Drivers will not receive paper tickets for traffic violations in the second half of the current fiscal year (starting Sept. 22), when the Traffic Police switches to e-ticketing.
“E-ticketing is a new, improved and efficient way of issuing traffic tickets,” General Kamal Hadianfar, the national Traffic Police chief, told IRNA.
For the nationwide implementation of the system, smart devices will be distributed among police officers, he added.
Comparing the conventional paper ticketing with the electronic method, he added, "The former has almost no benefits, while e-ticketing enables the officers to check almost all the information of a particular car, including the driver's ID, traffic violation background and the vehicle's ownership and insurance status simply by entering the car's plate number or the driver's license number."
Whether or not the officer stops the violators, they will be able to send the license plate number of offending vehicles and type of contravention directly to the citation system’s database.
Hadianfar said the system analyzes the incoming report and sends drivers a text message notice in five minutes.
According to Hadianfar, the text message sent to drivers will include the time and type of traffic violation, amount of fine and a serial number.
"Drivers can pay the citations by sending the ticket’s serial number to the Traffic Police automated payment system ‘120'," he said.
Before the new e-citation system was introduced, an offline system was used for monitoring traffic violations. Driver behavior on the road was monitored and the plate number of violators was recorded by officers and traffic cameras.
After records were analyzed by authorities, they notified the drivers of the contravention via text message. The process took at least 72 hours.
All vehicle owners were able to get their traffic ticket report and pay the citations through the Traffic Police website Rahvar120.ir.
Hadianfar says the old system was time-consuming and open to errors in jotting down the plate numbers.
Many officers still use traffic ticket booklets. Gathering all the handwritten information and processing it are time-consuming.
With the new electronic citation system, the average time of issuing tickets will decline to a few minutes and the percentage of citation errors will also reduce. The system is expected to make traffic violation recording more efficient.
Hadianfar said the devices are also being equipped with the ability to undertake electronic car accident sketching.
Via the modern system, the probability of fraudulent actions is curbed through crash sketching. It will be more accurate and less time-consuming for the officers, he added.
Smart Parking Meters
In the Iranian capital city, Tehran, roadside parking was overhauled last year.
Tehran's District 2 in the north-central part of the city was equipped with smart parking meters in a pilot scheme implemented last summer. The system enables drivers to reserve roadside parking spots and pay online via a smartphone application.
To use the facility, users are first required to create an account on the application ‘Tehran-e Man’ (My Tehran in Persian) developed by Tehran Municipality.
Both Android and iOS users can download the app from local app markets, Café Bazaar and SibApp, the TM Information and Communication Technology Organization reported on its website Tmicto.tehran.ir.
Users need to sign in to their personal account, open the "parking meter" tab and select a meter on an interactive map in the application.
Drivers can reserve the parking space for a certain period and pay the fee easily via the app.
According to the project manager, Soheil Mazloum, the parking meters are equipped with sensors to monitor vehicles parked in the slots. They are connected to the internet to report infringements.
The officials are planning to extend the pilot scheme to other districts in the capital, if the results are positive.
Mazloum says the project, which was first introduced in December 2018, is envisaged to extend to the entire metropolis in three years.
Atishahr fintech, Tosan (banking and payment solution provider) and FANAP (ICT Company affiliated to Bank Pasargad) helped build the infrastructure for the project.
More than four million vehicles ply on Tehran’s roads daily which, according to the TM, is eight times higher than the nominal capacity. Finding an empty parking space in the capital, especially during working hours, is a challenging task. Smart parking meters are expected to ease the tough (some say impossible) process of parking.
The move is part of efforts to transform Tehran into a smart city, a goal pursued by TM in the past several years.
Smart city is a concept based on which urban services are offered through smart technology and internet of things, making life a bit easier for the 12 million residents of the capital city.
