Posted on 05/01/2007 10:49:17 AM PDT by devane617
Spies in the sky may track motorists in Britain within a decade if the government goes ahead with controversial plans to manage traffic flow and introduce road fees for drivers, scientists said on Tuesday.
The plans were unveiled in November in a report on future transportation policies designed to help cut traffic congestion. The plans prompted 1.8 million people to sign an electronic protest petition.
Monitoring would be via a combination of static cameras to capture license-plate details, electronic tags in vehicles that would be read by roadside monitoring stations and global positioning system satellites to read on-board transponders.
"You will need 10 years at a minimum for a national rollout," Phil Blyth, professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University, told reporters. "I do not see many other options available to us to manage our transport system."
Blythe, head of a panel of transportation experts from the Institution of Engineering and Technology, a London-based nonprofit, said the technology was already available and had been tried and tested in various countries, including Australia and Brazil.
The London congestion charge zone uses static cameras and will begin deploying electronic tags beginning in 2010. Cities such as Singapore have been operating electronic tagging for years, and Stockholm's pilot program becomes permanent in July.
An extension of existing GPS SatNav technology would be a simple feat, panel members told a news conference.
Panel member Bill Gillan, from the U.K.-based Transport Research Laboratory, said he believed that satellite tracking eventually would supersede the other technologies.
National coverage Not only could it allow for variable rates at different times of the day to smooth traffic flows, but it could also track distance and provide cost-effective national coverage.
However, cost was the key. "How do you encourage people to fit an on-board unit to their car?
"You have to juggle the cost, the charges and the penalties and offer some carrots as well as sticks," he said. Simply making manufacturers fit tracking systems to all new cars would not be sufficient to guarantee rapid coverage, he said.
Panel member and transportation consultant Jack Opiola said the thorny issue of personal data privacy could easily be dealt with by appropriate laws.
There are 30 million vehicles on the roads of Britain, a figure forecast to surge by one-third within 15 years, which would increase the journey times that industry complains are already putting businesses at a competitive disadvantage.
Blythe said the government had to explain clearly to people what was at stake in terms of personal benefits from faster journeys and global gains from reduced greenhouse gas emissions due to fewer traffic jams.
Any way to control and tax the public — isn’t socialism wonderful ??
“Look for this here in the USA soon. Technology is available to track movement, charge tolls, and cite for violations relating to traffic issues.”
That was my reaction too. People won’t like it, but they’re docile. The left will present it as a progressive use tax, which to them equals a “good” tax. (No such thing).
I hate how lazy and stupid Americans have become.
I don’t think even Orwell in his darkest hours thought things could get this bad.
come here for freedom Brits, our doors are open.
Speak for yourself. The Brits like to be governed and they'll bring their subservient attitudes with them
To be governed … is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censured, checked, valued, enrolled – by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so. Proudhon
It’s important for our Freeper friends in the UK to do one of two things to combat this. These are very realistic things one can do:
1: Sign up for this technology early. The Early stages are when the system can be hacked. Sign up early and hack it early. Learn all you can on systems like this.
Or, the Preferred course of action:
2: Get the HECK out of that socialist, big-brother tyranny of cameras that you call home.
All of this technology, and STILL no talk of tracking implants on known Islamists ?
My former home state of Washington would adopt this in a New York minute! And since moving here, I know pretty much how short a period of time that is!
It will allow government flunkies to know everything about you - who your friend are, what bar you drink at, what meetings you go to, etc, etc.
Secondly it will allow the mommy state to control all your activities through targeted taxes - how far you commute to work, where and when you shop, how many miles you drive a year.
Pretty soon the Brits will have on-board tailpipe monitors and charge motorists by the “puff.”
Not so much docile as malleable; have you ever worried a paperclip in two?
In a thousand different ways, morning and night, 24/7, Big Brother is watching...
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