GPS Tracking ROI

Following the successful launch of PlatePass, an electronic toll payment service that enables renters to bypass cash toll lanes in Houston, Texas and the Northeast corridor, Hertz has expanded the program to the state of Florida’s toll roads. PlatePass provides renters a cost-effective way to save time and reduce stress on the road by allowing customers to use SunPass Only and E-Pass electronic toll-collection lanes throughout Florida. PlatePass is an automated toll payment service offered by American Traffic Solutions, Inc… read the rest of this article which is really more about toll entities with thei heads up and locked than it is about Hertz.

Ok, back in the dim and distant recess of time someone thought about building abridge or even a whole turnpike and defraying the cost/making a profit by charging users a toll for each trip. It was good business sense, and in fact our world-wide transportation industry depends aupon this business model … which long predates the automobile, by the way.

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…..Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) to provide real-time traffic flow data for nearly 250 miles of US 41 and I-43. These main routes carry tens of thousands of cars and trucks each day between Milwaukee, Green Bay and several cities in between. WisDOT will use the information to provide real-time travel information — traffic flow, travel speeds, travel times, congestion, and incident reports — to commercial, commuter and leisure travelers to allow for more safe and efficient travel.
Currently, these routes lack a sufficient amount of traditional sensors, ….. With the near-absence of any sensor coverage on these two routes, the project will be primarily dependent upon GPS-enabled probe vehicles…. read the full article on the Wisconsin DOT traffic data project here:

I’ve mentioned this a time or two before. To save energy, save time and avoid out ever more impatient societies propensity to road rage, departments of transportation around the world have implemented, are implementing or are looking hard at live data traffic reporting systems. The idea behind all of them is to inform motorists and authorities of traffic density in near-real time so that minor peaks in usage can be mitigated, perhaps by allowing drivers to choose their own alternate routes, before jams and tie-ups become massive.

It’s a great idea. The reason we haven’t seen more of it, mainly, is that to implement a useful system in the past one had to invest heavily in some form of sensors. Infrared car counters above the highway lanes, ALPR (Automatic License Plate Recognition) camera systems systems reporting car counts per time interval, Inductive-loop sensors in the pavement, you name it, it’s out there and it’s capable … but expensive. When you build a system correctly it can become very useful:

(Photo courtesy Robert Stack, www.rstack.com)

This is a picture of just part of a near-real time intelligent highway map that greets visitors as they clear customs at Tokyo’s Narita Airport. The roads are major highways for approximately 50 miles around Tokyo, color-coded green, amber and red to show the level of congestion as reported by infrared sensors mounted above the traffic lanes. The amber colored numbers such as the large number “50″ with the little Japanese “squiggle” next to it in the mid-right of the picture tells you that from where you are standing it will take about 50 minutes to reach that area, given present traffic conditions. The estimated times update on a regular basis as reports on traffic flow are processed.

Now it would really be nice to have one of these at the baggage claim or car rental counter at the airport in your city … or wherever you travel to, wouldn’t it? The biggest reason you don’t see systems this complex very often is the expense. No matter what you use for sensors and how you route the data to a central processor there are going to be significant start-up and recurring monthly costs.

Enter Inrix’s network. Among other data the one thing they use which ties in to my interest is anonymous reports from the hundreds of vehicles equipped with GPS tracking that will be on the roadway of interest at any one time. All this tracking data is being collected by vehicle and fleet owners for various government and business reasons and it all has to flow to central data collection pints anyway. So filter out the identifying information about who owns or drives a particular vehicle and what do you have? A live data probe, covering the ground you are interested in at virtually no additional cost, fuel or congestion penalty. nest stuff and certainly the kind of out of the box thinking instead of the “we can’t do it, it costs too much” response you usually hear from bureaucrats. Kudos to the WisDOT.

I got into this item a little late. it was base don a Washington Post article but I can’t find the original credits. The story involved following a normal American business woman (a real estate agent) as she goes about a single day and documenting just how much information is being gathered about her, by GPS or any other means. Pretty interesting stuff.

6:15 a.m.

Bernard, who is married and has a grandson, pads into the lobby of her Reston condo complex on the way to the building’s gym, and almost no one else is about. But a security camera records her. If the government or a divorce lawyer wants the tapes, they can subpoena them.

I don’t think the average person has any inkling of how many times they are staring on video in today’s day and age. It’s been a harsh winter back in Colorado Springs where my wife and I recently fled from the cold, and spouse takes great delight in sitting and watching the various weather and traffic cams that are online. There’s no telling just how much information with techniques such as ALPR various agencies or private individuals may, or may not be gathering from these ubiquitous, all-seeing “eyes”.

7:17 a.m.

Bernard returns to her condo after her workout, nestles into a bedroom love seat and fires up her laptop to check e-mail.

She opens a few, deletes 38 more - junk mail from Weight Watchers, a personal trainer, a firm that sells art posters. The U.S. government claims that even before she’s opened them, it should have the right to read them if it needs to. The technology exists to do that.

Bernard is not only trackable, but she is a tracker. She says it helps her be a better real estate agent. Through a Web-based notification service, she can see what homes her clients are interested in and copies of e-mails sent to new clients who register on her Web site, KittyBernard.com.

“I can e-mail them and say, ‘I see you’ve been on my Web site’.”

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 14 (UPI) — Police in British Columbia are testing an innovative new mobile system to scanned vehicle license plates.

The new system can be used to track everything from traffic law violators to terrorists… Full Article Here

yes it can be used to track all those ‘persons of interest’ … and more, actually. Read the full article and note the little sort of throw away paragraph at the end … stationary systems are being used at some border crossing points. Now is I were a Canadian one of the things I’d worry about is my shopping. It’s no secret that thousands of Canadians who live close to the US border routinely drive across to by food, booze and even gasoline. It’s been an accepted practice for years … but now each time their car passes the border it will be automatically tallied … who knows how many trips it will take before the tax man is automatically notified to wake up and take notice.

We’ve been talking quite a bit lately about the implications of GPS tracking on personal freedoms and privacy … even about professor Dobson’s “GeoSlavery” presentations. There is of course something to be said on both sides of the issue. Advocates may be pushing the technology too strongly and trampling rights. GPS-phobes may be genning up one too many conspiracy theories and forgetting to wear their tinfoil hats. But the cute … or scary thing I’ve discovered looking deeper and deeper into this discussion is … take away GPS completely and we still have a huge issue revolving around who can collect data, who should collect the data and what they should be allowed to do with it.

The ALPR(Automated License Plate Recognition) system mentioned in the lead article is nothing more than a camera and character recognition software. At $30K a pop it won’t be in every police car any time soon … but having dealt in the police and public safety marker anything sold to the police at $30K can probably be marketed on the commercial segment for $3K today … and much of the electronics involved is in virtual free-fall as far as price is concerned. So price won’t keep this restricted to known and theoretically trustworthy law enforcement agencies.

Laws? There virtually are none. It’s pretty well established in law that you have no expectation of privacy when you drive on a public road and it’s unlikely there are many local laws or ordinances that make it illegal to photograph cars on a public highway … especially if the faces of the occupants aren’t seen. If I have a file of credit card numbers it’s almost certainly illegal for me to sell them on the open market … but a file of license plate numbers? heck in most states you can buy them from the DMV. A file listing plate numbers passing a given point at a given time? Might not be a hacker’s goldmine but certainly marketable to the right user.

The systems work, too. Look at the results British Columbia is coming up with … an average of 10 cars per hour who are already on someone’s “hit list”. I don’t know the actual stats but I think it would be a pretty lucky and pretty overworked patrol officer to be able to nab 10 cars per hour, 80 per shift.

There are also units with substantially higher processing rates than the 600 per hour quoted here.

Bottom Line? better think long and hard about what data you think should be collected and how you want it handled. Invasive surveillance is already a fact of life and it doesn’t require GPS or RFID or any other overt action on your part to bring yourself into the system. Does your favorite law maker even know about the issue, let alone have legislation in the works to help?

Technorati tags: GPS tracking, surveillance, spying, cameras, ALPR, GPS abuse