Amazing ! Decentralizing traffic enforcement is a win-win. Bravo to NYC for opening this sort of program and OP for turning it into an "efficient free market". Will try it out soon. Bookmarked.
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Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
121–130 of 351 posts
Re: Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
#122Genuinely curious, why aren't people allowed to say this is dystopian without getting flagged? What rule, specifically, does that violate? I think this is dystopian. Paying people to rat out their fellow citizens. Nightmarish. What if this idea was applied to the laws ICE is trying to enforce? Would you think that's dystopian?
You regularly spam a generic generative ai ‘art’ thing on this site so of all people it feels like you’d have a broader, less kneejerky and more charitable view of what use of the technology is ‘dystopian’
Re: Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
#123I like the general idea, and I’ve been surprised this hasn’t taken off elsewhere, eg citizen videos for traffic violations like blocking intersections, it seems these should be ROI positive for the city to implement (lower enforcement costs, more ticket revenue).
Some countries are already doing this, for example Vietnam and China. I recall reading about it years ago because some enterprising individuals decided that the revenue from catching random violations in-the-wild wasn't enough, so they started to deliberately create dangerous situations, where breaking a traffic law (which would then be recorded and submitted for a reward) was the only safe option for the victim. Unf…
This is why optimal policy design has the fines get paid directly from the violator to the reporter. That brings its own quirks, but they're all surprisingly tractable with other market mechanisms.
There's a whole literature on this topic in economics under mechanism design. They've been a longstanding research interest of mine, I consider it almost like the land value tax of legal enforcement by this point.
Re: Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
This program specifically fines businesses with fleets of commercial vehicles (delivery trucks, buses, et cetera) for illegal idling, and escalates the fines for repeat offenders. You can't report random individuals, nor would I really want to build an app for that. The point is to get businesses to stop polluting.
Okay, that makes it a little less dystopian. But you make money off people snitching. And you're setting the stage for something far worse, imo.
Is it still "snitching" if the reporter, as the person breathing the unnecessarily polluted air, is a victim of the crime?
Re: Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
#125Man, I wish my city would make it possible to report drivers breaking the law. My big issue is cars parking in the cycle lanes. 1830 cars got fined for that in my city in total in 2024. Aka 5 a day. As a single cyclist I see more cars parked in cycle lanes every day on my commute than all those hundred officers give tickets to in total..
What I’d like to see is hard separation of roads and bike lanes. As a cyclist, nothing but a line painted on the road makes me feel unsafe, as a driver it’s difficult to not get nervous when passing a cyclist in the lane, and culturally drivers are generally favored over cyclists which results in things like parking in bike lanes not being adequately enforced. All these things would be solved by bike lanes being full…
> What I’d like to see is hard separation of roads and bike lanes.
That's a great idea, as long as the hard separation goes both ways with bikes no longer being allowed in car lanes.
Re: Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
#126Within the last year or so, I discovered my city’s 311 app, which I’ve become addicted to. I don’t drive, so I’m always walking around the neighborhood, and got in the habit of always reporting graffiti, dumping, illegally parked cars, etc. This had inspired me to try and make a few apps for civic use, but I discovered that many of the accessible web tools for my city have rules against bots. For example, the city ma…
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Re: Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
#127Since you've mentioned it, that'd be great to give some details regarding the AI mechanism you used. I really find that trend of hiding everything behind "The Divine AI" off-putting. What exactly AI does in the context of the application?
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Re: Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
This program specifically fines businesses with fleets of commercial vehicles (delivery trucks, buses, et cetera) for illegal idling, and escalates the fines for repeat offenders. You can't report random individuals, nor would I really want to build an app for that. The point is to get businesses to stop polluting.
Okay, that makes it a little less dystopian. But you make money off people snitching. And you're setting the stage for something far worse, imo.
Being about businesses only and no individuals makes all the difference in the world.
Otherwise it should be seen as dystopian also the fact that you can call the police on your neighborhood because "you heard noises".
I bet that the friction in the submission process was deliberately added to avoid abuses, but maybe it's just incompetence. Depending on the reason, this app can be either good or against the spirit of the rule.
Re: Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
#129This is a phenomenal application of how fine-based bounties can be used to rapidly improve compliance with the law. Incredible work. I would absolutely use this if I lived in NYC; I'll recommend it to my friends there.
I wish it was was more common around the world. Not just with parking though, but everything in the context of cars.
Like letting the police install a permanent speed trap on your property or even pay for the privilege of them doing so. I'd bet that'd curb a lot of speeding in short order
Re: Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI
#130[flagged]