Tech spinoff targets traffic scofflaws

Enforcing vehicle laws means opportunities for Lanham company by Kevin J. Shay | Staff Writer Christopher Anderson⁄The Gazette

‘‘Optotraffic was started in response to our looking for spinoffs to the commercial markets,” said J. Marcos Sirota, president and CEO of Sigma Space. Optotraffic’s technology is used to enforce traffic laws.

Some Maryland companies are getting a boost from a growing law enforcement trend: using cameras to catch speeders and red-light runners. Among those is Optotraffic, a subsidiary of aerospace engineering company Sigma Space Corp. of Lanham. Optotraffic is involved in all phases of the process — design, development, installation, monitoring, violation processing and public education support.

The company has conducted numerous traffic studies employing the technology in Maryland, including in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, concluding what may be obvious to many drivers: Very few people drive the speed limit. Optotraffic has a contract for red-light enforcement cameras in Edmonston and is negotiating with two other suburban Maryland cities, said J. Marcos Sirota, president and CEO of Sigma Space.

In addition, the company recently obtained a patent for a compact system that uses laser radiation in the form of optical pulses to determine vehicles’ speeds. The new system, which operates with a sensor, can monitor vehicles in several lanes and record only those that actually travel a fixed speed above the limit, Sirota said. He co-founded Sigma about a decade ago, and has seen it grow from a handful of employees to about 100 now. Revenues grew about 58 percent, to $12.5 million, from 2006 to 2007. The Optotraffic subsidiary formed a few years ago.

‘‘We are using [the new system] already onred-light enforcement and tested it significantly on speed enforcement,” Sirota said. ‘‘Our state-of-the-art detection systems, coupled with high-resolution photo and video systems, ensure the highest exposure and prosecutable rates.”

While the use of enforcement cameras is growing, the increase is not as fast as some would like, said Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association in Washington, D.C. Many more jurisdictions across the nation use red-light cameras than speed cameras — about 300 to 35, he said.

Red-light cameras have been used in Maryland for years, while Montgomery County became the first jurisdiction in the state to employ speed systems last year. The county recently awarded a contract worth up to $19 million to install and maintain 24 speed-enforcement cameras to Affiliated Computer Services, a Dallas information technology company.