Slashdot Mirror
Texas Using WiFi to Encourage Driving Breaks
squidfrog writes "An AP article reports: 'To encourage drivers to take more frequent breaks, the Texas Department of Transportation wants to set up free wireless Internet access at rest stops and travel information centers. TxDOT, which says Texas is the first state to provide such free access at rest areas, began experimenting with WiFi hotspots last fall... Andy Keith, manager of TxDOT's maintenance division, said the state hopes to reduce fatigue-related accidents by encouraging drivers to stop more often.' Is public WiFi becoming a trend?" We previously mentioned this scheme a couple of weeks back, although not the motivation behind it.
Combine this with GPS (or just figure out how to map the IP addresses to rest stop locations) and prostitutes could track their customers progress over the interstates, thereby optimizing the queue and maximizing revenue, without overflow (since overbooking causes negative consumer satisfaction). It would sort of be like how Wal-Mart manages their supply.
"My three-o-clock is still 75 minutes out of town, so I have time to squeeze one more in before he gets here."
In some states, they're dirty and usually sort of creepy. (Arkansas has some of these.)
:)
In some places they're functional (I'm thinking of the turnpike plazas along the DC-NYC corridor), with fast food, usually working restrooms, gas stations. Not a place to spend much time, and I know that at least some of the NJ ones have a 2-hour limit, so not a good place -- not just for that reason! -- for a nap.
In some places they're actually friendly; the big state-entry ones in Tennesee, Colorado and Texas, for instance. Since I prefer to travel by car vs. airplane when possible, I've hit a lot of bad ones and a lot of good ones; Texas is high on the Good list in my experience. Also, Texas has a fair number of no-facilities parking rest stops out in the sticks, where there might be a few shaded picnic tables -- if fatigue creeps up, these are (literally) lifesavers when on rural roads with few places to stop. And free WiFi? Hey, even better
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
The rest stops in Texas are fairly clean. "Dirty" is a word that does not come to mind whenever I stop at one. Since they are along highways, I feel fairly safe when stopping there (at least during the daytime).
I don't know where you drive, but the rest stops on major thoroughfares here in Texas are pretty well-maintained.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
For the most part, the rest stops in Texas are well maintained, well lighted, clean, and generally very comfortable places to take a break. I wouldn't have any problem stopping at a Texas rest stop to check my e-mail, etc, any more that I would in ANY reasonably public place. If it's dark and you're alone, you'd be stupid to leave yourself vulnerable - rest area or no.
-- "Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
and at least around here truckers have their driving hours limited so they have mandatory sleeping pauses(trucks have black boxes to record when it's moving and what speed to check they really stop at their breaks). So they're stuck on these stops sometimes without real choosing of where, and if they can check email from their family that's a good thing(or view porno, whatever).
Well, that's true - SORT OF. I used to be a long-haul driver, so I'm speaking from experience here. Yes, we have mandatory breaks (At the time it was 10 hours on, 8 hours off - now it's different, 10 on 10 off I believe), and while we do have satellite tracking black boxes, they do NOT actually even attempt to record your on and off duty times. Especially when you factor in a team, they really can't anyway.
What we truckers do (The majority, for the most part) is called speed averaging. Let's say the speed limit for your rig in a particular area is 55MPH. You go 300 miles, which should be about 5.5 hours or so. But let's say your going through Chicago, during rush hour. It actually takes you 9 hours. Well, what we do is simple do the math at a truck stop past where there congestion was. So we'd stop in Gary, IN and do 300/55 - and write down on our logs 5.5 hours, maybe 6 (to make it look good) and log 3.5 hours as "Off-Duty". If we're feeling awake enough, you better believe we'll go start on the road again for another 3.5 hours - so I've just done in excess of my federal mandatory of 10 hours by almost 4 hours.
Illegal? Yes, but time is money. Do they know about it? Of course they do. Can they stop it? Nope, they can't. I've had logs scrutinized many times but never got a ticket because I did it right - as long as it looks "believeable enough" you'll be fine.
As for not knowing where you'll end up stopping - well that's not real true either. After a few months, you know which areas you like to stop in and which ones you hate - and you speed average yourself so you conveinently use up your 10 hours in the place you want.
It is a dangerous thing though - technically you can drive 14-15 hours and only log your 10. Since you want to make money, you go to sleep for the remainder of the 3-4 hours that you have left, which can cause sleep deprevation. But when you can pull in over 75,000/year within 2 years by hustling, you learn to drive tired hehe
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
I live in Austin, TX the worlds leading city for free WIFI hotspot's and must say after you start wandering around this city and tapping into it's culture you really see the change it is making. Every local business is sprinkled with dozens of people on laptops carrying out net-related tasks. The leader of the revolution here in Austin is a man by the name of Richard MacKinnon, founder of Less Networks and the Austin Wireless City Project (http://www.lessnetworks.com/ and http://austinwirelesscity.org/), and I hope we will all one day (I already am) be indebted to to him and his promotion of free WIFI. This of course is partly in response to the T-Mobile & Starbucks companionship for paid wireless in coffee shops. Austin has free wireless in its public parks and is working to connect more businesses daily. For more on this I have written an article over here: (http://www.johnwyles.com/archives/2004/06/12/aust in_wireless_hot_spots.php).