Posted on 07/22/2004 6:12:38 PM PDT by Mulder
SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- Is Big Brother watching Central Florida drivers? The Department of Transportation is planning a new way to track hundreds of thousands of drivers, and traffic. But some people say tracking their every move is going too far.
We see traffic studies all the time using those little ropes that count cars and cameras that watch for accidents. But this device is different. It can actually track your specific car as you drive around town and you give them the tool to do it.
You drive along minding your own business. But just who else is minding your business?
You might not notice it at first. But if you look a little closer, you'll see it, and it can see you.
Mike Patient doesn't like that.
"You're actually tracking a single individual in a vehicle going from point to point to point," he says.
The Department of Transportation is placing 120 electronic readers, just like the ones that read your E-PASS, at intersections to track drivers from the Turnpike and I-4 and through surface streets like 436, 17-92 and Highway 50.
Some of the readers even blend right in with existing signs and lights and they read the E-PASS transponder that's already in your car.
"Basically, it's just another tool so you can determine travel times," explains Steve Homan Department of Transportation.
A computer will assign your E-PASS a number to keep someone from tracking a person by name and the data is erased within minutes of being stored. There's just enough time to calculate the travel time for a traffic hotline and a website you'll be able to access next year.
"Our goal in this equipment is to tell how long it's gonna take to get from point A to point B. That's the intent. We intend to serve the public, not track 'em down," Homan says.
But the DOT admits, the technology could be used to do that.
The Expressway Authority says, when you sign the contract for an E-PASS it's actually in there that you agree to be a part of traffic studies.
By the end of the year, all 120 of the readers should be installed so the system can be up and running next spring. The state will begin by tracking cars in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Brevard counties.
Because some cars will turn off or use other roads, only about five percent will end up being tracked.
I can't believe america has come to this. Next thing is a chip in your forehead. All voluntary, of course (at first).
""Our goal in this equipment is to tell how long it's gonna take to get from point A to point B. That's the intent. We intend to serve the public, not track 'em down," Homan says."
At least not YET, anyway...
"I can't believe america has come to this. Next thing is a chip in your forehead. All voluntary, of course (at first)."
But..but, If you're obeying the speed limit it shouldn't be a problem. If you are speeding then you are breaking the law and deserve a ticket.
You are getting your knickers in too big a knot. If you don't want to be tracked, don't have an EZPass on your car. it's totally voluntary, so put the tinfoil away.
These stupid toll plazas here in Florida cause much more problems than they solve, and need to be torn down.
The cost of the roads could be paid for with a small increase in the gasoline tax, or by firing some of the bureauracts that run the turnpike system.
If the gov't would have spent our money wisely in the first place, the necessary highway infrastructure would exist such that we wouldn't need 'toll roads'.
Furthermore, these toll plazas are a hazard to the safety of drivers. Only a greedy government bureaucrat could decide that it's "safe" to have traffic slow from 70 MPH to 30 MPH or 0 MPH or slower in order to pay a tax. And only a corrupt sadist could determine that it's a "good idea" to have complicated merging schemes at these "electronic checkpoints".
Anyway, these toll roads are nothing more than another way to rip off tourists here in Florida.
Totally voluntary, for now.
They "allow" you to drive through the toll plazas here without having to stop to pay the toll. (You still have to pay the toll though).
Toll roads really suck, and cause far more traffic problems than they solve.
They're talking about the "E-pass" or "Easy pass" thingee that many people use to electronicly pay tolls. Instead of tossing money at the toll booth guy, you have a transponder in your car and the toll is charged to you as you pass thru without stopping
Ah, I see. So it was alleged-journalist hyperbole. ;)
With all the laws on the books, I'll bet you're breaking some law right now and don't even know it.
You deserve a ticket. Maybe a computerized sensing system will automatically debit it from your checking account.
Technology will fulfull every dictator's dreams.
Spoken like a true bootlicker.
Yea, in 2004 it's voluntary. Just like the social secruity numbers, now your child has to have one to register for school and most 5 year olds have had no earned income to pay into the Socialist Security System. The day will come you will need a pass to access the highway, that isn't that far fetched.
But, but its for your own safety.
They could photograph and computer interpret license tags, too, if they wanted. Since tags display to the general public, there would be no privacy law violation in that. The only thing about the e-pass is that it's cheaper.
Welcome to the New World Order, comrade.
Yeah, "Rebelbase"??? More like "Jackbootlickerbase"
Nope, just wrap it around your EZpass. But you probably better take the battery out of your cell phone since it broadcasts your position even if turned off.
Of course it is just a matter of time before tracking devices are built into your car, if they are not already.
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