Figure 1. Breakdown of irregular inspections
Istvan Polay
Environmental Affairs Dept., The Mayor 's Office of the City of Budapest, Hungary
The general governance of the Authority, the approval of its organizational statutes, of regulations and of operation rules is performed by the National Transport Authority (Közlekedési Fõfelügyelet - KFF). The Authority manages its economic affairs, in conformity with the annual plan and estimates, determined under separate rules and approved by the budget.
The technical inspection of public road vehicles and issuing of driving licenses is undertaken by the policing authorities (the Budapest Police Head Office and the District Police), and the Budapest Transport Authority.
With regard to the inspection of public road traffic services, in terms of production and initial circulation, the Authority cooperates with the bodies responsible for Consumer Protection and Environmental Protection.
On the basis of a Government Decision, the Authority also has close contact with the Customs authority, in the sphere of common custom control, control before clearance, traffic safety control, environmental protection control, and licensing before initial circulation.
The Authority cooperates with the branch-administration organs of the Public Administration Bureau under the jurisdiction of the Chief Executive of the Bureau.
Cooperation is also undertaken with the Lord Mayor's Office, especially with its Environmental Protection Department, headed by Mr. István Pólay who has provided the second part of this presentation.
The Budapest Transport Authority is responsible for vehicle testing not only during the regular road vehicle certification process, but occasionally the 'on-the-spot' checks on public roads between these and regular technical tests. These occasional inspections are undertaken for the benefit of all road-users and aim to identify whether the given vehicle meets the operational requirements. During the course of these inspections, an objective is to cause the minimum of disturbance to other road users.
For this reason, it is of great importance that we hold up only those vehicles causing a problem or those vehicles whose operation can cause problems. An experiences public road inspector can identify vehicles by certain characteristics, e.g., poor fixing or poor position of the load, visible exhaust smoke (especially on steep roads), failure of mandatory lighting equipment, damaged vehicles etc. In certain cases, these characteristics are multiple and are not directly visible; e.g., the movement and behaviour of the vehicle and the driver. As part of our public road control activities, we operate successfully and in full cooperation with the police authorities.
A team of 14 persons fulfil the above-mentioned tasks. Besides collaborating in periodic inspections organized by partner-authorities, activities include taxi inspections, ADR control, environmental protection measures, inspection of training vehicles, and increased testing of Romanian buses (see also Figure 1 below).
Figure 1. Breakdown of irregular inspections
Akcio ellenorzesek = Inspections
Tevekenysege = Activities, Checks
Muszak szamok = Number of shifts
ADR = Dangerous Goods Vehicles
Taxi ell = taxi checks
RSD = Remote Sensing Device checks
Hetvege = Weekend checks
ORFK = Police cooperation
KTM = Ministry of Environmental Protection (environmental checks)
Videk = Countryside checks
Hatar ell = Border checks
VIB = Training vehicles
In 1997, the Budapest Transport Authority exceeded the compulsory number of required inspections, having tested 100,423 vehicles (104.6 percent). A statistical breakdown of these inspections is given in Table 1.
| Vehicle Inspections, 1997 | |
|---|---|
| Total number of vehicles inspected | 100,423 |
| Comparison with required number of inspections | 104.6% |
| Number of vehicles failing inspection | 19,219 cases |
| Percentage of vehicles failing examination | 19.13% |
Table 1: Inspection Statistics, 1997
Besides inspections, the same vehicles are examined according to several other criteria. These are listed in Table 2 below along with the number of inspections undertaken. Figure 2 shows the corresponding number of failures.
| Vehicle Inspections, 1997 | |
|---|---|
| Technical and traffic safety inspection | 100,423 |
| Environmental protection | 33,465 |
| International public road transport | 1,138 |
| Internal public road transport | 25,725 |
| Transport of dangerous goods (ADR) | 703 |
| Other public road inspection | 83 |
Table 2: Nature of Vehicle Inspections, 1997
Figure 2: Breakdown of vehicles failing the examination
Kozuti ellenorzesek es meghianyolasok = Road Inspections and Failures
Ellenorzesek = Inspections
Ellenorzott darabszam = Number of vehicles inspected
During 1997, 245 of the vehicles inspected were requested to undergo further technical testing. In cooperation with the police authorities, requests of this nature can also warrant the on-the-spot withdrawal of license plates and documentation. Such vehicles may be used once again only after meeting the official technical standards of inspectors or the police. Figure 3 shows the breakdown of technical and traffic safety failures.
Figure 3: Breakdown of technical and traffic safety failures
Okmanyok =Documents
Etalakitas=Alteration
Nh.t gk=Heavy trucks
Folia=Foil
Primer = Very dangerous cases
Vilagitas = Lights
Vontatas =Towing
Estetika=Aesthetics
Rak. Rogz = Load fixing
Tartozek=Accessories
Upon suspicion of the falsification of documentation, 26 cases were transferred to the police authorities for further action. On 31 separate occasions offence procedures were initiated owing to the falsification of the Environment Protection Card and the alleged falsification of the Vehicle License or Driving License.
| Failures | 4,759 |
|---|---|
| Number of vehicles without a valid card or no card | 1,949 |
| Number of vehicles whose road use was restricted | 810 |
| Number of vehicle transfers to police authorities | 2,000 |
Table 3: Vehicles Failing Environmental Protection Standards and Corresponding Actions
Figure 4: Vehicles inspected for conformity with environmental standards
Between 1995 and 1996, the Lord Mayor's Office of Budapest improved the efficiency and effectiveness of envrionmental protection control by purchasing and installing the measuring RSD-2000 Remote Sensing Device. The RSD-2000 basic unit measures carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides(NOx) by passing a beam of infrared (IR) light through a vehicle's exhaust as the vehicle travels between the RSD-2000's light source and respective detectors. The license number of the vehicle is captured, as well as the percentage of CO, the percent of CO2, PPM of HC and PPM of NOx). Figure 5 presents the breakdown for vehicles pre-tested using RSD.
The use of the remote sensor is particularly advantageous since it enables the Budapest Transport Authority to collect all relevant data concerning traffic offences in the field of environmental protection effectively. Without having to unnecessarily hold up the flow of traffic for testing, it thereby helps to avoid disturbing other road users.
Figure 5: Vehicles pre-selected by RSD
Tevekenys = Activities
Darabszam = Number of vehicles
Kuldott = Pre-selected by RSD
Benzines Jo = Petrol vehicles within limit
Dieszeles Jo = Gas oil within limit
Benzines hibas = Petrol vehicles out of limit
Dieszeles hibas = Gas oil out of limit
Nem merheto = Not measurable
Ketutemu = 2-stroke engines
Verifying the effectiveness of the system, the number of captured traffic offenders increased as a result of its implementation. Table 4 overleaf shows the breakdown of vehicles failing the environmental examination.
| Diesel-engined vehicles within limit out of limit |
281 60 |
| Petrol-engined vehicles within limit out of limit |
1,713 626 |
| Not measurable 2-stroke engine of them defective engine cold engine |
140 601 182 62 |
| Total number of vehicles pre-selected by RSD | 3,243 |
Table 4: Total number of vehicles examined using RSD
1. The analyzer would suffer extreme pollution.
2. The exhaust system is damaged (holed, broken, incomplete etc.)
(For those vehicles falling under categories 1 and 2, a full authorized inspection and maintenance was ordered).
The remote sensing device, however, only serves as a preliminary means for testing road vehicles since the official measurement of a vehicle's environmental performance can only be executed while idle. Figure 6 shows the number of vehicles pre-selected for idle testing. On the other hand, vehicles with 3-way catalysers are tested also at a revolution of 60 percent of the nominal speed, although the end-result of such a measurement is not usually a fine (but Card restriction). If the result of such a measurement is negative, public road inspectors tend to direct the attention of the driver to the levels of higher consumption that may be caused by the incorrect tuning of the engine.
Figure 6: Number of vehicles pre-selected by RSD and stopped - per day
Napok szama = Number of days
______ Pre-selected total (upper line) Kuldott
______ Pre-selected petrol based vehicles (2nd upper line) Benzines
______ Pre-selected diesel-based vehicles (lower line) Diesel
______ Out of limit (2nd lower line) Hibas
Based on the positive experiences encountered during the first half of 1997, further measuring equipment was installed at new localities. In order to deal with the increased number of environmental offenders, the number of inspectors and vehicles have been doubled. However, owing to the problems arising from holding up too many vehicles in one spot, inspectors operate in many different locations.
Measured Diesel-based vehicles
Figure 7: Vehicles preselected by RSD conforming with accepted environment standards
Jo = within limit Hibas = outside limit
In conclusion, it can be said that the remote sensing device works efficiently as a pre-selector of vehicles not meeting environmental protection standards. Thanks to this device it is now possible to isolate a considerably greater number of vehicles that pollute the air of the capital city. As is shown in Figure 7, 27 percent of petrol-based vehicles, and 37 percent of Diesel-engined vehicles, pre-selected by RSD did not conform with the accepted environment standards. Furthermore, this system through the capture of license plate data also enables the ordering of the vehicle to a local inspection and maintenance station.
