos of non-violations will be deleted within 15 days.
The new cameras will be installed on 100 buses across Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District lines. The cameras have been in testing since June and have captured 787 violations, officials said. That number is significantly more than the old system, which only captured 22.
AC Transit is not paying for the cameras to be installed, according to a June 2023 memo. Instead, the tech camera company will receive a monthly share of the citation revenue of up to $2,500 per bus for a three-year period.
Statistics from 2022 show these types of cameras can produce about 10 tickets per day per bus.