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

Posted by timothy on 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.'"

11 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Good reason not to go there... by santax · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Last thing any sane person would want is being constantly followed. Now we know the Brits are willing to do this if they think they can get something out of it. So far for privacy. Oh and next time you're in the car with your pregnant wife trying to get to an hospital but can't because the lights are red... Well, the police chief is probably on his way home and needed the lights to be green...

    1. Re:Good reason not to go there... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Brits? As in we, the people? Do you honestly think we asked to be spied upon? Protip: Nobody here really gives a crap about the Olympic games. It's been made a mockery of all over the media for wasting public money and for the fact that we're hosting the events and nobody actually knows anybody else that's allowed to go. It's going to cause mass disruption to the transport systems for millions of commuters, not to mention the mess the visitors themselves are going to make, and it's also predicited that the majority of new buildings and structures being created for this joke of an event will go to waste as soon as it's over.

      So I ask you again... do you truly believe that the British public volunteered to be spied on, just to increase the odds of having this happen to them? If you're talking specifically about the government, please say so, but I can guarantee ours isn't that much different to anyone elses.

    2. Re:Good reason not to go there... by santax · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Neh you are right, it's just that we are being told by our personal overlords "yes but in the UK they also have cctv and it's working great". But in no way did I mean the average Brit. I like those!

    3. Re:Good reason not to go there... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Increasingly, it's the difference actually getting proper healthcare and dying because you can't afford the treatment or preventative care you need.

    4. Re:Good reason not to go there... by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Brits? As in we, the people? Do you honestly think we asked to be spied upon?

      Yes, you did it just as we in the USA asked for the TSA... we did nothing when they foist it upon us. We didn't even fucking stop flying, let alone holding some kind of protest. You and we both deserve what we've got in the sense that we have more to do to prevent it.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Good reason not to go there... by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So you'll be rejecting any help from the nanny state fire service if your house is burning down. And the nanny state police if you're a victim of crime. After all you're a self reliant human being.

      No, I didn't think so.

      That's right, there is NO difference between providing these 3 public services as state services or private services. Yet you accept two of them and call the third names.

    6. Re:Good reason not to go there... by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Since we're on Slashdot, and aware that there isn't just one definition of free, lets start with:

      It's free as in beer.

      Somebody is playing for it. Probably some person(s) or company that can easily afford it has paid for it. Maybe in the bigger scheme of things you might have put in a contribution. But at the time you draw the draft of frothy ale, no one is asking you for change. If you don't have your wallet with you, you still get the beer. If you're too poor to afford it, you still get the beer. Everyone gets beer.

      Of course with beer that's a trivial thing. And you might argue that not everyone deserves it.

      But everyone does deserve to be treated if they are seriously ill or have had an accident. It's an uncivilised country which if affluent, yet doesn't give proper medical treatment to the poor. It's an uncivilized country if you can lose your right to be treated if you lose your job.

      But free as in beer is not what we call it. It's "healthcare free at the point of delivery". And it's the sign of more civilized country.

      And what does it cost Americans for their uncivilized approach to healthcare. They pay 2.5 times as much per capita as Britains do. And it's still doesn't treat everyone. It's an uncivilized AND more expensive system. How dumb is that?

  2. It's not "hacking". by Alex+Belits · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's "Potemkin village".

    --
    Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
  3. Still better than by Hentes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    closing down the whole street for the convoy.

  4. Emergencies and little people by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The little people get to wait for the important people -- like the Olympic committee, or in the future perhaps anyone with enough money -- when the city changes its traffic patterns for them. After all, it is not really equality if the important people have to wait for red lights just like everyone else, right?

    As for emergency vehicles, I live in a small city right now that manages to give them green lights without a special CCTV system. Each traffic light has a sensor that detects sirens/flashers and changes the light appropriately; it may sound surprising, but this is actually a reliable, well-engineered system.

    We have big events here too -- the college football team's games draw big crowds from neighboring towns. CCTV is not needed for that either; police can simply disable traffic lights at appropriate locations and direct traffic as needed. Perhaps this is more than London could be expected to do, given how large of a city they are, but somehow I doubt it -- they have a much larger police force than we have.

    Really, the benefit of the CCTV system for traffic control is overstated here. What London is really showing the world is that when important people are in their city, they can give those people priority as if they were an emergency vehicle, and they can do so discretely. People might complain if police officers started waving through businessmen and politicians, but nobody can complain about the light changing, and there is no need for rich people to attach flashers to their cars.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  5. Re:Reminds me of the Italian Job by bmsleight · · Score: 4, Insightful

    (Article Submitter)
    The person who wrote the first Italian Job got the idea from London's first traffic control system.