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London to Introduce Traffic Congestion Charge
Vivek writes "BBC is reporting that Londoners will have to pay a 5 pound "Congestion Charge" starting Feb 17. According to this Times of India article, an Indian software firm called Mastek developed the .NET based software to implement the plan. In the absence of toll booths, it reportedly uses character recognition from 700 surveillance cameras to identify defaulting license plates." See our previous story for background.
Nah, everyone will be required to use a Suitcase Car - it will remove the need for on-street parking, opening up additional lanes. Also, in traffic you can just get up and walk.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
For those not in the know, thats 5 pounds of money. Or, for the metrically inclined, its about 2.3 kilos of money. This roughly equates to a metric ass-load.
No, that would be sensible, rational and expensive. These are British politicians we're talking about.
Stick Men
If commuters are the problem, why not pass a law prohibiting companies within the congestion zone from hiring employees that don't live in the congestion zone? That should take care the problem.
For every problem there is a law that can solve it!
Next?
It doesn't have to fool a human inspector, just an OCR algorithm working on a fuzzy video feed. Just print random license plate numbers on paper in the same font and hold it up in your back window when you pass a camera. You don't even have to drive. Just hold up the papers while you walk by a camera. Might as well see how their .NET servers stand up to a good crap-flooding.
One of the exemptions is for "Vehicles with 9 or more seats". Can't wait to see the new breed of monster SUV's that suddenly become popular in central London . . .
bah - I got this when I first moved to london, but it seems to have passed now ... my theory is that my body is working out a way to get me some super powers out of it. Hopefully it will involve flying, so I can skip the crappy commute.
... looking on the bright side, I still won't have to worry about traffic!
Of course, the more likely explanation is that I am ingesting it all, and am now slowly dying
So if you see people walking around London with big signs, something along the lines ofyou'll know what they're trying to do.
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
Tony Blair is Left wing? I thought he was Margaret Thatcher with plastic surgery and a haircut.
the things you learn eh?