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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.
"hopes to reduce fatigue-related accidents by encouraging drivers to stop more often."
Bah... Increased driver fatigue and now they won't be able to get anyone to leave!
particlesphere.com - quantum
or it's gonna encourage users to download more pr0n for the long trip.
Rest stops: Not just for anonymous sex anymore!
Driving a while
Fire up your laptop
Welcome to the Texas State
Login : root
Pass : ******
The internet makes you rested? I never woulda thunk!
I'll just stay on-line all the time - just think of the time I'll save not sleeping.
I doubt people will be too keen on the idea of using a government network to check email, IM, and surf the web. Also, not many people just carry their laptop with them in the car. Most drivers want to get to where they are going as fast as they can.
Now the long-haul truckers will stay up all night at the rest stop surfing the web instead of sleeping.
Personally, when I go on long trips, I don't like to stop at the rest stops any longer than necessary. They are, for the most part, not terribly pleasant places to spend a pleasant afternoon. If I want to take a longer break, I'll find a restaurant or a park in the nearest podunk town.
For the wrong reason.
If they had this all the way from Va to Fl, it would take me days to make it home, although everytime I get angry because X cut me off or Y was tailgating me I could pull over, play some CS and release all my anger.
And besides this is Texas what else is their to do while driving on I-10.
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
Either it will make fatigued drivers stop, or it will make them learn to type really really fast as they zoom through the WiFi hotspots...
This has got to be one of the most ridiculous things I have heard in a while. It really sounds like a push from some wifi startup or something to suck government funds.
What percentage of sleepy people are there going to be on the road traveling in Texas that have a computer on them with wifi access and really want to stop to use it? Dunno, but probably not many.
What percentage of sleepy people are there going to be on the road traveling in Texas that want to stop at a rest stop every once and a while that has clean bathrooms, palatable water (ie, not that recycled toilet water), and maybe a free, or affordable cup of coffee that is palatable? I'd guess about 100. Anything below 100 is for those that don't drink coffee.
I vote put the wifi in!
It could be awesome. How about setting up some Ad-Hoc network across cars driving in between the rest stations. If you get enough users, you would never lose connectivity!
The only thing that hurts my eyes more than driving is reading a computer screen...
in soviet russia, rest stops get wifi access from YOU.
:P this would be kinda handy. i've several times wished i could email or IM or check my email (or mapquest :P) while driving on the interstate.
:D
i'm all for ubiquitous wifi
[insert joke about the information superhighway here]
for a minute there, i lost myself...
A rest stop in the middle of nowhere is really the last place you should lose situational awareness.
It's cool they want to do this, but I recall driving from Dallas to Salt Lake City via state highways in Texas (Dallas to Amarillo) and there wasn't a bathroom to be seen.
There was, however, a picnic stop every 50 miles. Didn't have the guts to relieve myself out those places, although I was tempted.
Remain lost in hidden worlds where I reign. Head engine and caboose in my toy train...
1. Give people a website addr via bathroom wall to report/get speed trap info
2. Share the info via CB and text to speech
3. ???
4. Profit
This can only be good news for the rest stop whores... Download the porn to get you all in the mood for free while resting at the romantic, misquito flocked crosswalk illuminated rest stop sign, and then charge 200$ for a handjob. Brilliant.
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."
Not trying to be a privacy nut but this could easily be used to track you, if you had your laptop running in the car the service station logs could build up a map of your journey, even if you had it turned off and just used it at afew stops it could still give some decent location information. But then again, thats what wardriving is all about.. heh... ok ill stop.
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Public accessible wifi becoming popular? Just try and track me now RIAA!
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
When I'm traveling I generally use my cellphones gprs connection to get internet access on my laptop (the joys of bluetoothing). Given that basic browsing is readily available in my car, why would I want to stop anyway? It seems sort of silly that I waste time sitting in a rest-area just so I can browse the net...
This is entirely off-topic. Maybe it's on topic. I don't know. Maybe I'm just karma whoring.
A few years ago I was trapsing across the country for kicks. I stopped by a truck stop in the middle of Wyoming to fill up on fuel for the vehicle and fuel for me. I chatted up with a trucker while we waited for our orders.
This guy was hauling ass from Florida to Montana and he only had days left. His destination was getting back home. His daughter was graduating from high school. He didn't feel like he was going to make the ceremony, but he was trying. I don't know if he ever made it.
But really this effort isn't going to do anything. Truckers live their life away from their family and if the gentleman I had lunch with that day is any indication, their goal is to drop off the payload and get home to their family. The stuff in the middle might seem cool to the rest of us here. Our lives aren't 90% away from home missing our kids childhood. Maybe our angle is all wrong on this.
If someone had evil intentions, someone could really exploit free anonymous wireless access on a lonely freeway road. For example, say a person has control over a number of zombie machines on the internet; that person simply drives to one of these free wifi zones and begins launching DoS attacks. When/if these attacks are traced, they will be traced to an anonymous wireless network along some highway.
Also consider someone who is exchanging illegal files. You can trace their IP address, but what good is it if the only info in the logs available is a MAC address from a Linksys wireless NIC for a laptop?
Worst yet, consider how easy this will make spamming. Just take your laptop to one of these "rest stops" and send out 1,000,000 emails to unsuspecting users. Then when law enforcement examines the email headers, they see that the spammer was some guy who stopped to use the restroom and was gone.
I have to agree that this sounds like a useful idea and probably one worthy of the relatively limited investment required, but the stated goal is absurd. Yeah, I'm sure it will encourage sleepy drivers to pull over. And then what? They go to the jolt cola website and are instantly revived? Or maybe they visit their favorite pRon site and become zombified. The real, unstated goal is to provide network access to people traveling across Texas. Texas is large. If you don't believe me, you can look at a map.
Probably I am not alone with that, but I feel kinda spaced out every time I stand up from my 6-8 hours of screen-staring sessions and sit in a car ....
....
.... maybe free massages ... swimming pools ?
I can feel it even more when I ride my (motor)bike after using the computer for a long time
I think people need something "to not stare at" after a long drive
This is a very true statement. I only make it 'home' every couple years now. The last was for one of my old high school reunion. I was only going to be around the house for 4 days after the reunion 2 hours away. My father was supposed to be there for the last two days. His pickup was delayed. -12 hours. He is limited to 8 hours a day. minus a few more hours. His drop off was delayed. He waited 12 hours. He hightails it home. And misses me by 2 hours since I had to leave amongst hurricane evac traffic and needed an extra hour to get to the airport to get out. (gotta love the carolinas in the fall . . .)
Truck drivers don't want to spend time at rest stops. When they are resting, they are doing just that; resting. But, with limitations on how much they can drive in a given day and over a given week, there is time where they have to do something. Cell phones are getting cheaper, especially with family to family calling, but there are always limits and rules that eventually bring that bill up.
Getting connectivity during one of those stops would allow him to IM with my mother and youngest brother. And if they do this in enough places (he doesn't often get down here to Texas that often), I'd be motivated to outfit his rig with some good wifi gear and try out some VOIP stuff (which might bomb, but its worth trying).
Military pensions for those who've faithfully and honorably served decades just doesn't go far enough. It's bad enough that my father has to work his retirement years away from his family. Any little thing that could improve that time he spends away being a part of the grand interstate commerce scheme and let him keep in touch I see as a good thing. Truck drivers aren't the scuzzy hollywood stereotype (though I'm sure there're some that are, I haven't met any yet) . . . Many are ex-military. And most know how to use a computer since most of those semis are equipped with Sat driven comptuers to monitor their locations and times spent driving now . . . it's just too bad those don't allow for data uplinks for them to hookup pc's into or supply a voip connection.
Being from Wyoming, and now living in Texas, I am used to long stretches of nothing. I love rest areas. In Wyoming the rest areas are actually pretty nice, solar power facilities. Here in Texas they are not so nice (some nice, some not so nice). Wi-fi will be a welcome addition. I can really some opening up my laptop at the rest area.
As far as safety at rest stops, I have always packed my hand gun while traveling and always have it on-person at rest areas. Don't screw with me while I am taking a leak! This is just a force of habit, and a good habit at that. I know the "Michael Moore is God and we love Rosie O'Donnell" crowd will be all over my ass. Seriously, a rest area in the middle of nowhere means the only law might be you. So if you don't feel safe at a rest area (like a truck stop, etc is any better) please check into local gun safety classes and a nice Colt or Glock.
So there you go. When in Texas, carry your wi-fi enable device and a nice hand gun, and you will have a great stay!
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
I doubt people will be too keen on the idea of using a government network to check email, IM, and surf the web.
So use SSH, VPN, or some other encrypted tunnel back to your home or office machine. Read or download email that way, and surf the web through a proxy.
Also, not many people just carry their laptop with them in the car. Most drivers want to get to where they are going as fast as they can.
I do. Even on vacation. And it's a bitch to find a feed on a two week, 5,000 mile road trip. But not as much of a bitch as being out-of-touch for two weeks (with those I'm willing to be IN touch with on a vacation, of course. B-) )
Truckers need to be in touch. So much so that the truckers often pay a significant charge at service plazas (i.e. Flying J) for internet access - either a terminal or WiFi to the cab. (Also: Many truckers live in their trucks for weeks at a time, so their recreational internet use depends on such feeds.)
Salesmen and other "road warriors" need it, too. Only place I know they can reliably find it free is Kinkos. They provide lots of free office-on-the-road service (such as free local phone and handy calling card dispensers) to small businesses and road warriors, to entice such people in. They make it all back with significant profit on printing and other office services they provide for a fee. (Also: Their T1 brings in big print jobs from the local businesses. So letting the customers plug into the hub and use the net is essentially free.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Whoever came up with this hasn't really done much long-distance driving. When you pull over at a rest area, you generally fall into one of three categories:
1. You're tired, and want to nap. Computers -- and the web/Internet specifically -- are great ways to kill time, but mean you don't sleep because there's just one more thing you wanted to do, so having WiFi is useless, or counter-productive at worst.
2. You are stiff, losing concentration, and generally fatigued but don't feel like sleeping. What you need to do is stretch your legs, move around a bit, breathe some fresh air, allow your eyes to roam and relax rather than focusing on the road and speedo, maybe have something to eat/drink, maybe visit a toilet. Sitting down and surfing the web or reading your email won't help you here, except maybe on the can.
3. You're a tourist or simply enjoying the scenic aspects of the trip, and stop to look around or maybe even have a picnic. People who simply cannot get away from the Internet are precisely those who will benefit the most from it's absence, whether they realise it or not.
Sure, there are emergency stops, but unless there are lots of these rest areas, emergency stops are at least as likely to occur elsewhere, and in any case, emergency services are all contactable by phone, not Internet.
There are other possibilities, of course, but they're so marginal that it's not worth wasting money on them.
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).
You folks can't really believe they are doing this to encourage sleepy drivers to pull over, can you? Let me spell it out for you plain and simple...
They want to track your travel habbits, that's it. Most folks aren't going to change wireless cards at every stop... so they'll be able to see where your mac address stops, for how long, and how often. Hello?!? Folks, this is more obvious than the RFID tag monitoring... and probably far more effective.
This sig intentionally left blank.
Wife: How about we pull over here and get some rest so that we don't get in an accident from fatigue? . . .
Husband: OK
Wife: I think I'll have a nap.
Husband: OK
Wife: ZZZZZZZzzzzzz
Husband: *Flips open notebook* Ahh... WiFi....
Wife: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz
Husband: Finally I can download all kinds of weird porn, and nobody can find out it was me. .
Wife: ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz
Husband: Oh, a live hidden web-cam in the girl dormatory! Cool! I'll give it five more minutes. .
Wife: ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
Husband: Ok, I'll take a nap now. Oh, wait! That hot redhead is going in the shower! Just two more minutes. .
Wife: Yaaawwwnnnn..... 'Morning, honey.
Husband: *Smacks lid on notebook shut* Uh... Umm... 'Morning.... I was just using my notebook for a pillow, by the way.
Wife: Should we get going again?
Husband: Sure. (Thinking: I can stay awake for another 24 hours, no problem.)
Husband: ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Truck horn: BBBWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR
Wife: EEEEEeeeeeee
Trucker: G*d d**n!
Wife:
Husband:
Paramedic 1: Bag 'em!
Paramedic 2: Things really got bysy after they put up them thar antennas at all the rest stops, I'll say.
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