[LINK] Bluetooth device tracking used by .au councils to measure traffic

[Jim Birch]

Some newer cars have bluetooth interfaces to the car computer.  Some car
stereos have an interface for playing music from a  phone, etc.  These
would be unusual but a lot more cars would have Bluetooth phone kits and (I
guess) most cars would be carrying a Bluetooth capable phone which may or
may have the Bluetooth actually switched on.

You wouldn't detect every car via Bluetooth but you could detect enough to
make good estimates of the total traffic, and 24x7.

Sooner or later every car will be connected to the net - and probably won't
have a human driver - so someone or something will know where it is.  It
will be hard to resist the case for a pay for road use and pay for
congestion policy.  I think there is already a very good case for at least
tracking trucks for several reasons including the fact that road
destruction and resulting maintenance cost is approximately proportional to
the fifth power of axle weight.  Taxpayers build roads, trucks destroy them.

Jim




On 27 March 2013 12:27, Marghanita da Cruz <marghanita at ramin.com.au> wrote:

> Amazing - do the cars have blue tooth or is it the phones?
>
> The NSW RTA used to publish their traffic data and I used this to calculate
> the Greenhouse Gas emissions for traffic through Annandale. I expect that
> was just on cables across the street - traffic counters (manual counting?):
> <http://ramin.com.au/annandale/carbon-footprint-traffic.shtml>
>
> Marghanita
>
> Alex (Maxious) Sadleir wrote:
> >> Bluetooth data collection is used for traffic studies across Australia
> and worldwide. Please be assured that this technology is not able to
> collect any personal data and there is no way to identify individuals
> through Bluetooth devices. If the technology could in any way contravene
> the Privacy Act or other legislation, TAMS [Canberra municipal services]
> would not use it.
> >> The Bluetooth technology allows for information to be collected about
> the movement of cars through a suburb. Data receivers collect an electronic
> signature at the entry and exit points to suburbs and by looking at the
> time it takes vehicles to travel that distance it can be determined whether
> they are �rat running� or whether they were instead going to the local
> shops or dropping their kids off at school. If data is captured only at the
> entry point then it can be determined that the owner of the vehicle must
> live in the suburb.
> >> TAMS has received many safety and complaints relating to rat running in
> Chisholm, Gilmore, Richardson, Macarthur, Fadden and Gowrie and is
> responding with detailed traffic studies. Bluetooth technology is being
> used instead of manual counting as it much more accurately records traffic
> flows. It also offers a greater degree of privacy than that which can be
> provided with toll tag tracking or license plate surveys due to the fact
> that there are no databases of Bluetooth addresses that can be used to
> associate addresses with individual owners or their vehicles.
> >> The Minister has asked TAMS to include information on Bluetooth data
> collection on its website, as we understand people may have concerns or
> questions about how it works.
> >
> >
> http://the-riotact.com/big-brother-is-watching-government-invades-resident-privacy
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
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> >
> --
> Marghanita da Cruz
> Ramin Communications Pty Ltd
> http://ramin.com.au/
> Phone:(+61)0414-869202
>
>
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