London Hacked Its Own Traffic Lights To Make Sure It Got the Olympics

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London Hacked Its Own Traffic Lights To Make Sure It Got the Olympics

Posted by timothy on Sunday May 13, 2012 @02:10AM from the much-less-inspiring-than-vangelis'-music dept.

bmsleight writes "Does it count as a hack if you change your own system? Vanity Fair report that during the bidding process for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the London Streets Traffic Control Center followed each vehicle using CCTV, 'and when they came up to traffic lights,' [bid committee CEO Keith] Mills said, 'we turned them green.'"

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Reminds me of the Italian Job by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-13 02:13 · Score: 5, Funny

...except without all the crashes and explosions and mini-coopers with gold bricks in them.
1. Re:Reminds me of the Italian Job by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-13 02:46 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  They are talking about the "bidding process". What makes you think there where no mini-coopers with gold bricks involved?
  But personally, i'd prefer a mini-cooper with a Charlise over the gold bricks anyway...
Re:Can you imagine the marketing possibilities? by _Shad0w_ · 2012-05-13 03:07 · Score: 5, Funny

You can already pay to drive over the limit, it's called a fine :)

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Were they driving BMWs? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-13 03:29 · Score: 2, Funny

They must have been driving BMWs, they always have green lights - or their driver behaves like they had.
Re:On the other hand by herrnova · 2012-05-13 03:29 · Score: 1, Funny

Do you have any sources that are not fox news to back that up?
Re:On the other hand by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-13 03:31 · Score: 3, Funny

Sources that aren't fox news made Obama into their candidate. Why would they report that?
Re:Congestion nightmare without hacking it? by Jeremy+Erwin · 2012-05-13 03:54 · Score: 3, Funny

Pick one.
A. During the Olympics, traffic will be a nightmare
B. During the Olympics, all traffic lights will be green
C. Both A and B
Re:Congestion nightmare without hacking it? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-13 08:48 · Score: 5, Funny

Traffic for Londoners and visitors will be a nightmare
It already is. Last week Tuesday, the A406 was closed for 24 hours because of an accident. This happened very close to the Olympic park. The emergency services have no plan at all for handling traffic accidents which are absolutely certain to happen, however, they have Rapier missiles (what could possibly go wrong?) in case of terrorist attacks! and sonic cannons in case of Somali Pirates (we have a few rivers, and quite a lot of Somali run Internet cafes in East London, so it is not impossible one of them may launch a ship-born act of piracy on the Olympics, but I think the take-away food is probably a bigger risk.
Re:Good reason not to go there... by drinkypoo · 2012-05-13 12:51 · Score: 4, Funny

So your real name is drinkypoo? Not logging in means his beliefs aren't sincere or that he worries about hurting his rep on Slashdot? Really? Drinkypoo?
drinkypoo (153816) <martin.espinoza@gmail.com>
reading you fail it

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