Automated enforcement of environmental zone centre ring Arnhem

Municipality of Arnhem

An environmental zone applies in the centre of Arnhem for highly polluting diesel-fuelled vehicles. These include lorries, passenger cars and also vans. This environmental zone has been set up to keep out the most polluting vehicles.

Last change on 22nd of May 2024, at 13:29 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Impactful algorithms
• Impact assessment: Field not filled in.
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

• Economy
• Space and Infrastructure

Begin date

01-2014

Contact information

[e-mail]

Link to publication website

https://www.arnhem.nl/stad_en_wijken/Wegen_en_vervoer/milieuzone

Responsible use

Goal and impact

An environmental zone is an area in a city where certain means of transport are not allowed to drive. Residents and visitors to the municipality of Arnhem are entitled to clean air and a liveable climate. The air that visitors and residents currently breathe is not clean enough and this is largely due to city traffic. The municipality of Arnhem wants to improve the air quality in the city and thus pursue its policy in this area.

The environmental zone centre ring road has been established for passenger cars, trucks, vans, taxis, buses and mopeds and mopeds in the municipality of Arnhem with the aim of keeping out the most polluting vehicles. Any vehicle with Dutch registration plates driving unauthorised within the environmental zone will be fined. Other vehicles do not notice anything from this control.

Considerations

The impact for the use of the algorithm is proportional to the goals that the municipality of Arnhem pursues: the right of Arnhemmers and visitors to clean air, a liveable climate, traffic safety, an accessible city and a pleasant living environment. Through the established environmental zone, the most polluting vehicles are kept out of the city. This improves the city's air quality.

Human intervention

The license plates identified by the algorithm as illegally present in the environmental zone are always manually checked by a BOA before a fine order is issued.

Risk management

There are two types of risks in the context of the Arnhem city centre environmental zone.

Risk 1: Falsely identifying violations

If a registration number is misread and the misread number turns out to exist and is linked to a vehicle that does not have access to the environmental zone, the wrong person will be fined. The risk of an incorrect fine is minimised because of a manual check carried out by a BOA. In addition, there is always the possibility of objecting to the fine imposed. For the above reasons, the licence plate recognition algorithm contains minimal risk.

Risk 2: Offences are not noticed

If a license plate of a vehicle - which does not have access to the environmental zone - is misread by the license plate recognition algorithm, the owner of the vehicle is wrongly not fined. This rarely happens. Unlike the measures taken for the first mentioned risk, this risk cannot be mitigated. In this context, the reliability estimation algorithm mitigates the previously mentioned risk, imposing a fine on the wrong person.

Legal basis

Policy rules exemptions environmental zone Arnhem 2022

An offence can be established "in an automated manner" under section 3(2) of the Administrative Enforcement of Traffic Regulations Act ("Mulder Act").

Links to legal bases

Beleidsregels ontheffingen milieuzone Arnhem 2022: https://lokaleregelgeving.overheid.nl/CVDR667348

Operations

Data

Images, vehicle data.

Sources: RDW, RVO

Technical design

Within the environmental zone centre ring of the municipality of Arnhem, ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras with algorithms are used to read license plates of passing vehicles. The license plate is then linked to information, such as vehicle information from the RDW (National Road Transport Agency), to a date, time and location.

Environmental zone enforcement is supported by several other rule-based algorithms. All these algorithms contribute to a decision with legal effect when an offence is committed in the environmental zone (penalty decision).

External provider

iEnforcement