Second_in_pie
Senior Member
That's an interesting thought, that Europeans have such a big difference in their view on intrusions into "individual privacy." Maybe if it was Europe vs. US, there would be some big differences, but Canada's kind of the middle ground. I think as long as the pricing is reasonable and you're not actually attaching a GPS to people's cars, it'll be pretty easy to implement. Again, the only complaints you'll get is concerning the actual road tolls, and if those are reasonably priced (aka over half the price of the 407 ETR,) then you'll get very little complaint from a privacy standpoint.
And perhaps they should do a study on this; in depth planning never hurts. Take a look at what our goals are (either money raised, congestion alleviated, cars taken off the road or a combination of the above,) and find the best ways to do that. If it needs to be eased in, do a 407-type toll on major highways, while adding RFID tags on new license plates. Then eventually phase in new arterials that'll be added into the smart-toll system. If privacy is an issue, make tolls highway-only, or simply base the system on kilos driven at different times of day, eg. morning rush hour, midday, afternoon, evening, nighttime.
EDIT: I'm actually curious as to why you seem to be so cautious, if not outright opposed, to monitoring people's driving patterns for the purpose of tolling. It'd obviously be done by a computer, and the records would probably be very general times and places. If they did it by GPS, it'd only record major points like intersections and get rid of all the other data. In the case of a RFID tag, information would only be passed at large arterials, so you'd totally disappear after entering a smaller street. I really see the only people at risk being a) people involved in business they don't want their spouses/family knowing about, b) criminals, who should be worried anyways, or c) people who are opposed to tolls outright and are just finding something to nag about!
And perhaps they should do a study on this; in depth planning never hurts. Take a look at what our goals are (either money raised, congestion alleviated, cars taken off the road or a combination of the above,) and find the best ways to do that. If it needs to be eased in, do a 407-type toll on major highways, while adding RFID tags on new license plates. Then eventually phase in new arterials that'll be added into the smart-toll system. If privacy is an issue, make tolls highway-only, or simply base the system on kilos driven at different times of day, eg. morning rush hour, midday, afternoon, evening, nighttime.
EDIT: I'm actually curious as to why you seem to be so cautious, if not outright opposed, to monitoring people's driving patterns for the purpose of tolling. It'd obviously be done by a computer, and the records would probably be very general times and places. If they did it by GPS, it'd only record major points like intersections and get rid of all the other data. In the case of a RFID tag, information would only be passed at large arterials, so you'd totally disappear after entering a smaller street. I really see the only people at risk being a) people involved in business they don't want their spouses/family knowing about, b) criminals, who should be worried anyways, or c) people who are opposed to tolls outright and are just finding something to nag about!
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