Thinking of you.
Posted on 12/06/2005 10:24:10 PM PST by nickcarraway
Technology has improved our world in so many ways. When they work, traffic lights and pedestrian crossings with audible cues for those with visual impairments are but one example of the many simple successes of societal automation. But attempts to underpin society with technology have failed too.
Earlier today, I was horrified to learn that the Feds have considered manadating the inclusion of Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices in our cars. As I explain in that blog, I was even more horrified to learn about how the Feds have discussed how, if the devices fall out of touch with the GPS network, that our cars can automatically be disabled. Not only does my own personal account with "state-controlled" vehicle-mounted wireless technology set the precedent for why such Big Brotheresque police-state like technology can never work, it's a sad example of how we as a people have completely failed to leverage existing technology in such a way that makes society more efficient. As a side note, another example of that failure is how thousands upon thousands of good samaritans offered space in their homes to victims of Katrina using Craigs' List and how most of those victims never saw those listings. This is not only a failing of technology, but a failing of the technology community to rise to the occasion of what was really a national disaster. I digress.
Around four years ago (an estimate), my wife and acquired two FastLane electronic toll transponders. Such transponders are designed to ease the congestion at roadway toll booths by letting cars drive through them without stopping to drop a toll in a bucket or exchange monies with a human toll collector. It's a wireless technology. In some states in the northeastern US, the system is referred to as EZPass. FastLane transponders work where EZPass transponders are taken and vice versa. In Massachusetts where I live, if you have a transponder that's compatible with the FastLane system, then, as you approach the toll booth, you pick one of the FastLane Only lanes and theoretically, things should work swimmingly as you drive through the toll plaza. Unfortunately, sometimes they don't and the results can be frustrating as well as a waste of time and money (yours and the taxpayers).
In the FastLane system, each transponder is connected to an account which must be preloaded with enough funds to cover your driving habits on New England's tolled roadways. For the sake of convenience, we have our transponders tied to a credit card. When, by way of transponder usage, one of our preloaded accounts dips below a certain threshold, a transaction with our credit card is triggered to repopulate the account with more funds. Although it's not enforced (it could easily be), when the transponders are purchased, they must also be assigned to a specific vehicle. When my wife and I acquired our transponders, we had to provide the license plate number and other descriptive data such as the year, manufacturer, and model names of our cars.
The "system" involves very little feedback to end-users. When you attempt to drive through a FastLane-only lane tolls, a green light indicates that everything's fine: that your transponder has been detected and your account has been docked whatever the toll amount is. In Massachusetts, at least at the toll booths I frequent, a yellow light indicates that your preloaded account is low on funds. My wife and I ignore these warnings because we know our accounts are set up to automatically reload from our credit card. The last bit of feedback we get is on our credit card statement. Every month or so, we'll see a line item indicating that we've been charged to fund our FastLane accounts.
The transponder itself is a small white brick. It has no buttons or indicator lights. Here's where the problem begins. The only way to tell if the transponder is working is to try to go through a toll booth. If you get a green or yellow light, no problem. But there are no big signs or instructions telling you what to do if you get no light. Is the transponder malfunctioning? Is the toll booth malfuctioning? Should I stay or should I go? There's no way to figure this out. Earlier this year, as I pulled into the FastLane-only lane on Massachusetts' famous Tobin Bridge (just outside of Boston), nothing happened.
Fearful of getting a traffic ticket for some ridiculous amount of money, I stopped and waited. I knew the blare of horn honking going on behind me (other FastLane holders have no patience for a stopped car in the FastLane, nor should they) would attract some attention. Eventually, a toll booth guy walks up to my car and noticed me waving my transponder and says, "Oh, it must be dead. You still have to pay." As I pulled $3.00 out of my pocket, he hands me a piece of paper with instructions on how to get a new transponder. As I a pull away though, the red light blinks and a buzzer goes off. This usually indicates that someone just ran the toll. I've seen this happen many times before, where the toll collector just waves you through despite the red light blinking and the buzzer going off. Little did I know how this would trigger a process that no honest citizen should be forced to go through.
I never gave that day another thought until one day, I got a $100 summons in the mail for running the toll booth. It was signed by a Massachusetts state trooper. There were no troopers in sight when I "ran" the toll so my guess is that when the red light blinked and the buzzer went off, a camera probably took a picture of the license plate on the back of my car. The resulting photograph was probably examined by a trooper who then rather matter of factly wrote up a summons. Apparently, the camera angle didn't include the toll booth guy with my $3.00 toll in his hand.
The time wasted so far includes the time of the people I held up in the FastLane lane, the time of the guy who had to walk up to my car, and the time of all the people involved (including the state trooper) in making sure the $100 summons made its way to my mailbox. Some of that time translates into taxpayer money. Now, even though I consider my time to be worth more than $100 per hour, exoneration from the charges is a matter of principle (and an opportunity to write about a complete but avoidable breakdown in technology). The summons gave me the choice of admitting guilt and paying the fine by mail or going to court. It would have been nice if there was a telephone or Web-based appeals process (opportunities for technology). But, sadly there isn't. To appeal the ticket, I would have to appear in court. Processing my request for appeal involved more time and taxpayer money. Especially since I was due to be in San Francisco on the original court date.
Eventually, I showed up for my court appearance. It took me an hour to get to the courthouse in Chelsea. I had to cross the Tobin Bridge. This time, I paid a toll collector and asked for a receipt. I wished I asked the guy who took my $3.00 on that fateful day for a receipt. But all he gave me was a piece of paper with the instructions on what to do about malfunctioning transponders. Fortunately, I saved it and had it with me in hopes that I could prove I wasn't a lawbreaker and that I did the right thing that day.
After sitting around for about 30 minutes, my name was called and a bailiff ushered me into a courtroom that was the size of a large walk-in closet. Packed against one side was the Judge's bench, the Judge, and a state trooper (but not the one that signed my summons). The Judge read the charges to me and then asked the trooper for a copy of the citation. The trooper said "The state has no citation to offer at this time." The Judge looked at me and said "The charges are dismissed. You may go." All that for nothing. The trooper's time. The bailiff's time. The Judge's time. My time. I didn't even get a chance to defend myself. Even though I didn't have to, I wanted to. I wanted the satisfaction of explaining to someone how the system is a complete failure — practically designed to waste the state's resources and the precious time of its citizens. Thankfully, I'm a salaried employee. But what about the millions of people who would have had to take a day off from work to make such a wasteful court appearance?
So, why was this a failure and what lessons can be learned from this case study for anyone like the Feds whose thinking about tying the proper functioning of a car to a GPS device. First, the idea that a malfunctioning device landed me in court is simply absurd. My punishment (the $100 fine) was in essentially effect until proven otherwise. I'm just now imagining how, when my GPS device malfunctions while on the way to the hospital for an emergency (or to work, a job interview, etc. where delays could have other profound ramifications), my car simply stops and to get it working again, I have to go to court and the burden is on me to prove that the device stopped working. I see new meaning to the acronym F.O.R.D. (a joke among Chevy enthusiasts that means "found on road dead"). Can you imagine dead cars everywhere waiting to be reactivated?
Another reason my FastLane experience was a complete failure of technology is that the database exists for determining potential guilt or innocence. The license plate was obviously visible enough to look up my address in one database and send me a summons. Why not look me up in the other database — the one of people who have FastLane transponders — to see if maybe, just maybe, a FastLane transponder is assigned to my car. Perhaps a "hit" would have triggered a different process. Instead of issuing a summons, I would have been sent the same piece of paper that the aforementioned toll booth guy handed to me when the transponder originally malfunctioned. It could have come with a small pre-addressed box and started by saying "Our records indicate that there may be a problem with your transponder. This is your first and only warning. Another toll violation will trigger an automatic summons. To avoid a summons, please return your transponder in the box provided and we'll replace it. Please use the toll collectors' lanes until you have the new transponder." Or something like that. You get the picture. Let's say the total cost of this process is $15 (could it be anymore?). How does that compare to the amount of taxpayer money that's getting wasted chasing after honest drivers?
At this point, some people are saying, "Hey David. Maybe you loaned your transponder to someone else. Maybe you're trying to beat the system." First, the "system's" records would reflect the usage of the transponder by the person I presumably loaned it to. If no such usage is indicated, then, the authorities really have no grounds to assume foul play. Second, that's what warnings are for. Assuming that the transponder is functioning and, for some reason, I didn't have it with me and I really did run the tolls, I get one warning. After that, I get a summons. Total cost to the state? $3.00 (the toll that didn't get paid) and some postage required to send me the notice that was autogenerated by the system at a cost of about 1 cent.
I'm not done yet. What about the transponders? How about some way of testing them? For example, a button that activates an indicator light. Or, how about a big sign that stretches across the roadway about a mile ahead of the toll both that displays some indication (your license plate number, your transponder number, etc.) that your transponder is functioning?
The bottom line is that it's not just the fallibilty of the technology that's the problem. It's the assumption that people are guilty until proven innocent when the technology fails and the wasteful if not unconstitutional process that follows. What's even worse is that the technology actually exists to mitigate that assumption and how no one is bothering to use it.
Do you have your own personal case study of how technology is failing us as a people? Please use our comments section below to share it with ZDNet's readers, or share it me at david.berlind@cnet.com.
At least seat belts provide no advantage to the government, and protect only you, wether you feel you need the protection or not.
The mythical tracking of every car supplies no protection to you, but merely serves the purpose of government.
Garmin also makes a very good product.
I have been working out there. I wish they would put up more towers, but with so few people, we will worry about the satellite signal before that happens.
grumble, grumble. I just hate even the idea of being tracked--and I'm not breaking any laws.
Technology BUMP!
This suggestion from the party of smaller government?
heh heh heh, we've been had.
I wish I had known that before I retired from SBC. They had GPS on nearly one hundred thousand vehicles and they knew where we were at any time.
Now I wonder how that worked?
Ahhhhhhh, now yo comprendo.
Yeah, that *would* be nice, wooonit? Never happen, though. < |:(~
ROTFLOL!!! What a good subject you are!
Remind me to do research on how much money the government has racked in for failure to wear seat belt citations and not having your child in the specified car seat!
Since not all the sheeple were voluntarily complying or not enough money was being had, the federal government threatened the states with highway funds. Now, 49 states have mandatory seat belt laws.
Ahhh, but only 22 have primary seat belt laws so the arm twisting continues. I am not sure how many other states have now succumbed to their masters and adopted primary seat belt laws in the past 18 months. I'll check that out when I do the other research.
There is only ONE REASON for primary seat belt laws.....TO RANDOMLY STOP YOU TO CHECK YOUR PAPERS...er...to see if you are wearing your seat belt and ticket you for non-compliance.
As for the latter part of your comment, they only protect you if you are in the right kind of accident and are the correct height and weight.
WAKE UP AMERICA ... the nanny state does nothing for your own good - just theirs. Bank on it.
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."
-- Norman Thomas, six-time Socialist Party presidential candidate and one of the founders of the ACLU.
...In Massachusetts where I live,...
That's your first mistake.
Everything that happens to you after that is your own fault.
No way will I get a gps in my vehicles.
I'll set sail first. As we sink further into a third world police state, the real third world looks better all the time.
Everything the government seems to do fails in the intended, I mean, stated goal... at least it seems to>>>>>>
Someone once said that the only things the government is good at are waging war and inflating the currency. They are miserable failures at almost anything else you could name. Anything that government does succeed at will have a negative impact. I tell my coworkers that I am amazed that so many of them keep expecting the government to solve problems, the government is in the business of CREATING problems and promising solutions to the problems they CREATE. This is what keeps government expanding and provides cushy jobs with fantastic benefits for modern day vampires who don't suck actual blood but instead suck the life from the taxpayers by taxes and inflation. Expecting the government to actually solve a problem makes as much sense as expecting O.J. to actually find his late wife's killer.
The mythical tracking of every car supplies no protection to you, but merely serves the purpose of government.>>>>>>>>
Exactly the sort of thing that power mad government types love!
I just hate even the idea of being tracked--and I'm not breaking any laws.>>>>>>>>>>>
And well you should, what Damn business is it of the government to know where I am every time I leave my house?
I enjoyed life more when we used to ride dirt bikes on the street and no one really cared.
Carolyn
"The first libertarian intellectual was Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism. Little is known about his life, but apparently he was a personal acquaintance of Confucius in the late sixth century BC and like the latter came from the state of Sung and was descended from the lower aristocracy of the Yin dynasty.
Unlike the notable apologist for the rule of philosopher-bureaucrats, however, Lao-tzu developed a radical libertarian creed. For Lao-tzu the individual and his happiness was the key unit and goal of society. If social institutions hampered the individual's flowering and his happiness, then those institutions should be reduced or abolished altogether. To the individualist Lao-tzu, government, with its "laws and regulations more numerous than the hairs of an ox," was a vicious oppressor of the individual, and "more to be feared than fierce tigers."
Government, in sum, must be limited to the smallest possible minimum; "inaction" was the proper function of government, since only inaction can permit the individual to flourish and achieve happiness. Any intervention by government, Lao-tzu declared, would be counterproductive, and would lead to confusion and turmoil. After referring to the common experience of mankind with government, Lao-tzu came to this incisive conclusion: "The more artificial taboos and restrictions there are in the world, the more the people are impoverished…. The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be."
The wisest course, then, is to keep the government simple and for it to take no action, for then the world "stabilizes itself." As Lao-tzu put it, "Therefore the Sage says: I take no action yet the people transform themselves, I favor quiescence and the people right themselves, I take no action and the people enrich themselves…."
The proper role of government is inaction, I LIKE THAT
Thinking of you.
The proper role of government is inaction, I LIKE THAT>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is too often forgotten that many of the often cited "great accomplishments" of government action are only great accomplishments because they undo the evil caused by some other government's action. The United States defeat of Nazi Germany was a great accomplishment but it was only necessary because of the evil done by the government of Germany. I am of the opinion that some form of government is necessary but the greatest good would only come if all nations adopted the belief that "that government is best which governs least". Unfortunately, it seems there are two chances for that, "slim and none". I do believe Slim is on an extended vacation.
People that stop in the FastLane should be shot and then drawn and quartered.
And if it's not a ticketable offense, it should be just for the shear stupidity of doing it.
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