High-Occupancy Vehicle Lane Enforcement System

An automatic High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane enforcement system is developed and evaluated. Current manual enforcement practices by the police bring about safety concerns and unnecessary traffic delays. Only vehicles with more than five passengers are permitted to use HOV lanes on freeways in Korea. Hence, detecting the number of passengers in HOVs is a core element for their development. For a quick detection capability, a YOLO-based passenger detection model was built. The system comprises three infrared cameras: two are for compartment detection and the other is for number plate recognition. Multiple infrared illuminations with the same frequency as the cameras and laser sensors for vehicle detection and speed measurement are also employed. The performance of the developed system is evaluated with real-world data collected on proving ground. As a result, it showed a passenger detection error of nine percent on average. The performances revealed no difference in vehicle speeds and the number of passengers according to ANOVA tests. Using the developed system, more efficient and safer HOV lane enforcement practices can be made.