[fnordfnordfnord]

As many have stated, this isn't news. There are all sorts of good and proper uses of toll-tags that aren't collecting tolls. There has never been any effort to hide that, nor should there be. The thing I have always been disturbed by WRT toll-tags is that toll-collecting entities flatly refuse to sell one that isn't attached to a person or a vehicle. There are opportunities for profit that have been ignored[1], and I expect that is probably because gov't entities want a high degree of certainty as to who is with the tag.

[1] - Prepaid toll-tags could be sold at vending machines for cash (business travelers, philanderers, etc.), but are not.

[refurb]

The reason they link a tag to a car is because fees vary by vehicle type (number of axles). If the tags weren't linked to a vehicle, a commercial truck driver could simply buy a tag for a car and pay a whole lot less in tolls.

[fnordfnordfnord]

No, they couldn't because it would be immediately obvious from the camera footage. Photos are always taken, even when a tag is registered.

[Retric]

But nobody looks at that footage 99% of the time. Reolistically the only way to do prepaid tags it to bill the maximum amount as truckers would happily say use a car the first time and then use the rest of the cash on the semi unless they checked every time.

[fnordfnordfnord]

They could sell you a prepaid tag, and you could get change back or reconcile its unpaid balance when you returned it. This could all be accomplished at a vending machine, or at a car-rental counter, or any number of other places.

>But nobody looks at that footage 99% of the time.

A truck can be trivially detected and distinguished from a car. The S/N of the tag detected can then have the proper amount deducted.

Or just put a sign on the vending machine, "Not for Trucks"

[Retric]

Any form of trivially detected is going to cost millions. For what they assume is a tiny market, it's really an edge case that has little benifit to them. Don't forget they avoided ticketing most people who simply went through the EZ pass lanes without paying for years. Why, cost benifit analysis, they did not want to drive away users over what amounted to be a fairly small revenue stream.

Edit: Also, all it takes is a picture of your license plate as you go through a toll an any anonymity is gone which makes anon EZ passes somewhat silly.

[fnordfnordfnord]

>Also, all it takes is a picture of your license plate as you go through a toll an any anonymity is gone

No, because a prepaid eztag wouldn't mail a statement of your whereabouts to your home/office.

[3minus1]

i bet it's expensive to determine the vehicle type in every single photo.

[fnordfnordfnord]

I bet it's not hard to tell a Peterbilt with trailer from a Honda Civic. They OCR the license plate number in real time, which is a whole lot more sophisticated of a problem than what I suggested.

[sokoloff]

OCR of license plate characters is far easier than distinguishing specific vehicle and weight classes. Fortunately, the license plate is connected to a database that tells you much of what you want anyway. Couple that with weight sensors (to count axles), and you've got the data you need for tolling without doing any "hard" visual recognition.

[Avenger42]

> There are all sorts of good and proper uses of toll-tags that aren't collecting tolls. There has never been any effort to hide that, nor should there be.

That conflicts somewhat with the article:

> Notably, the fact that E-ZPasses will be used as a tracking device outside of toll payment, is not disclosed anywhere that I could see in the terms and conditions.

I'm fine with you doing whatever you disclose you're going to be doing, even if it seems invasive, but the key there is the disclosure.

[fnordfnordfnord]

That's the author's experience in NYC. I rarely go there so I cannot refute what he says. But, in Houston, TXDOT and TTI[1] have been on TV and in other media bragging about their sophisticated data collection and how good a job they've done shortening my commute.

http://tti.tamu.edu/

http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/aviinfo/avi-hou.html

>I'm fine with you doing whatever you disclose you're going to be doing, even if it seems crazy like "wherever you are in downtown Manhattan, you won't be able to go two blocks without hitting a reader somewhere", but the key there is the disclosure.

I am happy to see productive uses of technology. But, I'd prefer it if the data were required to be anonymized pretty close to the collection point. I think the gov't should almost always disclose its activities, especially in direct interactions with citizens. I'd like to see things like license plates going away and replaced with the transponder tags, but with the tags also reporting when they are accessed, and by whom.

[Avenger42]

I don't think we disagree here. I'm also in Houston, and though I haven't read them recently, I'm happy to know that the terms & conditions for my EZ tag properly lay out what they'll use it for. If the New York tags similarly expressed the ability of the companies to use the tags everywhere, I'd be completely in agreement.

> I'd like to see things like [...] the tags also reporting when they are accessed, and by whom.

Agreed; I already get a monthly letter saying "here's every place you went where you were charged a toll". How hard would it be do the same (at least on the website) with all the places your car was tagged-but-not-tolled?

[fnordfnordfnord]

>I don't think we disagree here.

I wasn't as careful as I should have been in my other post.

>I'm also in Houston, and though I haven't read them recently,

Pshhhbt, me neither!

>I'm happy to know that the terms & conditions for my EZ tag properly lay out what they'll use it for.

That stupid thing is probably as vague and broad as it can be. I based my statements on news reporting I'd seen, and having been on the TXDOT and traffic.tamu.edu websites[1] where the stuff was explained.

[1] In fairness to mortals, that is kind of like the bottom of a filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign outside the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."

[ISL]

One might argue that if the toll-tag isn't being used for tolling alone that it would be better-termed a 'tag'.