I know its been a bit erratic in the parking blogosphere for the last few days but I have been preparing for a trip to Oz. No, not that land of emerald cities and ruby slippers, but Australia. I’m here now, and as usual, those wonderful Aussies are making me feel at home.
A buddy here just handed me an article from the local paper. They are considering a type of congestion pricing but with a twist. Its run by GPS and your car is monitored at all times. It gets better sports fans. mon
If you drive through a congested area, you will be charged for driving in that area. Whatcha think of that. It gets better — Your parking can also be monitored and charged. It gets even better — your speed can be monitored and they will email you a speeding ticket — and it gets even better — the information can be sent to your insurance company and your premiums can be based on your average speed, or whatever.
Now the city of Melbourne admits that there are some "privacy issues" and are studying the idea.
Privacy issues — you bet there are privacy issues. And beaucoup other issues as well. The Australians are smarter than this. I am fairly certain it will die a proper death.
JVH
One Response
These conditions apply to truck drivers, who are no doubt assigned a vehicle and log book etc, so this appears to be a logical extension of that regime.
The only problems I see is that, Joe Citizen, like me, who does the right thing will be caught out and Joe Crook will deactivate the device and continue to drive unlicensed etc.
The tighter the grip, the more that slips through the fingers…