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Over the years, mobile surveillance sys- tems, which often include onboard cam- eras, digital video recorders (DVR), and software to track and monitor the infor- mation, have made significant gains in both quality and functionality. Today, Mobile Surveillance Helping Transit Agencies Operate More Eff ciently REASONS FOR INSTALLING: When Miami's rubber tire trolley system launched in February 2012, its fleet was equipped with Safety Vision cameras and DVRs to insure driver and passenger safety, as well as to ascertain fault in the case of an accident. "The trolleys are on the road for up to 17 hours a day, and the laws of probability say there will be incidents, here or there," says Thomas Rodrigues, transportation analyst for the City of Miami. "To be able to have video monitoring is tremendously beneficial to review what happened and determining fault. Without the system, we would be stuck in a he said/she said situation." Approximately six months ago, the City contracted with REI to 36 < m ETRO m AGAZINE APRIL 2014 metro-magazine.com provide its AVL/GPS tracking solution, powered by A.R.M.O.R.-AVL, to help maintain consistent headways. SYSTEM PERFORMANCE: The Safety Vision cameras have paid off, in terms of ensuring safety as well as protecting the agency when incidents both on the road and inside the trolley occur. Additionally, the REI system has increased the trolley system's performance, which doesn't operate on a printed time schedule, but instead, is based on frequency. "The system REI put together for us is great," says Rodrigues. "It tracks the estimated time of arrival based on the vehicle's current location and creates predictive models on how long it takes each trolley to get from stop to stop. It will even tell us, if the trolleys look like they are relatively close or far apart, how much of an ETA many solutions of er Wi-Fi upload capa- bilities and some systems are even mov- ing toward incorporating cellular network access, so clients can get information from a vehicle any time it's operational. METRO Magazine spoke to a few public transportation systems that have recently implemented or upgraded mobile sur- veillance systems to f nd out what they are using them for, what their experience has been and how they have been able to in- crease operational ef ciencies. While often being used to provide driver and passenger safety, solutions can of er even more capabilities, such as improving headways, with the fi lm itself also able to be used as a training tool. By Alex Roman, Managing Editor AGENCY: City of Miami COMPANIES: Safety Vision (cameras, DVRs); REI (software) M E T R O 0 4 1 4 _ V I D E O . i n d d 3 6 METRO0414_VIDEO.indd 36 3 / 1 7 / 1 4 5 : 5 4 P M 3/17/14 5:54 PM