I believe the cameras are only used at the boundaries of the charging zone (not certain of this, though); so it would indicate when a car crossed the boundary, and the direction. Time will render this distinction moot, however; how long before technology allows CCTV to be mined for vehicle data? The only real palliative for this problem at present (short of abolishing CCTV networks) would be legislative safeguards (which could obviously be extended to a road pricing system). The likelihood of getting legislation you'd be content with is slim, and that's before we get into the issues of data security, granted, but in the long term, legislative safeguards are about the only long term defence of civil liberties that is viable; developments in technology will continue to throw up risks to privacy, and eventually the benefits of technology will outweigh the cost of the risk to privacy for the great majority of the population. Even at present there aren't that many people who would avoid using mobile phones because of their ability to be tracked; further developments are likely to reduce that number further.
There's been talk of extending that scheme over the rest of the country, and my response to that would be: only if it's really unavoidable.
Well, it's obviously not unavoidable, we just live with the congestion and all the costs and problems associated with it, however bad it gets.
If you can show that it really would be beneficial to set up a controlled zone in central Edinburgh, then so be it
But this isn't about avoidable or unavoidable, this is about costs and benefits, and there's therefore an implied (finite) value you place on civil liberties (or at least the ones infringed upon by congestion charging technology). That's not surprising, it's very difficult to maintain a consistent rational position without this happening, but ask yourself this:
How much would you have to offer the average citizen to make them give up some of their civil liberties? I suspect it's depressingly little...
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Date: 2007-01-12 01:14 am (UTC)There's been talk of extending that scheme over the rest of the country, and my response to that would be: only if it's really unavoidable.
Well, it's obviously not unavoidable, we just live with the congestion and all the costs and problems associated with it, however bad it gets.
If you can show that it really would be beneficial to set up a controlled zone in central Edinburgh, then so be it
But this isn't about avoidable or unavoidable, this is about costs and benefits, and there's therefore an implied (finite) value you place on civil liberties (or at least the ones infringed upon by congestion charging technology). That's not surprising, it's very difficult to maintain a consistent rational position without this happening, but ask yourself this:
How much would you have to offer the average citizen to make them give up some of their civil liberties? I suspect it's depressingly little...