AES at work along North-South Highway

AES at work along North-South Highway, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

While passing through a stretch of the North-South Expressway, I saw an AES enforcement system in the process of capturing a picture of a vehicle speeding over the stipulated speed limit.

The following were observed while the AES system unleasehed its power to enforce the speed limit:

1. The system fired a very bright light upon the speeding vehicle even during a very sunny day. You can imagine what happen when the system is firing its bright light in the darkness of the night. It might cause temporary blindness to road user.

2. The speeding vehicle was traveling on the inner most lane and after knowing the AES had snap the picture, the vehicle slows down. I am sure that the image of his vehicle had been captured by the AES. At the same time, another vehicle traveling at a lower speed on the outer lane suddenly stop his or her vehicle upon realising that the AES system had releasing the bright light. The driver's was taken by surprise and got confused causing him to suddenly stop his vehicle in the middle of the highway. His reaction could cause major accident since the trailing vehicle could easily rear ended his vehicle.

3. In the above situation, hopefully the AES system will capture the actual speeding vehicle i.e. the vehicle on the inner most lane and not the vehicle which is travelling at a very slow speed on the outer lane. There is no way of verifying this situation until the driver of the vehicles get the summon letter.

4. The stretch of highway is going downhill and almost all vehicles were traveling at a very slow speed to avoid the speed trap. The slow speed caused localised traffic jam on the stretch of the highway.

Thus, there are vehicles which will automatically observed the stipulated speed limit at the presence of the AES system. Also, there are unfamiliar drivers whose action could cause secondary accidents due to the system.