Facts and Figures - CCTV

The Durban Traffic & Transportation and City Police Departments operate a system of 154 closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, mostly mounted on high masts, which are strategically positioned in the Central Business District to monitor daily traffic conditions. These cameras are controlled remotely from both the Traffic Control Centre and the City Police control room at the Old Fort Place complex.

This is a most important tool for traffic control since:

• particularly in peak periods it is very beneficial to observe conditions on the street directly, rather than rely on other means of detection, such as inductive loops which can be problematic.
• this provides the facility for traffic engineers to visually monitor congestion, determine its cause (such as accidents, stopping violations, double parking, inappropriate timings etc.) and where possible make the necessary adjustments on the computerised Area Traffic Control system, to recify the situation.
• the aerial view provided by CCTV gives an overall impression of traffic conditions that is not possible from ground level.

The original CCTV system, which when installed in 1975 incorporated some of the best equipment available at the time, became outmoded in terms of current technology, unreliable and very expensive to maintain. This was evident in the fact that of the 40 cameras installed fewer than 20 were operational at any one time. A further cause of the unsatisfactory performance of the CCTV system was the susceptibility of any damaged portion of coaxial cable to the ingress of moisture, resulting in a degradation of picture quality.

This CCTV system was upgraded in 1995 with more reliable equipment incorporating the latest available technology, while at the same time providing additional facilities for night viewing, video recording and shared control for the City Police. A program has now been initiated to replace the old co-axial cable with fibre optic cable to improve the picture quality.

The area of CCTV influence has also been expanded to include the beachfront area with the recent installation of 20 strategically positioned high resolution colour cameras.