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.
just put the EZPASS tag into an anti-static shielded bag, it can't be read in there. i do it everyday.
If you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
We are At War now.
It's for The Children.
True, but we Americans shouldn't have to go around like that.
Whoever thought up this tyrannical idea of tracking Americans needs to move to Russia or China. It is simply unAmerican.
at least in the NY metro area, they use it to track traffic patterns by seeing how fast a transponder moves from point A to point B along a particular highway. they give this information back to automated traffic systems and radio traffic reports. I haven't heard of any stories of misuse yet. I think if they started issuing traffic tickets with them, people would be dropping EZPASS in droves.
H. User acknowledges and agrees that the Authority may use the
transponder, or may authorize any other government agency to use
the transponder, to collect anonymous traffic, travel, or other
statistical information. The Authority will not use or assist any other
entity using this data in a way that would associate User’s personal
identifying information with the anonymous information obtained.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Authority has no duty or obligation
to User in contravention of its legal obligations under the Florida
Public Records Act or any other law or regulation, as the same may
be from time to time amended.
I. User acknowledges and agrees that the Authority has no control over
third parties’ technological capabilities or use of electronic signal
readers that may be capable of detecting the Authority’s E-PASS
transponder signals. User agrees to hold harmless the Authority from
any and all damages, actual or perceived, incurred by User as a
result of any such third party action or third party use of information
obtained from such detection.
After this has been ongoing, for a while, they will have proof that the transponders can help save "THE CHILDREN", by electronically catching speeders,whom "will only be sent a warning",in the mail.
Florida will make it mandatory for ALL vehicles to be equipped with a transponder.
Then, they will decide, the second time someone's transponder is caught speeding will be a fineable offence.
The conversation about our intrusive government continues here today.
Many of the same discussions were had when GM introduced the black box for its top end cars. In the first year out, there was a court case where the data was used in prosecution to prove the driver didn't brake before the airbags deployed. This Florida system will be used in the same way because, as clinton would say, they can.
I do recall somethings about the trial. Not much tho.
Haseltine noted that the sensors helped GM win a lawsuit filed by the family of Jerome Brown, the NFL star killed in a 1992 accident. The family contended the air bag in his Chevrolet Corvette had deployed early.
-- snip --
Vetronix has sold about 1,000 of its black-box downloading systems to customers who include the California Highway Patrol.
"It's an unbiased witness," Gilman said. "It will tell you information, and if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."
Florida will make it mandatory for ALL vehicles to be equipped with a transponder.
Then, they will decide, the second time someone's transponder is caught speeding will be a fineable offence.
The third offense the state will take your children away and get a court order declaring you an unfit parent. The will put your children in foster care with a gay "married" couple.
My cell phone broadcasts when it is on, like all cell phones...but it does not broadcast my position..all anyone could know is what area of reception I am in, and that can be more than one.
Exactly..if people are in so much of a hurry, that they cannot stop to pay a toll, then this is part of the price for being in a hurry...no one is forcing anyone to get an EZPass, and I seriously doubt that mandatory EZPasses could be enforced...just don't put any batteries in it.
That's already being done in a number of states. There's no control over what the govt puts on their poles, but there is a lot of control over what is in your personal vehicle.
I have never seen a toll road in Florida.
Of course I have never been South of Orlando either, and that was many years ago.
I just remembered, there is a toll bridge across Santa Rosa Sound, or there used to be. Haven't been to Fort Pickens in 30 years.
I agree that there could be a problem in the future, so let's keep our powder dry until then.
See #39.
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