Big Bro in your EZ Pass watchin' you?!

Just a patent filing at the moment...

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/13/8308841-govt-cameras-in-your-car-e-toll-patent-hints-at-big-brotherish-future

What is an HOV or HOT lane?

93EXCivic wrote: What is an HOV or HOT lane?

High Occupancy Vehicle (not sure about HOT) its a traffic lane which only allows cars carrying 2 or more (or sometimes 3 or more) people meant to encourage car pooling in high traffic areas.

HOT = High Occupancy Toll

Cars that are not high occupancy can choose to pay a toll to use the lane instead of getting more bodies in the car.

Piece of electrical tape over the lens works wonders.

Govt cameras are everywhere already, and they've been tracking you through your ezpass for as long as it's existed.

They hate me over at EZ-Pass. I'm the guy who noticed that they record your license plate when you blow the gate and don't send tickets if the module isn't in the car as long as the vehicle is registered. You can register 5 cars to one tag.

I don't carry my EZ-Pass in the car ever. When I go out of state I get a pile of tickets... just write the EZ-Pass tag number on the back and mail them in.

It is like my own little bit anarchy but with all the convenience of automated toll payment.

If they put a camera in it, I'll sit it in front of the TV.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: If they put a camera in it, I'll stick it to the dogs collar, or maybe to his tail, pointing at his bum.

fixt

I gave up on EZpass a couple of years ago when an article came out about how much it costs the Atlantic City Expressway to keep toll takers.. they tried to convince people that they LOSE money over every toll taken by hand.

I got rid of it and now I exclusivly use tolltakers.. sorry, but I want to do my part to keep those people employed

mad_machine wrote: I gave up on EZpass a couple of years ago when an article came out about how much it costs the Atlantic City Expressway to keep toll takers.. they tried to convince people that they LOSE money over every toll taken by hand. I got rid of it and now I exclusivly use tolltakers.. sorry, but I want to do my part to keep those people employed

Oh man, you're going to be pissed when you find out they have self-service gas stations now.

mad_machine wrote: I gave up on EZpass a couple of years ago when an article came out about how much it costs the Atlantic City Expressway to keep toll takers.. they tried to convince people that they LOSE money over every toll taken by hand. I got rid of it and now I exclusivly use tolltakers.. sorry, but I want to do my part to keep those people employed

I do not follow this logic.

Not only is paying toll takers here much more hassle, it can easily delay you 5+ minutes at each of the major tolls.

FastEddie said: Big Bro in your EZ Pass watchin' you?!

Christopher Porco says Yes!

D D Double post.

Osterkraut wrote:

mad_machine wrote: I gave up on EZpass a couple of years ago when an article came out about how much it costs the Atlantic City Expressway to keep toll takers.. they tried to convince people that they LOSE money over every toll taken by hand. I got rid of it and now I exclusivly use tolltakers.. sorry, but I want to do my part to keep those people employed

Oh man, you're going to be pissed when you find out they have self-service gas stations now.

Not in New Jersey! They found a way to fix that.

Georgia recently introduced HOT lanes to a portion of I-85 in a highly congested Atlanta corridor. Tolls were so high that few bought passes and the back-ups only worsened because the HOT lane was nearly empty.

The Governor (and other officials) received so many complaints about the cost, the prices were reduced in less than a week. The state is also appealing to the US DOT in order to reduce the required number of vehicle occupants in HOT lanes from three to two.

Bureaucrats in search of revenues will often do some pretty stupid things.

oldsaw wrote: Georgia recently introduced HOT lanes to a portion of I-85 in a highly congested Atlanta corridor. Tolls were so high that few bought passes and the back-ups only worsened because the HOT lane was nearly empty.

How did congestion get worse than simply not having any extra lanes? Did they take over existing lanes?

MULTI PASS!

ProDarwin wrote:

oldsaw wrote: Georgia recently introduced HOT lanes to a portion of I-85 in a highly congested Atlanta corridor. Tolls were so high that few bought passes and the back-ups only worsened because the HOT lane was nearly empty.

How did congestion get worse than simply not having any extra lanes? Did they take over existing lanes?

Drivers avoided the HOT lanes because they weren't going to pay the exorbitant fees. The only other place to go was a non-fee lane.

ProDarwin wrote:

oldsaw wrote: Georgia recently introduced HOT lanes to a portion of I-85 in a highly congested Atlanta corridor. Tolls were so high that few bought passes and the back-ups only worsened because the HOT lane was nearly empty.

How did congestion get worse than simply not having any extra lanes? Did they take over existing lanes?

The @#$%^&* took an existing taxpayer paid for HOV lane (2+ passengers) and converted it to an HOT requiring either 3+ bodies in the car to be free or pay a toll. Originally the toll was $5 since lowered to $3 for 16 miles.

So naturally all of the 2 person carpools moved to the regular lanes. The DOT had the gall to say "just get another carpooler" like you can just conjure one up out of thin air.

The HOT lane was partially funded by the Federal DOT, so they get to set the rules. Gov. Deal is petitioning the DOT to allow 2+ carpools to be free again. I doubt that will happen.

To add more insult, we are told to expect more of this crap in the future.

I don't use I85, but I'm convinced that my commute on US78 has gotten worse as people are looking for another route.

jeffmx5 wrote:

ProDarwin wrote:

oldsaw wrote: Georgia recently introduced HOT lanes to a portion of I-85 in a highly congested Atlanta corridor. Tolls were so high that few bought passes and the back-ups only worsened because the HOT lane was nearly empty.

How did congestion get worse than simply not having any extra lanes? Did they take over existing lanes?

The @#$%^&* took an existing taxpayer paid for HOV lane (2+ passengers) and converted it to an HOT requiring either 3+ bodies in the car to be free or pay a toll.

Ah. That makes sense.

Here we are getting HOT lanes, but they are being built right now. They won't be taking over any existing roadway.

That toll seems pricey, but no worse than the Dulles Toll Road here, which will cost you even if you are carpooling.

in houston, they passed a bond measure to pay for the i-10 expansion, then somehow "sold" the HOT lanes which take up like 4 lanes worth of width to some other company that runs the show now. same kind of deal around austin, except afaik it was much more shady, something about "losing" the bond money and then "finding" it again after the toll road was already going up.

i love hearing stories about toll roads.. i've never driven on one, so i don't know what they are like. but i imagine most people's hatred of them is similar to my hatred of bike lanes that take up parking spaces in residential areas or trails that were paid for by snowmobile riders that you need to buy a special license to drive a snowmobile on because they might wreck the trail for the rollerbladers and bicyclists that didn't have to pay a special fee to maintain or use it..

an excellent reason to build a LOCOST and stick to the backroads..........

foxtrapper wrote: Piece of electrical tape over the lens works wonders. Govt cameras are everywhere already, and they've been tracking you through your ezpass for as long as it's existed.

I already cover my face when I drive through toll booth lanes- they all have cameras, and there's no way that they're just taking pictures of bumpers. [/Tin foil hat talk]

I used our toll road yesterday so I dug my pass out of the console, took it out of the little electronic type metal coated baggie it came in.

That made me wonder, does that little baggie really stop the flow of electrons to the outside world and do these things ever wear out?

It's the same type of anti-static bag that a HDD drive for a computer would come in. Pretty much "prevents" it from going off if you are driving near a toll booth but not on the toll road. I've had to use a toll road the past few months for my job. It's either take the toll highway and get there in 25 minutes or take the free not so backroads that are congested as all hell and taking an hour an 25 minutes, not to mention the gas I would be wasting sitting in traffic.

I do carry a cutout of jeremy clarksons face on a Popsicle stick to cover my face up when going through tolls.