Innovation Nation
More and more of us carry a cell phone and more and more those cell phones are doing more than just making phone calls. In Chicago, city parking officials are testing a system that allows drivers to use their cell phones to pay for parking. A special meter is installed on the dashboard and the zone and parking value is displayed in such a way that enforcement personnel can see it. The beauty of this system is that value can be added to the on-dash meter remotely. For example, if you are shopping and realize that your meter is about to expire, all you have to do is dial into the system and add 30 minutes or an hour to the meter. It's a program that's been used for some time in Europe, along with the ability to pay for rides on buses and trains just by waving the phone over a sensor.
Speaking of sensors and phones, one of the biggest advancements in traffic information gathering is the use of cell phone signals. This system has been tested along Interstate 95 near Baltimore and in several other locations around the country. It doesn't matter if the cell phone is in use or not. Apparently cell phones continuously emit some sort of generic signal. That signal, and the signal of others around it on a stretch of road or highway, can be converted in computer programs that determine traffic volumes. By tracking the amount of time it takes that signal to go from one cell site to the next, the system can estimate the speed at which the traffic is moving. The real beauty of this system is that it costs a lot less than many of the sensor systems that are out there.
Many systems rely on sensors that are embedded in the road to make their calculations. There are two problems with these systems: 1) they are very expensive to install, and (2) they wear out in a relatively short period of time and have to be replaced at a cost that is roughly what it was to put them in the first time. The cell phone sensors and relay devices can be mounted on existing poles and powered by solar energy.
A lot of people are concerned that cell phone sensors mean that "Big Brother" will be watching and tracking us as we drive down the road, recording every turn we make. As I understand it, although this comes from the cell phone companies, the signal that it emitted by the phone that is used for this purpose does not tie the phone directly to its owner, that it's virtually untraceable. The option for those concerned is to turn the phone off completely and to wrap it in aluminum foil. Oh, and use cash instead of EZ-Pass to pay your tolls if you don't want anyone to know where you have been. The truth is that so many of the "conveniences" that we use; SmarTrip cards, EZ-Pass, keyless building access cards, and even some of the new GPS systems installed in passenger vehicles all leave a trail of electronic cookie crumbs by which we can be tracked if "someone" really wants to know where we have been and when.
Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com. Unless otherwise requested, letters or portions of letters can be used within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first name and city/neighborhood.
