honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, March 15, 2005

DRIVE TIME

Twists and turns of traffic and technology

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer

Technology continues to drive the transportation debate across the country and around the world. Here are a few recent news items to ponder before you start your next morning commute:

THE MOVE to require cell-phone users to use hands-free devices while they're driving may be causing more problems than it solves.

Several officials across the country say that those headset cell phones may end up causing more accidents because they leave a driver's hands free to do other things that don't include driving.

Jurisdictions like New York that have passed laws requiring hands-free cell-phone use while driving are now reconsidering the legislation, which has been largely ignored and unenforceable, the New York Times said last week.

CHICAGO has become the first city in the country to turn over one of its public highways to a private business.

Officials late last year signed a $1.82 billion, 99-year lease of the Chicago Skyway linking the city with the Indiana border. The toll road will be operated by a company that operates private toll roads in Australia, South America and Europe.

City officials say it will get them out of a job that shouldn't be a core city function and still raise millions for other purposes. The company, which will be responsible for maintaining the road, will be allowed to raise the tolls from $2 per car to $5 per car by 2017.

WANT TO SLEEP in a little later this morning? Someday your alarm clock might be programmed to wake you a little later when traffic is lighter than usual. Of course, if there's a big traffic jam out there you don't know about, it might wake you earlier.

An engineer at Microsoft has created a program to monitor traffic patterns each day and use real-time and archived date to predict when the next backup might occur.

The program, SmartPhlow, works on a technologically advanced smart phone or a regular desktop computer, and takes into account everything from weather to sporting events to accidents in making its predictions. At least 2,000 Microsoft employees are now using a prototype of the product in the Seattle area.

One idea is to send the data to a home of a sleeping commuter who could then adjust his departure time accordingly.

IN EUROPE, officials are increasingly thinking about requiring airplane style black boxes in new automobiles.

The European Commission is studying the idea to see if the devices could help in accident investigations by recording information, including speed and the rate of braking in cars, in the vital seconds leading up to a crash.

Some police forces in London use the technology in their own cars and say it has helped to reduce the number of accidents.

MEANWHILE, IN NORTH DAKOTA, one state lawmaker is trying to require auto dealers to tell buyers if their new car includes one of those "black boxes" that store information on a driver's speed, seat-belt use and other habits.

Sen. Raymon Holmberg is worried that the box data could be used to track his driving habits, or even be used against him if he had an accident.

"I didn't realize that Big Brother was car-pooling with me," he said.

His bill would also bar information gathered by the device from being used in court. Some areas are now routinely retrieving the black boxes of cars involved in accidents to help explain what happened in the moments leading up to a crash.

"When I bought my car, I didn't realize I was also buying a highway patrolman to sit in the back seat."

Holmberg is sponsoring a bill, being considered in the North Dakota House, that would require new vehicle buyers to be told if the car is equipped with a black box, and prohibit the data it collects from being used in court.

NOW THAT DVD players are commonplace in cars, are computers next?

Intel Corp. last month showed off a prototype computer that lets back-seat passengers not only watch DVDs, but also play video games, listen to digital music and in some places wirelessly surf the information highway while rolling down the concrete highway, according to the Charlotte (N.C) Observer.

About the size of a hardcover novel, the computer can easily be removed and used like a portable PC, in or out of the vehicle.

Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.