Chamber-type increase – Newspaper Kommersant No. 225 (7426) dated 12/05/2022

The fleet of stationary traffic police cameras in the Moscow region will increase by almost 50%, to 1.82 thousand devices. This, as Kommersant found out, provides for an agreement between the regional Ministry of Transport and the operator of the MVS Group photo and video recording system. The operator will invest 1 billion rubles in the system, also creating a new digital system for increasing road capacity.

The authorities of the Moscow region have adjusted the concession agreement with the MVS Group company (the operator of the system for fixing violations), follows from the materials on the website of the regional government. “MVS Group” undertook to increase the fleet of complexes from 1257 to 1837 stationary cameras within a year from the date of conclusion of the additional agreement, installing at least 50 devices per month. The number of mobile cameras does not change – 200 pieces.

The concession in question was one of the first agreements to develop regional systems for fixing violations. In 2016, MVS Group undertook to invest 4.94 billion rubles in it, installing and servicing more than 1 thousand new stationary complexes. Moscow region pays the company 233 rubles. for each fine paid. In 2018–2019, several additional agreements were signed, including to increase the fleet of cameras to 1.25 thousand units.

The increase in the park of complexes is provided for by the national project “Safe High-Quality Roads”, explained “Kommersant” in the regional Ministry of Transport and Road Infrastructure (MTDI), while in the Moscow region the number of stationary devices has not changed since 2019. “The calculation of the number of cameras corresponds to the needs of the region in closing emergency hazardous areas and reducing accidents,” they noted. The department added that in 2019-2020, 590 km of new roads (regional and federal) were built and reconstructed in the Moscow region, and 100 “allocations” were introduced in 2022 – all these objects need to be controlled. MVS Group will also implement, using its own funds (about 1 billion rubles), a new management system for the regional transport complex, which will link all existing subsystems (traffic light control, control over the movement of buses, trolleybuses, municipal vehicles, etc.), will increase the capacity of roads and the overall level of digitalization of the industry.

The amount of funds allocated by the authorities of the Moscow Region (concedent) from the regional budget as a fee to MVS Group was not named in MTDI Kommersant. According to the traffic police, in 2020-2021, about 50 million resolutions from cameras were paid in the region, so the company could receive at least 10 billion rubles. in just two years of work. Until recently, 80% of MVS Group, according to Kartoteka.rubelonged to Security Systems LLC, but since July 2022, the Urbantech group, the operator of the Moscow photo and video recording system and the developer of intelligent transport systems in St. Petersburg, the Nizhny Novgorod region and Dagestan, has become the owner of 100% of the company.

The regional government proposed to revise the agreement, Kommersant was told at MVS Group. The initial investment, the company says, has not yet paid off, since the operation of the system is associated with “high operating costs”, including the work of engineering and technical services, round-the-clock uninterrupted maintenance of the complexes, their regular relocation to new locations, etc. In addition, the company for its light operates and maintains 778 cameras of the regional system “Safe Region”.

According to the results of 2020, the Moscow Region was the leader among the regions in terms of the number of fines from cameras, Grigory Shukhman, an expert on photo and video recording systems, recalls, but in 2021 it lost this place to Moscow (28.9 million and 30.7 million resolutions, respectively). After an increase in the fleet of complexes, the region may again gain leadership, the expert suggests, while, unlike the capital, the vast majority of fines from cameras in the region are for speeding (in Moscow there are about 50%). The increase in the number of decisions, emphasizes Mr. Shukhman, is likely to lead to an increase in the number of erroneous fines: the software used is still far from perfect. The probability of a number recognition error does not exceed 0.001%, according to MTDI, a neural network is used for recognition.

The scheme, when the authorities outsource the installation and maintenance of automatic systems, is also used in other regions. The authorities of the Tambov region, for example, pay 250 rubles. third-party company for “information” about each violation, the authorities of the Republic of Altai – 130 rubles. Officials attribute this to a lack of funds to install cameras. Against this background, the Prosecutor General’s Office regularly announces the commercialization of the process, and the government was going to limit the use of concessions back in 2019, but the matter did not go further than statements. In October 2022, the head of the traffic police, Mikhail Chernikov, criticized the photo and video recording. “Total expansion is wrong,” he said. People get used to it and don’t break it further. And we have deployed and are further deploying in all areas. Photo and video recording should be where it is dangerous. Punishment should not be the basis.”

Ivan Buranov