Method and system of detecting and recording vehicles in specific road lanes for enforcement purposes

Method and in-vehicle system with the purpose to locate identify and record near-by vehicles if certain conditions are met. The system detects the existence of near-by vehicles using a camera and applying automated number plate recognition technology while the absolute position of the detected vehicles is calculated as an offset to the absolute position of the carrier vehicle which in turn is obtained from the GPS. If a detected vehicle is on a specific road lane and if certain conditions are valid, the system can perform predetermined actions including capturing a digital image of the vehicle. More specifically, the invention uses automated number plate recognition technology in conjunction with a GPS unit in order to track, identify and obtain the lane-specific positioning of vehicles in the vicinity of a carrier vehicle. With this method and the related invention, the automated spatial identification of vehicles moving in a specific lane in the road network is made possible from a mobile system for bus-only or emergency lane enforcement and other purposes.