Una wrote:
Issuing fines for speeding is lucrative, however. Isn't there surveillance technology that can take a picture, recognize your registration plate, and
then
issue a fine accordingly? What worries me about this particular technology
is
that it can monitor your movements as you travel.
But at least the damn things only take photos if you _are_ speeding. Be grateful for our toll-free roads. On the French autoroutes, they can issue you with a speeding ticket if you get from one toll booth to the next too quickly, which means they must routinely register which vehicles go through and when.
Louise
Louise wrote:
Una wrote:
Issuing fines for speeding is lucrative, however. Isn't there surveillance technology that can take a picture, recognize your registration plate, and
then
issue a fine accordingly? What worries me about this particular technology is that it can monitor your movements as you travel.
But at least the damn things only take photos if you _are_ speeding. Be grateful for our toll-free roads. On the French autoroutes, they can issue you with a speeding ticket if you get from one toll booth to the next too quickly, which means they must routinely register which vehicles go through and when.
That is more worrying.
I guess not owning or travelling all that often by car protects me from most of this, but I'm sure station platforms have plenty of surveillance cameras in operation, not to mention the tube.
Una
Louise wrote:
But at least the damn things only take photos if you _are_ speeding. Be grateful for our toll-free roads. On the French autoroutes, they can issue you with a speeding ticket if you get from one toll booth to the next too quickly, which means they must routinely register which vehicles go through and when.
Depends on how they do it. When I leave a car park, I surrender a time-stamped card. Has nothing to do with the vehicle I entered in, just what time I did so.
Personally, I've quite liked the idea of the tolls/speeding fines. If you *know* that you can't get off without being done for speeding, why bother to do so?
Slightly closer to B7, Alan Moore, when writing V For Vendetta, wanted to make his future sinister. He too used video cameras, and he too was disgusted when they turned up and were accepted far earlier than the setting of his comic book.
steve
steve wrote:
Personally, I've quite liked the idea of the tolls/speeding fines. If you *know* that you can't get off without being done for speeding, why bother to do so?
That's actually what worries me the most about it - the way we alter our behaviour. In time, we won't need the cameras, just the belief that they're there.
Una
Una wrote:
That's actually what worries me the most about it - the way we alter our behaviour. In time, we won't need the cameras, just the belief that they're there.
That's fine by me, as long as the behaviour alteration is "good". Since we're on about speeding, an example: a York newspaper quoted motorists who were complaining about plans to use unmarked police cars to catch motorists who were speeding; the police were being seen as "unfair" by these motorists.
On the other hand, I'm all for personal privacy; anyone who announces that the innocent have nothing to fear from surveillance should immediately start using postcards for all their correspondance.
steve
steve wrote:
Una wrote:
That's actually what worries me the most about it - the way we alter our behaviour. In time, we won't need the cameras, just the belief that they're there.
That's fine by me, as long as the behaviour alteration is "good".
<squeak!> Who is to judge whether behaviour is 'good'?
But, to be fair, we *are* talking about speeding, which I think most people (unless you're Norris 'Mad Mac' McWhirter) would agree was 'bad' behaviour which we as a community would like to have controlled. But I would add that the technology which we have been discussing doesn't just have applications for preventing speeding. Perhaps someone might judge that these other applications might also deliver 'good' behaviour. Thin end of the wedge - today speeding tickets, tomorrow tattoos on the forehead and ceaseless wandering around a Guildford shopping centre...
I guess, in the whole identity card question, I'm firmly on the side of 'Yes, I know it would make life easier for the bureaucrats if I carried one - that's why I won't carry one.'
Una
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Louise Rutter -
Steve Kilbane -
Una McCormack