Wireless Street Lamps for Traffic Monitoring

RMH101 writes "The Register has a story about a UK initiative to create a country-wide wireless data network using street lamps. It's come to pass through a government initiative to monitor all cars' speed and location, all the time, everywhere. The company involved, Last Mile, are proposing an intelligent mesh of smart street lamps embedded with storage and wireless networking to create 200MBit network access across the UK, including remote areas not reachable by conventional broadband. Work is due to start this year."

monitoring

[sinucus]

Is there anything left in the UK that isn't being monitored? Cameras on all the streets, in the stores and now wireless monitoring your speed. Bye bye 2004, hello 1984.

Wrong topic methinks..

[grub]

This is a privacy issue, not a technology issue. This would allow the police to track your car all over the country.

Putting expensive equipment

[strictnein]

in streetlights? Does that make any sense to anyone? Considering that most street lights are meant to snap off their bases if enough force is applied to them, it just doesn't seem like the ideal location for that type of hardware.

But man, talk about scary big brother tactics: "a government initiative to monitor all cars' speed and location, all the time, everywhere"

Ignore the sweetener, focus on the real use...

[Viol8]

Yes a wi-fi network would be nice, but hardly essential. Lets face it , as they say the real use is for car control, which as we know is a
euphamism for population control. Obviously the powers that be have decided that controlling a car is too dangerous a task for adults to be left with and must be relegated to a computer controlled government
network. Well no thank you! If I wanted to live in this sort of country I'd have gone to live in the old East Germany which modern britain is fast beginning to resemble. how long before we have
government schemes for informants?

Great way to detect traffic jams

[G4from128k]

Tracking vehicles is a great way to detect traffic jams [sciencenews.org]. If the vehicles moving past one sensor do not reach the next sensor in a reasonable amount of time, you know you have a problem. The linked research suggests that tracking vehicles through the network enables a faster detection time for problems (faster than waiting for the traffic to clog and backup to where the sensor is located.)

Re:vandalism just got a lot more fun for criminals

[strictnein]

the metal box they're going to need to protect it from damage is probably going to block any chance of a wireless signal from coming out

That's why you put the antenna on the outside...
Street lights are what, 15-20 feet tall? (5-6 meters for our European friends :) Not the easiest place to gain access too.

Re:vandalism just got a lot more fun for criminals

[jrexilius]

The phone boxes and transformers hanging on poles havent become targets yet and they have been readily available for quite a few decades.

Now of course those arent being used to track movements and issue speeding tickets but I wonder how many criminals will even pay attention to them after 5-10 years. How often do you notice the telephone boxes sitting out in plain site that you could hack/crack/vandalize?

Re:vandalism just got a lot more fun for criminals

[DAldredge]

True. But they do not harm people. The traffic cameras/CCD cameras that do harm people are attacked/damaged quite often.

Re:1984...

[dave420]

No - the US gov't would say it's a "counterterrorism device", scare everyone into thinking they actually need it, put US flags on it, and every american would end up saluting every street light they passed, thanking god for Rev. Bush in the white house, looking over his little sheep as they sleep.

The days of the american rebel are long gone.

Re:It's official

[jez9999]

We ever had that right? :-) Ya know, until maybe 5 years ago, the US's respect for its citizens privacy and freedom was legendary. It might be hard to remember, but they're the values the USA was founded upon! They lasted quite a long time, and it's very telling that there is constant criticism of the government over there for infinging too many citizen's rights, whilst over here all the media can say is 'how lucky we are that our government cares so much about our security!'

Has anyone started working on consumer shielding?

[jrexilius]

In a previous life tempest emmisions were old news and shielding buildings and equipment was commonplace.

So I start a website selling nice decorative or transparent license plate borders that could shield or obfuscate and RFID signal and make $ of poor brits yearning to be free?.. I love being american ;-)

But seriously, I see a need for people to start developing counter-measures for consumers. Anyone have ideas?

What about just maintaining the roads...

[browman]

There was a report recently that stated that something like 1 in 5 miles of road in the UK was in such a poor state that it was unfit to drive on. How about they drop this idea for the moment and fill some potholes instead?

Some councils actually spend more money setting compensation claims from car owners who have had accidents due to poor roads than they do actually maintaining them.

Anyway, with a decent network in place, perhaps we'd need to use them less anyway!

Re:Great way to detect traffic jams

[binarybum]

And tracking people is a great way to detect crime.

However, these may not be the BEST solutions considering the sacrafices and even risks they entail.
You'd be a lot safer person if you never left your house but is that how you want to live? If yes, do you think it is right that others should be told or foreced to live that way for their own protection?

Re:monitoring

[NickFitz]

Is there anything left in the UK that isn't being monitored?

The government?

Re:Great way to detect traffic jams

[craigmarshall]

If the vehicles moving past one sensor do not reach the next sensor in a reasonable amount of time, you know you have a problem.

Or, let me see ... they've parked their frickin' car?

Craig

Re:The UK: WTF?

[molafson]

To followup my own posting, here is a newspaper article [independent.co.uk] describing the public surveillance situation in Britain as it stands.

Re:Pot, Kettle, Black

[Anonymous Coward]

american revolutionaries

Re:vandalism just got a lot more fun for criminals

[craigmarshall]

People said that about all our speed cameras (they'd get torn down, or vandalised, etc). Most of 'em still stand though, happily snapping at the passing motorists.

Craig

Safety Issue

[MissMarvel]

Wireless connection on major highways... a great innovation. However, it worries me. Ever been in the fast-lane following some dunce going 50mph because she's chatting on her cell phone and has forgotten where she is? Now we'll have people playing Solitaire, checking email, and God Forbid... posting to SlashDot. Is the world ready for this?

Re:monitoring

[jxs2151]

...you do *NOT* need an AK-47 for duck hunting.

I could not agree with you more. However, we do need AK-47's to change the Congress if we need to. That is the intent of the 2nd Amendment- to ensure the 1st.

Examples like AK-47's for hunting is a propaganda ploy, sad that you repeat it really.

.

Re:vandalism just got a lot more fun for criminals

[Chucow]

The phone boxes and transformers hanging on poles havent become targets yet and they have been readily available for quite a few decades.

I wish that were true, but some people [darwinawards.com] just haven't figured out it's a bad idea yet.

However, it is correct that cameras garner [rtmark.com] far [bbc.co.uk] more [bbc.co.uk] hatred [bbc.co.uk]. Also, some more amusing moments [bbc.co.uk].

As the UK goes, so does the US

[SpecialAgentXXX]

I remember when CC cameras were introduced to the UK and laughed thinking that it would never happen here in the US. Then after 9/11, my fellow citizens were screaming for more "security" and government was more than happy to oblige. Give it 5 years and you will see this crap in the US, for our "safety" of course.

THIS is the reason I own firearms, THIS is the same reason our Founding Fathers owned firearms - to hold off a tyrannical government. Unfortunately, the British people have given up their rights to defense.

Re:Finally

[cr@ckwhore]

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Letter to Josiah Quincy, Sept. 11, 1773.

Re:It's official

[j-turkey]

I don't know about that. The war on drug users has been going on for decades. If there's a more essential liberty than the right to control ones own body chemistry, I don't know what it is.

Not to mention all of the liberties taken away from Americans in the name of the "War on Drugs". But then again, American drug laws (and prisons) are less harsh than most other countries.

But let's not forget world's attitudes and drug policies came from urging and strategic policy meetings from America's first drug czar, Harry Anslinger in the 20's and 30's...as well as his moralist croanies. It's an easy scapegoat, and an easy way to pass restrictive laws, remove civil liberties, and gain further funding and appreciation for police departments. I hate that fucking Anslinger guy.

Re:What about just maintaining the roads...

[browman]

But what made me think of this article was that it also stated that some scary number of streetlamps in the UK were so old that they were in danger of falling over all of their own accord.

Re:Finally

[mirio]

"So I'm a biased pedestrian..."

So I suppose you wouldn't mind if the government planted a GPS unit in your person to make sure you only crossed the street at crosswalks?

Because speeding has little to do with accidents

[Moderation abuser]

Only 7% of accidents have anything at all to do with speeding. It's a damned near insignificant number.

The other *93%* of accidents are caused by shit driving which can't be monitored by speed cameras or wireless street lights.

The accident rate in the UK was falling steadily *until* the police and local government started installing thousands of speed cameras everywhere. It is no longer falling because now shit driving is OK as long as you don't go 5mph over the bloody limit.

I break the speed limit *every* single day but I don't drive dangerously. Speeding and dangerous driving are *not* the same thing.

Re:vandalism just got a lot more fun for criminals

[Archfeld]

Maybe there is a correlation betwixt a government that wants to do everything from wipe your ass to be your mommy that is causing such problems. The government of GB gives me the willies looking out for its' citizens rights even beyond what they want. Big brother is alive and well in the British Isles and sprouting in America as well :(

Solution!

[Eminence]

UK drivers!

If you want sheer speed then spend your holidays in Germany. Autobahn network is still there, with no speed limit at all in many places (and still they have better safety record than other EU nations when it comes to accidents on highways).

If you want a different type of thrill go to Eastern Europe. They don't have road network in the modern sense of the word, but you can speed on most small roads. And if you happen to get caught by a radar equipped policeman (happens on main roads) just give him a 20 Euro banknote and drive on.

Re:Because speeding has little to do with accident

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet you're one of those cyclists who can't be bothered looking over your shoulder when passing parked cars, who rides too far out on roads with traffic islands on them, and who expects to sail through queues at the traffic lights (which, of course, never apply to a cyclist making a left [right in US] turn).

Well, fuck you and your ill-mannered, ignorant, dangerous cyclist pals.

I'm forever having to look out for dickheads like you on the road, and have now taken to pulling close to the kerb in queues and hoping the car behind leaves no gap for cyclist wankers like you.

There's no excuse for speeding in town, but there is no excuse either for some of the speed limit reductions imposed by money-grabbing council bureaucrats on a fine-harvesting mission on otherwise safe roads. Most of my local roads now have 50mph, or even 40mph limits, when 60mph is not only safe, but safer (the lower the speed limit, the more driver concentration tends to wander, and the less the average driver looks ahead).

Myself - I ignore ridiculous speed limits unless a camera is installed, and will continue to do so even if this monitoring shit is imposed - I'll reprogram the fucking chip myself if I have to, just to piss off sanctimonious gits like you.