I'm sure this will only be used for good

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/05/bluetooth-technology-to-help-track-ike-travel-times.html

Bluetooth technology to help track Ike travel times Whoever thought that talking on a cell phone while driving would be considered a public service? But that will be the case in one respect starting within the next few weeks on the Eisenhower Expressway, where travel times have soared since a resurfacing project began this spring between Thorndale Avenue in the western suburbs and the Circle Interchange near downtown Chicago. To generate travel-time information on the torn-up highway, the state has hired a Wisconsin company to monitor signals sent from motorists using Bluetooth-enabled personal electronic devices such as hands-free headsets for cell phones, wireless headphones and computer peripherals. Each device has a unique identification marker that will be tracked anonymously at various points on the Eisenhower to determine travel times and pinpoint areas of congestion, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. It's a temporary solution until new sensors are placed in fresh pavement on the Eisenhower later this year when the resurfacing project is completed, officials said. The old sensors embedded in the pavement to help create estimated travel times for drivers have been deactivated on much of the inbound Eisenhower (Interstate Highway 290), and the loop-shaped sensors will be removed soon on outbound I-290 as well, IDOT officials said. The sensors detect speeds as vehicles pass over them at numerous locations. The speeds are then fed into formulas yielding travel times that are posted on electronic signs along the highway, on traffic Web sites and broadcast on television and radio traffic reports. IDOT has contracted with TrafficCast of Madison, Wis., to capture the Bluetooth signals. Installation of the Bluetooth Travel-time Origination And Destination, or BlueTOAD, is scheduled to begin Wednesday, and the system will start operating in late May or early June, IDOT spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said. To minimize inaccuracies in collecting travel-time information, computers will filter out erroneous data, "such as a CTA train with 50 Bluetooth devices going 60 mph, and statistically provide only the highway travel time," Kollias said. The new method of tracking travel times is badly needed on the Ike because the accuracy of traffic reports has been reduced because of the loss of sensors during construction, Kollias said. There are still some sensors in the untouched lanes of the Eisenhower between downtown and Cicero Avenue, and from Interstate Highway 294 to Church Street, in both directions, Kollias said. In addition, IDOT's traffic control center is estimating travel times from downtown to Wolf Road by bridging the data on either side of the missing loops, she said. "But the reality is that there are still too many gaps west of Hillside and on the entire eastbound Eisenhower," Kollias said. "Travel times now are less accurate than before." All of the sensor data will be lost when traffic is shifted to the left lanes, she said. Traffic reporters are relying increasingly on helicopters or volunteer "spotters" who drive the Eisenhower and report back on the duration of their trips, she said. IDOT officials say motorists using Bluetooth devices need not worry about being watched by the government. The address information on each Bluetooth device is erased after a short time, and only the travel time is recorded, officials said. "We can assure the motoring public that this technology is used primarily for travel times. We are not using this to look for any specific drivers or any personal information," Kollias said. On Illinois toll roads, travel data are randomly collected from I-PASS transponders, also on an anonymous basis, to track traffic flow. During the reconstruction of the Dan Ryan Expressway four years ago, when pavement sensors also were temporarily removed, IDOT used a microwave radar system to gauge travel times. The microwave system worked like a motion detector, bouncing radio waves off passing vehicles to measure their speed. -- Jon Hilkevitch

Check out google maps to see this in action already. Just check the "show traffic" option

turboswede wrote: Check out google maps to see this in action already. Just check the "show traffic" option

Google get this data from your's and mine cell phone..

VZW or sprint track the movement of your phone on the road, even with your GPS stuff turned off on the phone, The phone pings the towers every 4 minutes. They then accumulate the data, sell it to a provider like traffic.com then sell it to google maps.

This isn't anything new. It is supposedly anonyoums.

This kid killed his father with an ax, did mom but she didn't die, just berkeleyed up. They diffuted some of his story using electronic toll booth records; clicked on here, went back to college via Route ___ , you weren't really sleeping in the dorm.

In this case Big Brother worked.

Pay cash if you're gonna kill someone.

http://www.timesunion.com/specialreports/porco/

4cylndrfury wrote:

Come on people, foil doesn't work, you need 8 layers of 3M velostat. original thread

Nice its an elegant solution to the lack of sensors in the road. And difficult or unlikely for Big Brother interference. But, yeah I can see where people are going to complain about it.

Our state is almost California broke. We don't need this.

Appleseed wrote: Our state is almost California broke. We don't need this.

well you could just raise taxes like california is going to do, that will fix everything, right?

We're getting down to the wire for a November Gubernatorial race (hey, it is May after all) Many candidates are pledging to not raise taxes. Uhhh...how do you think e36 m3 gets paid for? Won't matter, though. Garage in garbage out.

I am constantly amazed by how afraid people are of even the idea that someone may know where they are.

Trust me, your not that interesting... The government has no elaborate plan to hack your bluetooth and find out who your hot date is on sunday.

Its just counting blue tooth signals as you drive by at highway speed. Even if they were snooping, they can only pick up the signal from ~ 25 feet away... so as you pass at freeway speeds they will be getting about 1 word.

In reply to RedS13Coupe: But if that word is bomb and your holding a flash light under your chin [ maniacal laugh sound effect here ] it will be worth all the $$$ spent.

ignorant wrote:

turboswede wrote: Check out google maps to see this in action already. Just check the "show traffic" option

Google get this data from your's and mine cell phone.. VZW or sprint track the movement of your phone on the road, even with your GPS stuff turned off on the phone, The phone pings the towers every 4 minutes. They then accumulate the data, sell it to a provider like traffic.com then sell it to google maps. This isn't anything new. It is supposedly anonyoums.

Is that how they do it? I've wondered, as when I use my G1 for "turn by turn directions" (free, I might add, suck it iPhone), the traffic overlay is brutally accurate.

Who cares? I have traveled the Eisenhower expressway in Chicago for 32 years now. It is bumper-to-bumper all the way into the city and all the way out to Hillside, all morning and all afternoon. If there is a hockey or basketball game or air show or fireworks; expect bumper-to-bumper crawling and traffic.

With all due respect to the General: the Eisenhower sucks.

Sorry you don't get to act like Big Brother is watching you when you leave your phone's Bluetooth on and discoverable. It's more like you're walking around with a boombox playing a loop of "I AM HERE AND MY DEVICE'S UNIQUE ID IS XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:XXXX AND ITS NAME IS $DEVICE_NAME" and Big Brother just decided to record it.

Also if you don't like this you really, REALLY won't like what your cell phone normally does when it's connected to a cell network. Your position can be questioned at any time and US law enforcement is constantly performing record-smashing numbers of location requests. If you don't want to be tracked, make sure it's not connected in any way, as in OFF. That's a difficult concept to many new cell phones but pulling the battery always does the trick.