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National Car Tracking System Proposed For US
bl968 writes "The Newspaper is reporting that the leading private traffic enforcement camera vendors are seeking to establish a national vehicle tracking system in the United States using existing red-light and speed enforcement cameras. The system would utilize Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to track vehicles passing surveillance cameras operated by these companies. If there are cameras positioned correctly the company will enable images and video to be taken of the driver and passengers. The nice thing in their view is that absolutely no warrants are needed. To gain public acceptance, the surveillance program is being initially sold as an aid for police looking to solve Amber Alert cases and locate stolen cars."
Here's some food for thought:
The coils of wire embedded in the pavement, which are used to monitor freeway traffic and to control traffic lights, could detect the type of car that is passing over by the waveform it produces at the sensor. With some clever signal processing you could distinguish roughly the shape and size of the vehicle.
These sensors are everywhere - you might pass a hundred of them in a day. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to then see that if you could gather data from enough of these sensors, you could track a particular vehicle over the course of many miles. Combine this data with the camera images and you can also identify that vehicle.
I cannot possibly foresee a way that this could be turned against the public in some horrific Orwellian fashion.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Why does it come as absolutely no surprise that they will sell a way to track your movements with "think of the children"?
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
But it's all in public space, so there must be no expectations of privacy, right? RIGHT?
You can't handle the truth.
Now the agenda of the DHS should be clear for everyone. It isn't about catching terrorists, its about tracking every citizen. Most of their money goes to putting up cameras in cities across the US, big and small and putting up "fusion" centers which track everything.
Call me crazy or whatever you want. It isn't hard to verify everything I said via google.
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
Where's everybody's car?
Don't expect to see this go anywhere, not for a long time at least.
On this side of the pond.
To my friends in the UK, I'm so terribly sorry. I'm assuming you will have this technology installed and in full swing by next Tuesday.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Police later cleared themselves of any serious wrong-doing following an extensive investigation.
I just love this quote so much, for so many reasons.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
ATS likewise is promoting motorist tracking technologies. In a recent proposal to operate 200 speed cameras for the Arizona state police, the company explained that its ticketing cameras could be integrated into a national vehicle tracking database. This would allow a police officer to simply enter a license plate number into a laptop computer and receive an email as soon as a speed camera anywhere in the state recognized that plate.
- in a Freudian slip, I misread this:
cameras for the Arizona state police,
to be this:
cameras for the Arizona police state,
and I am serious, it took me reading the sentence 2 more times to understand that it was written the other way around. And after I read it correctly I thought that the authors must have made a mistake.
You can't handle the truth.
I'm buying stock in bicycle manufacturers.
At least here in Florida, the law states that one can not obscure one's license plate. But, if one recesses the license plate into the vehicle and uses proper lighting, then the cameras can not see the plate, but the police on the ground can, therefore the plate is not obscured.
Also, in places like Florida where only a rear plate is used, getting a picture of both the plate and the driver will require the use of two cameras.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
If you don't want your rights violated, try riding a bicycle. By driving a motor vehicle, you are giving up many of your rights, most of which have been whittled away with arguments of protecting public safety. You also have the added benefit of doing less to fund terrorism through the purchase of gasoline.
If you want to boil a frog, you don't dump it into a pot of boiling water. You put it in cool water, and slowly bring it to a boil.
Who here would want to be dumped into a pot of boiling water? I figure between those two evils, being burned and jumping out, or being boiled slowly, I say the later is the lesser evil. At least that way we don't feel the pain.
This is just one step in the corrosion of our civil liberties. We're bound to have the worth eventually happen. So why not let it happen and be done with it?
A huge red flag when commercial entities want to enforce laws. But that's what happens when the Governments start outsourcing.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
When my wife and I were in another state, we were using her car, I was driving, and I got photographed running a red light. They sent a citation to my wife, complete with a copy of the photo clearly showing me driving. They demanded that she either pay or give the name and address of the person who was driving. My wife - who is a lawyer - told them that that her husband was driving, and then refused to give name or address. She informed them that is is a protected relationship, that is, you cannot be compelled to testify against your spouse. They gave up on it.
So register your car under your wife's name, and hers under your name. Don't have a wife? Pay your attourney to register it for you. Attourney/client relationship is privleged also.
"You do not examine legislation in light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered." -- Lyndon B. Johnson
Seriously, how do these people live with themselves, knowing what they are doing.
See, there is a problem with that. This is video of public space, captured on law enforcement cameras. There would be no need to obtain the warrant because it would fall under the "plain sight" rule.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Obviously not content to rely on his reality distortion field, Steve Jobs now looks to be even more forward-thinking than his press would have you believe.
A hero is someone who knows when to run away. I am a hero. -Trent the Uncatchable
Your car was determined to be at point 1 at time alpha and point 2 at time beta. 1 and 2 or the same road with a speed limit.
(D2-D1)/(beta-alpha) - speed_limit = excess_speed
As the owner of the automobile this ticket has been sent to you under law HTA2009-01 and you are responsible for payment. A picture from point beta is attached for your reference should you not have been driving at the time you can contact the driver and make arrangements for them to reimburse them for your expense.
Note of this excess speed has been forwarded to your insurance company. Should the automated face recognition software have matched the photo against your drivers license you will also have been assigned appropriate demerits.
If an extreme hazard was detected in the amount of observed speed we trust that an officer has already contacted you about this issue.
This technology is equivalent to having hundreds of thousands (millions) of officers watching the public highways and recording the every license plate. Included are also the clerks collecting the notes and able to search through them in seconds.
No society could afford this many policemen — the cameras and the computers are productivity tools, just as they are in the offices or at industrial facilities.
The old adage is, police can solve any crime, but not every crime — for lack of resources.
The real question is, do we want to increase the ratio of solved crimes (up to 100%) — as the technology may allow us to do? Or do we want to allow some transgressions unpunished to allow some "breathing room" for future fighters against some hypothetical tyranny?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
First up - IR license plate lights causing cameras to see nothing but glare where your license plate should be.
Next - New cameras at 400% the cost of the originals.
Followed quickly behind holographic projection license plate covers.
This can escalate for quite some time and only manufacturers and lawyers will make any money while not even 1/100th of one percent of criminals will be tracked with this system.
Sometime after it is established, the network will be hacked and more will be spent to secure the network. Still no criminals caught yet.
In larger cities, people will begin regularly using those rental cars things, where you all share vehicles, just grab one that is free at the moment. Fuel shortages will increase the use of alternatives to motor vehicles.
Criminals will always be using a stolen plate on the car they stole from elsewhere anyway.
The only people that can possibly be caught using this are stupid criminals and the innocent, where innocent is a variable of personal taste. A cheating husband is innocent in this case where it is used by his wife to catch him out.
Most interestingly, we'll be able to publicly verify that police are abandoning their creed of protect and serve with respect.
Well, they are possibilities...
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
On a more serious note, I wonder if IR camera jammers work on these cameras, and if use of them doesn't trip 'concealment' alerts since it doesn't prevent any person from seeing the plate. An LED array around the plate is certainly easier to remotely control and not as suspicious looking. Might be time to actually build one of those like I've been planning...
A hero is someone who knows when to run away. I am a hero. -Trent the Uncatchable
The vidicon tube is long gone, all these cameras are solid sate which means they are sensitive to near infrared. Conveniently enough, the exact same type produced by LEDs.
It should be possible to create a high brightness license plate frame which will overload the camera and just leave a very white rectangle where the plate should be in the photo.
Still, private companies should not be in the business of enforcing laws or tracking citizens. Private companies do not answer to the public and are not regulated in the same way a police officer is.
Let me relate an incident that happened to me regarding DUI. If you do not like my language you are free to edit it out, however, I refuse to call a sonofabitch a gentleman of questionable heritage.
I used to drive tractor trailer over the road. I was so self-employed when the Federal DOT passed their new regulation regarding enforcement and investigation of such, despite the fact that in all the accident investigations involving big trucks, whether at fault or not, the commercial driver was subjected to tox and alcohol screens to determine his condition of sobriety and/or impairment at the time of the accident had returned result of far less than 1% of impaired commercial drivers.
I entered Utah at the border between it and Wyoming on I-80. Just across the line is a weigh and inspection station for Utah, almost directly across the highway from the same thing on the Wyoming side.
After being weighed and passed for legal weight I was flagged for inspection and pulled over to the side off the scale. I gathered my log book, my bills of lading, my permit and license books, my Commercial Drivers License and my medical certificate and entered the station house.
Upon getting inside, I said to the trooper on duty, "I don't know what you need, but I brought it all, what do you want to look at first?"
He replied, "I don't need any of that I pulled you in for a random alcohol screen."
I said, "What?"
He said, "You were number 17, I have four numbers I must pull in to screen for alcohol."
I asked him, "Did I do something on my approach to make you think I had been drinking?" He answered,"No."
"Well did I stagger or walk in any manner during the 100 yards walking back here to make you think I had been drinking?" He answered, "No."
"Well then, do you smell any alcohol on me now, or do you have any reason to believe I am drinking?" He answered, "No, I don't understand why you are so upset if you have nothing to hide."
I then asked him, " You really don't understand why I am upset that I must prove to you I haven't committed a crime you have no right or reason to suspect me of?"
He again stated, "I just don't understand why you are so upset if you have nothing to hide."
I said, "Are you really so stupid that you don't understand the reason I am angry that I must prove my innocence, though you have no reason to suspect me?"
He said, "Look, this is my job and I have to do it and if you didn't have anything to hide you shouldn't be upset."
I asked, "Do you really believe that?"
He said that he did.
That was three times I asked, three times the dumb sonofabitch indicated he had no concept of liberty or law. Three is all I will give anybody, and sometimes not that.
I said, "Ok, if you really mean that, take off your pants and your underwear."
He looked incredulous, then asked, "Are you crazy?"
I replied, "No sir, I am not. Take off your pants and underwear, we are going to examine your penis for blood and fecal matter to determine if you have been molesting small boys."
That sonofabitch went through the roof, ranting and screaming and telling me I had no right to accuse him of such a thing. I think he would have shot me if he had had the guts and thought he could get rid of the body before anybody happened along.
I calmly replied, "It's random, I have no reason to suspect you, but now you must prove you have not been sodomizing young boys. After all, if you have nothing to hide you shouldn't be upset. What do you have to hide? Isn't that what you told me three times that you believed?"
He was sputtering and yelling at me and soooo red in the face, I thought I might get lucky and the no good sonofabitch would die from a stroke. He screamed at me, "That's entirely different!"
I told him, "The only thing different is now we are talking about you proving something I have no right to suspect you of. Evidently you didn't believe all that shit you told me, about nothing to hide s
"If you don't want your rights violated, try riding a bicycle." How about, if you don't want your rights violated, then move to another part of the Earth. Sorry, not an option me. I say that that deep, dark and dirty crevices where our law makers and enforcers reside needs a bit of sunshine.
-- Wondering how long until the internet becomes fully corporatist, like television.
By 2018 or so everyone will be filming the vicinity of their car and/or home at all times anyway. (How better to provide evidence that an accident isn't your fault, or see who broke into your car, etc.) Once quality vidcams and computing power drop to almost $0, and cheap or free software makes it trivial to set up, why not?
Once that data is processed and correlated, everyone, including people who don't have the system, will be tracked everywhere and the information will be available to anyone. Even if only 1% of the cars on the road did this, in a metropolitan area everyone would essentially be tracked everywhere.
We're going to have to redefine our notions of privacy once everything that is detectable from a public space is recorded and distributed.
Of course, that's not quite the same thing as the government recording and correlating the data recorded in the public space and putting it in private databases.
About 60-70% of AZ residents are welcoming the highway speed cameras with open arms - thanks to Governor Napolitano whoring the state out to Redflex to balance her budget. (The tickets taken by the cameras will not count against insurance points - it's only a fine. Once you pay your "tax", it's forgotten.
If you speak out against the system, you're branded a speeder, GTA wannabe, and told to, "Just slow DOWN!", or, "Stop breaking the law!" They don't get that it's all about money (and now outright spying).
Hell, even if the people rose up against the system and stopped this tracking, what's to stop the NSA from doing it under the table with the same system, all in the name of safety?
I single-handedly hold Scottsdale, Arizona and its town council for bringing this system to the entire nation. If they'd had their heads pulled out and not put the system up on the Loop 101, it wouldn't have gained any traction to go state-wide, and now nationwide. Thanks, guys... I hope you enjoyed that paltry revenue stream while introducing Big Brother to us. Damn, I hate Scottsdale more than ever now...
It looks like the tin foil crowd got this system 100% right, and the sad thing is that nobody will be educated enough about what's going on to care.
Whether or not it actually achieves its stated aims, you know that law abiding people will suffer the negative consequences, while criminals and sleazebags will have a field day.
Here in the UK, with widespread introduction of numberplate recognition, people just steal or clone numberplates, and when crimes are committed using your plates, the police knock on _your_ door first.
A total waste of time and money.
...is obviously not aware that the base of this tech is already being installed in AZ. They could probably have this system installed nationwide and running in a decade or two, especially if it means more money in their pockets.
Is anybody seriously going to stand up to this? Or will we be like that couple in "Minority Report", where the spider robots came in their house, scanned their irises, and left, and the people didn't think a thing of it?
How would it tell my Civic from the millions of other Civics?
Obviously the system would have a degree of certainty that is dependent on the number of cars on the road, the uniqueness of the car in question, the number of sensors, etc.
The key premise is that cars don't just randomly appear and disappear from the road. They pass over sensors in a predictable sequence. You would use all kinds of heuristics. For example, you might predict when a given car should pass the next sensor, and then if you see that same signature at around the expected time, you can be pretty sure it was the same car. Correlate that with additional data about the cars nearby it and you can increase the degree of certainty. It's not simple, but it's feasible.
This is all but inevitable. The only power there is will be that of limiting the invasion of privacy that a person reasonably has on their day to day business. Tracking someone in their car clearly is an invasion of privacy, even if they are in public, because that's not normal behaviour - you don't know where people have come from and where they are going when you see them in public, you see them in that instant doing a small portion of their daily movement.
However the infrastructure could be used in a responsible manner if the tracking is only granted by a judge for specific cars.
I can see where it would be useful for a stolen car - until the number plate is changed anyway. Thieves will get clever though, switching number plates early, putting the hot number plate on another car, etc. Of course these cameras could still track certain cars by model/colour if the camera network is dense enough..
Average road speed cameras are already in the UK. I don't know if they only keep records of transgressing cars, or if they keep a record of every car that goes past. I bet they record aggregate information - average speeds of vehicles going through at different times of the day and so on. The problem of these cameras, and systems in general, is that they aren't reactive to road conditions at the time, and they also are put in places with artificial speed restrictions, or even obscured speed limit signs. Revenue collection is the primary aim.
you mean like the mandatory tire pressure sensor ones that uniquely ID your car?
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
City information changed and posted anonymously for obvious reasons.
Homeland Security: Homeland Security is a nice euphemism. It sounds like our homeland, our country, our homes will be safe and secure. This sounds great. But in practice what Homeland Security does is spy on law-abiding American citizens. Phones can and have been tapped; email can and has been intercepted, postal mail can and has been intercepted, people can and have been denied transportation. While the last example is not an example of spying, it is an infringement on freedoms. Personally, I adore America as being the âoeLand of the Free.â But in the name of security, freedoms are being negated. The government is now keeping tabs on citizens âoeto keep us safe.â Here is an example of the government watching us. "Bob" is a policeman in "Regulartown, USA". In his police car, he has a machine/computer/camera that scans the area for other cars, and this machine reads the license plates. The machine/computer/camera then checks its database to see if there are warrants, arrest notices, etc. for the owner of the vehicle. The machine/computer/camera also adds information to the database that the vehicle and its owner were at X location at Y time. In addition to the equipment on the police cars, every road coming into and leaving "Regulartown" contains a camera/computer that does the same thing. This camera/computer is tied into Homeland Security and keeps track of peoplesâ(TM) movements. We are really close to âoe1984â. We already have a Big Brother watching us. Soon, I fear, we may have Big Brother openly directing us.
I understand the governmentâ(TM)s reasoning for granting Homeland Security its spying privileges. The government wants to keep us safe. However, this is America: The Land of the Free. This country is not âoeThe Land of the Safeâ. People naturally want freedom to do what they feel is right. These freedoms can be choices of which church to attend, what flight to take, who to vote for, when to travel, how late to stay out, when to speak out against government policies, etc. In Arthur Millerâ(TM)s play, The Crucible, a play I teach to my English III students, Miller addresses the issue of governments wanting to regulate people for âoesafetyâ and how this conflicts with people wanting to be âoefree.â In the authorâ(TM)s commentary, Miller outlines the government crackdown of communists in the 1950s. His play, The Crucible, is a great allegory of McCarthyism. Some believe that we are headed for a new form of McCarthyism today. It seems that today our government has a new enemy to use for taking away freedoms. In 1692 the enemy was witchcraft; in 1950 the enemy was communism; on September 11, 2001, the enemy became terrorism.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
...in some States it is illegal to have cameras for ticketing purposes (e.g. Virginia, which outlawed them with the shut-down of their test programs).
So...they might be able to use the general traffic cameras, but those would not likely be able to read enough detail to track anything, let alone the numerous cars visible on their picture at any given frame.
And don't forget - the ticketing cameras (e.g. speed limit & red-light runner cameras) only have a 1/3 accuracy rate to start with. (For every 3 attempts to ticket, 2 were thrown out.)
So I don't see how they are going to do very well...
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
I'm going to build motorized, retractable cover for my front license plate if this system is implimented. Fuck that.
My Prius has a rear view mirror that dims depending on how much light it's receiving. There is a sensor on it. Put your finger over the sensor and it thinks it's night out and the mirror dims.
Maybe we could make something like that to cover the plates? Some sort of electronic dimming glass. Or maybe a large blank LCD that you could toggle with a switch.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
amber alerts are BS...
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/20/abducted/
It's getting to the point where I don't think "we need to stop this guy", instead it's "we need to help this guy".
More and more, it appears that police and prosecutors need something:
Extreme mental help. Locked away, extensive questioning and medication.
Either they don't have a firm grip on reality; or they do. and they're squeezing too tight, and it can't breathe.
Can't find the link, but I remember reading a few months ago about BAC monitors/interlocks installed in all new cars within the next 4 to 8 years; effort lead by Toyota... sooner or later, just like airbags, it'll be required.
Use of private companies to enforce the law is illegal, and if it actually now isn't recognized as such, then it needs to be declared fiercely, illegal.
We the people need less restrictions, not more. I'm not doing anything wrong, what is wrong with you that you think you need to track me?
Many tires manufacturers embed serialized RFID sensors and that data is already being tracked as an "experiment" and for "purely statistical" purposes. Your browser is embedded with a unique ID number. Your other apps are embedded with unique IDs that seep into the obvious and inobvious meta-data on the documents you produce and "touch". The technocrati walk around with pocketfuls of gadgets that broadcast various data that is easily collected for corrolative retrieval. Your online habits are collected and analyzed by industry and goverments (US doesnt have a monopoly on online spying). There is no privacy and there is no spoon.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
The IR-emitting diodes (LEDs) used for Sunglasses that hide your face from cameras (as blogged by Bruce Schneier in July) could easily be applied to your license plates for the same effect.
The legality of such things is another question altogether; it could be a circumvention device for traffic/toll cameras, possibly falling into DMCA territory, but to my knowledge, only blue lights and blinking lights are at all regulated ... in fact, you're required to have your plates lit up - why not make it a light that is more intense to the infrared spectrum?.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
If you're one of those "reasonable" people who, when discussing these sorts of cameras, pooh-poohed other people's claims that they'd be used for this purpose, calling them "paranoid" and accusing them of seeing black helicopters or some such, please accept this on behalf of all us paranoid types everywhere
WE TOLD YOU SO, ASSHOLE!
(And if you're interested, tinfoil hat fitting is down the hall and to the right. Remember, shiny side out)
You're confusing "brave" with "stupid". I'm surprised the cop didn't arrest him on a drug charge; lots of cops aren't exactly honest. If a cop had an ounce of cocaine in his pocket, the poor fellow would be serving time in prison on a drug charge, even if he's never seen an illegal drug in his life. That's one more reson to be against victimless crime laws; they make police misconduct easier for crooked cops.
Or worse, the cop could have shot him with his service revolver and put a stolen gun in his cold, dead hand.
The cop had no authority, that's what "just doing my job" means. The reasonable thing to do would have been to complain loudly not to the cop, but to his elected officials and his newspapers.
Giving a cop a hard time is incredibly stupid.
Free Martian Whores!
I just feel it in my bones this is just a really bad idea. My inital thought is that any car that has this as standard equipement, I will not buy it.....just plain and simple. If all car have this feature.... well features in car do break... if not they can always be removed.
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
They are often in the private impound lots. Some areas (such as Minneapolis, MN) have essentially legalized auto theft, provided it is done by a for-profit impound lot.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
There is nothing in any way remotely amusing about this, people. WAKE THE FUCK UP! Our rights are being chipped away every day, and you sheeple are allowing it to happen! We need to CRUSH THIS SHIT NOW! Without mercy or remorse. We need to send a clear message to the lying murderous scumbags responsible, i.e., our government, that this shit just won't fly. Period. It's bad enough that in places such as where I live, police threaten accident victims with violence (this happened to me personally after being a victim of a hit and run), and pull over females in order to coerce them into exposing themselves in order to get out of a trumped up ticket (this happened to my daughter). We certainly don't need to hand them an excuse, and the ability, to make things worse. We need to be able to control and regulate these fuckers before we're all in camps. Don't believe me? TAKE A LOOK AROUND! Personally, anyone who allows themselves to be brainwashed into allowing this crap, and those who just sit on their ass making jokes about it, are just as guilty as those who actively promote it, and should suffer severe punishments in the name of liberty, for they do not deserve even the illusion of 'freedom' that is being so readily destroyed in this country.
Ok, I know this comes to a shock for many of you. But the quickest way out of debt, bad physical and mental health is to live closer to work and ride a bike to work and play. Seriously. I gave up my car three years ago, the wife three months ago, never been happier. Ride the Revolution.
Q. What is Calvin's monster snowman called? A. The Torment Of Existence Weighed Against The Horror of Non Being
The technology was originally developed for the post office where envelopes flash by cameras traveling many miles and hour. Some of the same engineering companies sell both systems.
"They" aren't doing this, YOU are.
You are the government. Go govern your civil servants.
Apparently you aren't aware that the FBI mandated legislation such that all tires manufactured in the US have RFID chips in them.
This was done some time ago, and by now, most cars have this.
The OP's premise was quite correct, in that this sensing could be done now, and distinguish your car from other similar models. It's really only a matter of time before this happens.
A loan from China probably.
Welcome to the internet. People here aren't known for telling the truth and like to cut and paste cute stories like this over and over. In fact, here you go, I will do a search on a random phrase from the story ... and viola, here is where it was originally posted in 2007:
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2007/10/bloodsuckers-in-blue.html
I second that. Scottsdale used to be bad about setting up speed traps at the foot of the Papgo Buttes, knowing full well that most drivers aren't conscious of the gravity boost their speed got until it was too late, or that they couldn't slow down fast enough, depending on where the trap was set up. I got nailed on McDowell Road at one of these traps, albeit by a human cop (who apparently felt the need to have a second squad car follow along to ... I don't know, intimidate me or something).
Another couple times, I was nailed by photo radar vans, usually set up on stretches of road where no residences or businesses are -- in other words, areas where people are likely to speed because there is no danger to doing so. It got bad enough at one point that I refused to drive through or into Scottsdale for a couple months, simply because I couldn't deal with the feelings of paranoia it induced.
The 101 loop through Scottsdale, though, is a whole other animal -- stationary cameras that are permanently affixed. The slow-down and speed-up cycle of traffic is maddening. People will crawl along below the speed limit when they know there are cameras around, and then speed up way over the posted limit in between. It's ridiculous and infantile behavior on the part of the drivers, brought about by the nanny state city government treating us like children. Since photo ticket revenues have been drying up, the cities have been quietly lowering the threshold at which the cameras operate -- it used to be 11 mph over the limit, now it's 5 or 6.
When I took a recent defensive driving class, I was one of about 20 people -- roughly half the class -- who were nailed upon a particular stretch of road, Rural Road in Tempe. The instructor treated it as almost a joke, and at one point mentioned that he's all but stopped traveling that road simply to avoid the situation. They apparently lowered the speed limit to 35 mph due to the proximity to ASU, something I had not been aware of at the time of the infraction.
Now, whenever I need to drive along Rural Road, I immediately get paranoid whenever I see a flash. Check the speedometer -- whew, I'm doing 35, must be some other poor sap. But it's still jarring to my nerves.