The units are Smart Sensors manufactured by Wavetronix.  The Smart Sensor is a digital wave radar used for vehicle detection.  The Smart Sensor measures vehicle volume, occupancy, speed and classification.  The information gathered is NOT used for law enforcement purposes.  We use the information to generate the speed map shown on our web site and to generate the travel times displayed on the dynamic message signs on the freeways.

A stalker's dream come true.
New Service Allows People to Text Strangers Using License Plate Number.  A new service allows individuals in San Francisco to anonymously send text messages to strangers through their license tag numbers.

Arkansas police photograph license plates, store data.  Little Rock may not be a likely terrorism target or a gang crime hotspot, but the Arkansas capital has decided to follow the example of high-security cities by expanding electronic surveillance of its streets.

City Wants Surveillance Cameras to Record Every License Plate.  Police in North Carolina want to build surveillance cameras that would record every car license that passes by and run it through the FBI's criminal database, alerting authorities in real time if it finds a match.  The system would store license plate numbers for up to a year to provide authorities with historic data should they want to review the data later.  "There is no expectation of privacy to a license plate number," said John Carey, the police chief in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, since a license plate is a displayed public record.

Lawmakers Call for Abolishing 'Corruption-Infested' Pennsylvania Turnpike.  Pennsylvania has two transportation agencies.  One controls more than 40,000 miles of state roads and 25,000 bridges, and another maintains 545 miles of tolled highway.  The former has seven executives, one for every 5,857 miles of roadway; the latter nine executives, one for every 60 miles of roadway.  For a group of Republican lawmakers, this doesn't add up, especially when one of those agencies was the subject of a 44-month long grand jury investigation over alleged bid-rigging.

The Myth of the Falling Bridge.  The nation would benefit from reordering its infrastructure priorities — away from new highways, for example, where we are already overbuilt and usage is falling for the first extended period on record.  And we'd do well to take advantage of low interest rates and idle construction resources to knock out all of our future infrastructure needs.  But the idea that the U.S. has an infrastructure crisis?  No.  A broad, permanent increase in spending is unwarranted.

"The makers of our Constitution … conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.  To protect, that right, every unjustifiable intrusion by the government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment."

Justice Brandeis in Olmstead et al. v. United States. 

Toll Roads and Double Taxation: The Left and Libertarians Converge.  Toll roads are appealing to many on the right, because the fees don't look like taxes; motorists are charged for the voluntary action of driving on a specific road.  Toll roads appear to be run by private entities, not the government. [...] There are now 5,244 miles of toll roads in the U.S., operating in 35 states.  It is an illusion that toll roads are a free market way to solve a growing government expense.  Toll road contracts are set up as public-private partnerships, which are not the same thing as privatization.

The Regulatory Landscape in America — A Morass Of Red Tape.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on December 13 issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to mandate installation of electronic data recorders, popularly known as "black boxes," in most light vehicles starting in 2014.  The government mandate understandably spooks privacy advocates.

'Black Box' or 'Spy Box'? US regulators want to make car data recorders mandatory.  [Scroll down]  Few of the opponents of the new measure disagree with EDRs as they are currently, but most say that the new law will pave way for a multitude of uses beyond the original remit.  Problematically, few legal limits on them exist as of now.  Only thirteen states have any legislation on EDRs at all.  If the new regulations are passed, they need to establish just what data can be recorded, for how long, who owns it, and if there will be any sanctions for a driver who blocks his device, or refuses to hand over his data.

The Black Box.  Black boxes are used to inform investigators what went wrong when a plane crashes. [...] Now our government wants them in our cars.  According to legislation that has already passed in the Senate, all cars sold in the United States starting in 2015 will have an "Event Data Recorder" (EDR) as mandatory equipment.  The Event Data Recorder is the black box for cars.  This is troubling news to many people, especially those most concerned about civil liberties and Big Brother.

Feds Propose Tracking Black Boxes in All New Cars.  The Obama administration wants to know where you are at all times.  Federal regulators are proposing that new automobiles sold in the United States after September 2014 come equipped with black boxes, so-called "event data recorders" that chronicle everything from how fast a vehicle was traveling, the number of passengers and especially a car's location.  While many automakers have voluntarily installed the devices already, the National Transportation Safety Agency wants to hear your comments by February 11 on its proposal mandating them in all vehicles.

Obama Bypasses Congress to Mandate Black Boxes for All Cars — Beginning in '14.  Bypassing Congress, the Obama administration has issued a proposed administrative rule, which if adopted, would mandate the installation of "black boxes" in all automobiles and light trucks beginning in 2014.  The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed the regulation on Dec. 7, which it said "would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash."

New pay-per-mile scheme would boost taxes 250 percent.  An on-again, off-again move by the Obama administration to scrap the federal gas tax in favor of a pay-per-mile fee would boost the tab to Americans as high as 250 percent, raising their current tax of 18.4 cents a gallon to as high as 46 cents, according to a new government study.  But without a tax increase, said the Government Accountability Office study, the government's highway fund is going to go dry.  One reason the fund is going broke:  President Obama's push for fuel efficient cars has resulted in better mileage, and fewer stops at the pump.

NHTSA gets White House OK to mandate vehicle 'black boxes'.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is expected to finalize a long-awaited proposal to make event data recorders standard on all new vehicles.  In a notice posted Thursday [12/6/2012], the White House Office of Management Budget said it has completed a review of the proposal to make so-called vehicle "black boxes" mandatory in all cars and trucks, clearing the way for NHTSA to publish its final regulation.  Nearly all vehicles currently have the devices.

Black boxes in cars raise privacy concerns.  Many motorists don't know it, but it's likely that every time they get behind the wheel, there's a snitch along for the ride.

The Editor says...
These black boxes are the paving the way for mileage taxes.  When the mileage tax kicks in, you'll pay taxes at the gas pump and additional taxes per mile.  The proceeds from this tax will be spent on whatever the government wants (for example, mass transit), not necessarily the upkeep of roads and bridges.

Oregon Department of Transportation to explore fees based on miles driven.  More fuel-efficient cars are siphoning off gas-tax revenues that support highway maintenance in Oregon.  As a result, state transportation officials are considering a mileage tax on vehicles that average 55 miles or better on a gallon of gasoline.  A pilot project started this month will test different methods of tracking mileage, which could lead to a bill before the Legislature in 2013 to tax vehicles that need little or no gasoline.  "I don't think people will be excited about GPS tracking," said Derek DeBoer, one of the owners of TC Chevy in Ashland.