Big Brother will be watching ... and keeping records
Independent Online Edition > Transport:
"In addition to cross-checking each number plate against stolen and suspect vehicles held on the Police National Computer, the national data centre will also check whether each vehicle is lawfully licensed, insured and has a valid MoT test certificate."
Additional uses for this system - which involves thousands of cameras with registration number reading software on city streets, highways, and soon even more on private property at fuel stations and supermarkets - will be tracking the movements of suspected terrorists and checking for convoys. For instance, criminals often steal a car for their getaway and then switch to their own car, so officials hope to be able to track back through th e system to track the stolen vehicle back from the crime scene to where it was stolen and try to identify the criminals' vehicle traveling with it.
YRIHF* - Expect to see transport planners sending helpful hints to auto commuters about people they could be ride-sharing with or pointing out the availabiliy of mass transit. It may also prove useful for spotting trends in commuting patterns that could be used for adjusting bus routes.
* YRIHF = You Read It Here First.
posted by J. Keen Holland @ 9:07 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
The "District of Comedy", meanwhile, is trying to discourage "slugs" by preventing their hosts from stopping to pick them up at several locations in the District. (Slugs are commuters who ride in other commuters' cars without pre-arrangement to meet the HOV restrictions, predominantly on I95.)
Thanks for that interesting bit of news, Ed. How marvelously perverse! For years, various government transportation agencies have been promoting ride-sharing schemes and now they are trying to cut back on it.
Meanwhile, the commuters are responding to one of the defects of ride-sharing schemes that would seem not to have occured to the government employee planner, that being that many people do not work rigid shifts and that the time people go home is less predictable than the time they begin the working day.
I suspect there is also a concern that people who ride mass transit in the morning are opting out for the ride home causing a loss of revenue to the transit authority.
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