Hybrids, Carpooling, Environment, Privacy  

Posted by Big Gav

Dan Gillmor has an interesting tale about an unwholesome combination of the good (hybrid cars, car pool lanes and fast toll processing) the bad (the growing surveillence state) and the ugly (abusing the car pool lane idea).

The Mercury News reports that owners of certain kinds of hybrid cars can now apply for new $8 stickers allowing the use of carpool lanes. This is a result of a law passed last year by California's legislature, and ratified in the giant pork-barrel transportation bill just enacted in Washington.

It turns out, however, that there's a sneaky element to the state legislation. To get the carpool-lane sticker, car owners have to also fork over another $40 for a Fast-Trak transponder -- a little radio that tells bridge tollbooths that you're passing by (you don't have to stop and pay a toll-taker) and which is monitored by others unless you keep it in a protective bag hiding the signal.

... this deal happened because the regional bridge authority asked the DMV to get the wording. The more people using these transponders, the fewer human tolltakers the state needs, for one thing, and the fee for the transponders is not trivial. No doubt this makes law enforcment happy, too, as it provides yet another surveillance tool on more people.

As an owner of a hybrid, I'm in a bit of a dilemma. I was opposed to this law in the first place. It looked like an unnecessary diversion away from the point of carpool lanes, which are designed primarily to get more than one driver into each car during commuting hours and therefore get cars off the highways. (This is one reason why I also think it's outrageous that parents can use the carpool lanes to drive their kids around.)

We have much the same problem here (though no one is handing out express lane rights to those with transponders, as that is a fairly large portion of the population - even I have one and I only get the car out of the garage twice a week).
Many Sydneysiders may cheer when the Cross City Tunnel opens for business this Sunday. But as you whiz through the tunnel, remember to wave goodbye not only to those 18 sets of traffic lights, but also something less tangible - your anonymity. As the first cashless toll-road - with others to follow - drivers and riders will have no choice but to identify themselves every time they drive across town. It all adds up to a profile on each person's daily movements.

Sure, we've had electronic tags for a while, but we've each been able to choose whether or not to trade a little of our privacy for the convenience of a faster trip. Not any more.

The next step towards 1984 is issuing national id cards with RFID chips in them to everyone and making the carrying of these mandatory. The race is one to see which part of the Anglosphere / Oceania gets there first.

As Dan Gillmor notes on the topic of RFID, "One of the tech crowd's least attractive attributes has been its zeal to become the tool supplier for the surveillance state. This is another example of an industry putting money over liberty."

Jeff Vail might say that this is bringing the "Closing of the map" down to a personal level.

0 comments

Post a Comment

Statistics

Locations of visitors to this page

blogspot visitor
Stat Counter

Total Pageviews

Ads

Books

Followers

Blog Archive

Labels

australia (619) global warming (423) solar power (397) peak oil (355) renewable energy (302) electric vehicles (250) wind power (194) ocean energy (165) csp (159) solar thermal power (145) geothermal energy (144) energy storage (142) smart grids (140) oil (139) solar pv (138) tidal power (137) coal seam gas (131) nuclear power (129) china (120) lng (117) iraq (113) geothermal power (112) green buildings (110) natural gas (110) agriculture (91) oil price (80) biofuel (78) wave power (73) smart meters (72) coal (70) uk (69) electricity grid (67) energy efficiency (64) google (58) internet (50) surveillance (50) bicycle (49) big brother (49) shale gas (49) food prices (48) tesla (46) thin film solar (42) biomimicry (40) canada (40) scotland (38) ocean power (37) politics (37) shale oil (37) new zealand (35) air transport (34) algae (34) water (34) arctic ice (33) concentrating solar power (33) saudi arabia (33) queensland (32) california (31) credit crunch (31) bioplastic (30) offshore wind power (30) population (30) cogeneration (28) geoengineering (28) batteries (26) drought (26) resource wars (26) woodside (26) censorship (25) cleantech (25) bruce sterling (24) ctl (23) limits to growth (23) carbon tax (22) economics (22) exxon (22) lithium (22) buckminster fuller (21) distributed manufacturing (21) iraq oil law (21) coal to liquids (20) indonesia (20) origin energy (20) brightsource (19) rail transport (19) ultracapacitor (19) santos (18) ausra (17) collapse (17) electric bikes (17) michael klare (17) atlantis (16) cellulosic ethanol (16) iceland (16) lithium ion batteries (16) mapping (16) ucg (16) bees (15) concentrating solar thermal power (15) ethanol (15) geodynamics (15) psychology (15) al gore (14) brazil (14) bucky fuller (14) carbon emissions (14) fertiliser (14) matthew simmons (14) ambient energy (13) biodiesel (13) investment (13) kenya (13) public transport (13) big oil (12) biochar (12) chile (12) cities (12) desertec (12) internet of things (12) otec (12) texas (12) victoria (12) antarctica (11) cradle to cradle (11) energy policy (11) hybrid car (11) terra preta (11) tinfoil (11) toyota (11) amory lovins (10) fabber (10) gazprom (10) goldman sachs (10) gtl (10) severn estuary (10) volt (10) afghanistan (9) alaska (9) biomass (9) carbon trading (9) distributed generation (9) esolar (9) four day week (9) fuel cells (9) jeremy leggett (9) methane hydrates (9) pge (9) sweden (9) arrow energy (8) bolivia (8) eroei (8) fish (8) floating offshore wind power (8) guerilla gardening (8) linc energy (8) methane (8) nanosolar (8) natural gas pipelines (8) pentland firth (8) saul griffith (8) stirling engine (8) us elections (8) western australia (8) airborne wind turbines (7) bloom energy (7) boeing (7) chp (7) climategate (7) copenhagen (7) scenario planning (7) vinod khosla (7) apocaphilia (6) ceramic fuel cells (6) cigs (6) futurism (6) jatropha (6) nigeria (6) ocean acidification (6) relocalisation (6) somalia (6) t boone pickens (6) local currencies (5) space based solar power (5) varanus island (5) garbage (4) global energy grid (4) kevin kelly (4) low temperature geothermal power (4) oled (4) tim flannery (4) v2g (4) club of rome (3) norman borlaug (2) peak oil portfolio (1)