The MTA's Automated Camera Enforcement (ACE)
program uses bus-mounted cameras to enforce violations for vehicles blocking bus lanes, bus stops,
and double parking along bus routes. This report analyzes violations that were
not issued due to unreadable license plates, missing driver/vehicle
information (temporary license plate, ghost plates), exemptions, and technical issues.
In Aug 2024 § 1111-c-1 took effect enabling Bus Mounted Cameras to enforce regulations against parking in a bus stop, and double parking along bus routes. This complemented existing bus lane camera violations.
Rejected Violation Categories:
- Driver/Vehicle Info Missing
- The violation is determined to be valid but is unable to be issued due to
missing or incorrect information from the vehicle or registration. Most commonly, this is due to no
matching records for the vehicle at the DMV (i.e. ghost plates), missing or temporary plates, or
inaccurate or out of date information in the vehicle’s registration.
- Exempt - Bus/Paratransit
- The violation occurred by a bus or paratransit vehicle exempt from a fine
due to business reasons. This exempt category includes MTA buses, non-MTA buses, and dedicated
paratransit vehicles, which are all permitted to use the bus lane.
- Exempt - Commercial Under 20 minutes
- The violation occurred by a commercial vehicle, which is exempt for
a fine if stopped for less than 20 minutes.
- Exempt - Emergency Vehicle
- The violation occurred by an emergency vehicle exempt from a fine
due to business reasons. Emergency vehicles include police, fire, medical technician, and other law
enforcement vehicles. The data does not distinguish between whether the vehicle was stopped due to
an emergency.
- Exempt - Other
- The violation occurred by a vehicle exempt from a fine due to business reasons.
Allowed vehicles under this category include things like diplomats, federal government vehicles, street
sweepers, and federal government vehicles.
- Technical Issue/Other
- Due to technical issues, it is not possible to confirm whether or not the
occurrence is a valid violation, and thus no fine was issued. This mostly occurs due to the plate, vehicle,
or lane being partially obstructed in the image(s) or issues with the image(s) being too dark or
overexposed. The cause of this can be due to uncontrollable factors in the environment (such as bad
weather or other environmental obstructions), or issues with the camera such as a dirty lens or other
technical malfunctions.
