Government has also named 23 local
authorities where it expects pollution
levels to reach illegal levels by 2021,
whi ch must all carry out a feasibility
study to determine whether or not a
CAZ is required. Once approved, the
city or local authority can decide what
level of restriction to apply. There are
four classes of clean air zone.
Class A covers only buses,
coaches, taxis and private
hire vehicles. Class B adds
heavy goods vehicles (HGVs)
to this list. Class C adds light
goods vehicles (LGVs). And
Class D includes all of the
above, plus private cars.
The Birmingham CAZ
will cover Class D vehicles, albeit
with exemptions. Commercial
vehicles registered in the zone will
be exempt for up to a year (subject to
a maximum of two vehicles per
company); private cars registered
within the zone will be exempt
for two years; and people
travelling into the zone for work
will be exempt if they earn less
than £30,000 (US$39,000) a year;
visitors to Birmingham Children’s
Hospital will also be exempt for one
year. There is permanent exemption
for vans and minibuses registered to
provide school and community
transport and for vehicles with
disabled tax class (Blue Badge).
The proposed charges for highpolluting
vehicles are £8 (US$10) for
cars and £50 (US$65) for buses and
trucks. Non-compliant vehicles are
those that do not meet Euro 6 diesel
(pre-2015) or Euro 4 petrol (pre-2005)
emissions standards.
Enforcing the CAZ
In September 2019, Siemens Mobility
was awarded the contract to design,
supply and install an Automatic
Number Plate Recognition (ANPR/
ALPR) camera monitoring and
enforcement solution across
Birmingham’s CAZ. The company
has worked closely with the
Birmingham City Council, the UK
Department for Transport’s Joint Air
Quality Unit and the other
programme partners to
develop a robust and
reliable system that will
cover all the major
routes within the
A4540 Middleway
Ring Road, but not
| Clean Air Zones
the Middleway itself. The system will
work alongside an existing Siemens
ANPR camera system that currently
monitors and enforces use of the bus
lanes within the city boundary.
Siemens’ proven Sicore II ANPR
cameras are currently being installed
at carefully selected locations across
the city. The cameras will identify
and register every vehicle that enters
the zone – 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year. It is anticipated that the system
will capture details of around 200,000
vehicles per day, a small percentage
of which are expected to be noncompliant.
The information captured
by the cameras will then interface
with the UK government’s new
national clean air zone database for
vehicle checking and payment.
“Having worked with the team in
Birmingham from the very early
design stages of this programme, we
are delighted to be now working
towards full implementation in 2020,”
commented Wilke Reints, managing
director of intelligent traffic systems
for Siemens Mobility in the UK. “Our
focus on digitisation means we are
making mobility infrastructure and
networks more intelligent and
ultimately delivering an enhanced
experience for road users and city
dwellers. The CAZ for Birmingham is
a perfect example, with the solution
building on our extensive experience
with similar schemes both in the UK
and internationally.”
Winning hearts and minds
Although the efficiency of the
enforcement system will be crucial to
operation of the CAZ, officials at
Birmingham City Council (BCC) are
Our focus on
digitisation means
we are making mobility infrastructure
and networks more intelligent
Wilke Reints, MD of ITS, Siemens Mobility UK
Above: The Siemens
Sicore II ANPR
camera that will be
used to help enforce
Birmingham’s CAZ
Right: Birmingham
City Centre
March/April 2020 Traffic Technology International
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