Green-Amber-Red > Red-Black-Green
Danny | 14.07.2009 01:05 | Technology
1) Traffic light pre-emption
2) Selective vehicle detection.
3) National UK Toll road infrastructure
2) Selective vehicle detection.
3) National UK Toll road infrastructure
This is my badly written, barely researched, knee-jerk opinion about a boring and well-documented subject, UK implemented traffic management technology. It's deliberately boring because I'm not sure yet how widely known it should be. Feel free to hide it, correct it, or just mock me for being so dull I find it interesting or so uninformed that it is news to me. There are obvious contradictory class, libertarian and environmental issues involved.
I'd posted a comment earlier
[
http://www0.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434236.html?c=on#c228164 ]
about a device using strobe technology to ruin flash photographs and a different device to hide your face in photos using Infrared LEDs. That got me thinking about 'Infra Red Strobes', so I googled that and stumbled upon a cheap US design for a Traffic Light remote control.
[ http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/176/44 ]
An even simpler method using a shop-bought Universal Remote is here:
[ http://www.metacafe.com/watch/496319/change_traffic_lights_with_a_universal_remote ]
That got me wondering if the same thing would work with UK traffic lights, so I did some blue-sky research, basically searching online techie and government sites, with the added thrill of some real-life ambulance-chases. My initial opinion is that the local traffic lights with IR sensors are being switched by approaching ambulances, presumably by IR strobes in the ambulance as the non-IR traffic lights (the ones without the sensor on top) didn't seem to show the same effect. I'm interested enough to do more first-hand research but the various old articles I've come across are worth linking to and commenting on. Most of the older (1970) systems work on devices buried under the road but that doesn't mean they are lacking in functionality.
http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop06006/index.htm
Traffic Control Systems Handbook: Chapter 6. Detectors
Table 6-1. Strengths and Weaknesses of Commercially Available Sensor Technologies
Inductive Loop, Magnetometer, Magnetic, Microwave Radar, Active Infrared, Passive Infrared, Ultrasonic, Acoustic, Video Image Processor
My comment: These systems can recognise tags (transponder signals similar to aircraft but some products can also recognise types of vehicle - including passenger numbers - for the peizo-electric loops (the obvious trenches in the motorways) by axle weight and vehicle length. That is an older tech but more widely implemented and has improved features.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/regional/buses/bpf/busprioritythewayahead12/busprioritythewayaheadhtmlve1073?page=8#a1041
My comment: Although this UK government article is focussed on buses, it is about the best overview of what has been implented in the UK.
http://www.idris-technology.com/technical-sheets/automatic-vehicle-identification--tag-reader-correlation/
http://peek-traffic.co.uk/products/
My comment: Although the US has implented this years ahead of the UK, many of the companies are UK based.
http://www.cashloopholes.co.uk/free-driving-transport-loopholes-secrets/165-how-to-change-traffic-lights-to-green.html
My comment: In the US the IR frequency is 10Hz for low priority (buses), 14Hz for high priority (emergency services), almost certainly the same here. The universal code for a Universal Remote in the US is 911, that is trial and error or further investigation here - I will start that trial with 999 as the first code for obvious reasons.
My tuppence worth :
Traffic lights are one of the arteries of a city. It takes at least four activists to block a road, whereas four activists with a suitable hacking devices could block up an entire city. Most of these systems can be blocked, spoofed or abused and it is more likely to be cunts like rich, nasty Jeremy Clarkson who will do this before us. It certainly is the establishment elite who is paying for this to be implemented.
The infrastructure to make every road a toll-road has already been implemented or is being implemented in the UK, using established US technology alebit with English companies complicit. That implies every vehicle will soon be charged and tracked, traceable and taxable over every road as is the case in the UK. Traffic Master is simply an aspect of this, Automatic Number Plate Recognition is just a subset of this field.
I'd posted a comment earlier
[
http://www0.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434236.html?c=on#c228164 ] about a device using strobe technology to ruin flash photographs and a different device to hide your face in photos using Infrared LEDs. That got me thinking about 'Infra Red Strobes', so I googled that and stumbled upon a cheap US design for a Traffic Light remote control.
[
http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/176/44 ] An even simpler method using a shop-bought Universal Remote is here:
[
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/496319/change_traffic_lights_with_a_universal_remote ] That got me wondering if the same thing would work with UK traffic lights, so I did some blue-sky research, basically searching online techie and government sites, with the added thrill of some real-life ambulance-chases. My initial opinion is that the local traffic lights with IR sensors are being switched by approaching ambulances, presumably by IR strobes in the ambulance as the non-IR traffic lights (the ones without the sensor on top) didn't seem to show the same effect. I'm interested enough to do more first-hand research but the various old articles I've come across are worth linking to and commenting on. Most of the older (1970) systems work on devices buried under the road but that doesn't mean they are lacking in functionality.
http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop06006/index.htm Traffic Control Systems Handbook: Chapter 6. Detectors
Table 6-1. Strengths and Weaknesses of Commercially Available Sensor Technologies
Inductive Loop, Magnetometer, Magnetic, Microwave Radar, Active Infrared, Passive Infrared, Ultrasonic, Acoustic, Video Image Processor
My comment: These systems can recognise tags (transponder signals similar to aircraft but some products can also recognise types of vehicle - including passenger numbers - for the peizo-electric loops (the obvious trenches in the motorways) by axle weight and vehicle length. That is an older tech but more widely implemented and has improved features.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/regional/buses/bpf/busprioritythewayahead12/busprioritythewayaheadhtmlve1073?page=8#a1041 My comment: Although this UK government article is focussed on buses, it is about the best overview of what has been implented in the UK.
http://www.idris-technology.com/technical-sheets/automatic-vehicle-identification--tag-reader-correlation/ http://peek-traffic.co.uk/products/ My comment: Although the US has implented this years ahead of the UK, many of the companies are UK based.
http://www.cashloopholes.co.uk/free-driving-transport-loopholes-secrets/165-how-to-change-traffic-lights-to-green.html My comment: In the US the IR frequency is 10Hz for low priority (buses), 14Hz for high priority (emergency services), almost certainly the same here. The universal code for a Universal Remote in the US is 911, that is trial and error or further investigation here - I will start that trial with 999 as the first code for obvious reasons.
My tuppence worth :
Traffic lights are one of the arteries of a city. It takes at least four activists to block a road, whereas four activists with a suitable hacking devices could block up an entire city. Most of these systems can be blocked, spoofed or abused and it is more likely to be cunts like rich, nasty Jeremy Clarkson who will do this before us. It certainly is the establishment elite who is paying for this to be implemented.
The infrastructure to make every road a toll-road has already been implemented or is being implemented in the UK, using established US technology alebit with English companies complicit. That implies every vehicle will soon be charged and tracked, traceable and taxable over every road as is the case in the UK. Traffic Master is simply an aspect of this, Automatic Number Plate Recognition is just a subset of this field.
Danny
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
A wee bit hype: FIGHT! Reds vs Greens on traffic lights
14.07.2009 15:55
Reds,
You might feel pissed off that Plane Stupid and other socially acceptable middle-class acitivists are trying to stop your granny from flying, but did you know they are trying to stop your granny driving too? The government have all the engineering infrastructure in place, from the induction loops cut into the motorways, to the cameras and satellite systems, to the software that differentiates vehicles by length, weight and occupancy.
Although the induction loops are primitive, new software can use them to count the number of passengers in your vehicle or identify your vehicle from others - and cross-referenced with the cameras can identify where your grannys car is.
There have been rumours for deacades on how to flip traffic lights, for example by flashing vehicle lights, and some of those rumours have a basis in fact. This seems more relevant to getway drivers for bank robbers the same infrastructure, already prevalent in the States, heralds the start of universal road taxes in the UK. Tax is secondary to policing issues though or they would just rely on fuel tax.
Greens,
Cars are worse than aeroplanes, so you've used your family and school ties to prioritise buses over cars, and obviously emergency services vehicles over buses. In the US, where railroads often intersect roads this has proved costly because fireengines and ambulances have been hit by trains that were a lower priority. Proper traffic management obviously greatly affects the environment. This is the unsigned legal route to toll roads though, where only the rich can travel by road, where the congested routes are sifted of poor people. If that is your intent then why not just rely on taxing fuel? That clears the poor from the roads without letting the police know exactly where you are, exactly where you've been. Surely acceptable limits of travel can be rationed rather than bought?
Blacks / Anarcho-Geeks,
The national traffic management system is totally hackable / fuckable. Induction loops under roads are almost as easy to mess with as the strobe sensors on traffic lights, you can monitor what current they have recorded and spoof it or hide it. You could do this simply for your own benefit, just to travel quicker, or just to hide your vehicle. Or you could do this recklessly, risking delays to what are often truly essential emergency services. Or you could do this to inhibit police repression of moral protest, like fucking up police road priority around big protests or while you are are trying to escape on road. While I am sure anyone who can do this is smart enough not to fuck with ambulances or fire-engines, you should also bear in mind that not all cops are bastards, and they too sometimes save lives. Unless you can identify what a police car is headed to, best to leave it alone. Still, imo this an amber-light for informed, safe and moral traffic-management 'malicious mischief'.
Danny
No Scientist
22.07.2009 16:23
How technology will ease our traffic woes
One option being explored by a team at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory is to attach wireless infrared sensors to lamp posts. "The thing about lamp posts is that they are everywhere," says David Evans, who leads the project. They also have available power, making them "ideal for building a dense network of sensors throughout cities such as Cambridge"
Danny