Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps • Hacker News Board

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#61

Post by makeitdouble » Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 12:57 PM UTC

988747 wrote: post #44

closeparen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Netherlands would like a word.

It only works for short trips. No one rides a bicycle if they have to go to another town, 50 miles away. Also, do not mention: "you can take your bicycle on a train" - if you need to use the train then again you are dependent on public service and traceable.

Passenger cars also don’t work for containers or industrial timber transport. No specific vehicle needs to fit every single use case, if your day to day life involves commuting from a town 50 miles away in the middle of nowhere, so be it.

More people live in cities than rural areas, but it doesn’t mean they’ll come to take away your car.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#62

Post by acdha » Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 12:59 PM UTC

myself248 wrote: post #54

hunterb123 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bike is a great mode of transportation when you don't need to carry anything heavy, bulky, passengers etc. and when weather permits. It's not a replacement for a vehicle, nor will it ever be.

Or people with asthma or any number of other disabilities. Bike-centric design is transparently ableist.

> Bike-centric design is transparently ableist.

There are many disabilities which don't allow driving, not to mention that in countries like the United States which don't take care of people there are many disabled people who cannot afford to own a car.

Accessibility doesn't have a single solution but if you look at areas which are welcoming to bicyclists they are also much better for a wide variety of disabilities because they have things like sidewalks, safe vehicle speeds or limited vehicle access, curb cuts, etc. You'll see people in electric wheelchairs or tricycles using bike lanes/paths, blind/deaf people don't have to worry as much about getting hit by a speeding car they were unable to notice, etc.

If you don't like bicycling, think of them as safe mobility lanes — the users certainly do, and we should all back having more of them because if we're lucky we'll live long enough to need them.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#63

Post by dagw » Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 1:00 PM UTC

drsim wrote: post #29

hunterb123 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bike is a great mode of transportation when you don't need to carry anything heavy, bulky, passengers etc. and when weather permits. It's not a replacement for a vehicle, nor will it ever be.

Narrow thinking. Cargo bikes come in a variety of shapes and sizes to carry children, adults, parcels, moving boxes, and more. As for the weather... well, as we say in Denmark: there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.

as we say in Denmark: there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.

That's easy to say in Denmark, since the weather is virtually always pretty OK. It basically never gets below -10 or above +35. Without looking at the data I would guess 300ish days a year are between 5 and 25.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#64

Post by acdha » Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

hunterb123 wrote: post #21

Gigachad wrote: post #9

Just another reason to preference walking and cycling.

A bike is a great mode of transportation when you don't need to carry anything heavy, bulky, passengers etc. and when weather permits. It's not a replacement for a vehicle, nor will it ever be.

> A bike is a great mode of transportation when you don't need to carry anything heavy, bulky, passengers etc. and when weather permits.

My family uses our cargo bikes as our primary mode of transportation year round. It turns out that children were allowed to leave the house prior to the invention of cars and continue to be capable of wearing jackets in the winter. Many even like the snow.

The key thing to understand is that while sometimes you need more than a bike can carry, that's a small fraction of all of the vehicle trips Americans make. The average trip we take has 1.2 people in the car, is a relatively short (half of them are under 3 miles, a distance my son could do on his own as a 2 year old), and carries negligible cargo. Buying a vehicle for your 99th percentile needs is a significant expense for capacity you use only a handful of times a year — the average American spends $11k/year to own a car according to AAA, and for that much money you could buy and discard a new cargo bike every couple of months and still have plenty left over to rent a truck on the few occasions when you need landscaping or building supplies.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#65

Post by doublerabbit » Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

generalizations wrote: post #41

londons_explore wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's a bargain, take me up on the offer then.

Ok, I'll bite. How would you do that? How do they stay connected and powered?

Within the UK, 4G sim cards and data are cheap. Android phone with tether capabilities, Raspberry Pi with solar and a webcam.

Or even better to save all that faff, root a phone, run the drivers plate OCR software using the phones camera, stick to a gantry and send results via text message. You wouldn't even need live updates, pull the latest data at midnight each day.

Text is cheap.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#66

Post by McDyver » Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 1:11 PM UTC

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #34

someweirdperson wrote: post #32

Finally. Publish it all. Tracking of every vehicle, visible for everyone. It has been that way with aircraft for a long time. Pilots, however, are such a minority that noone really cares. Now that everyone is impacted, regulation might get updated (or someone might spend the time to identify existing regulation that prohibits this), and that would extend to other vehicles than those with wheels.

yep! There are so many people thinking "I did nothing wrong, who cares if I get tracked".... publish it all, and then have all the neighbours have access to that, the wife can see when you left the bar, your boss can see when you left, etc... only then will people be aware that it's not ok to do that. There are also laws (not sure if accepted yet) that all cars should have remote shutdowns/blocks.. for "security reas…

Even if you did nothing wrong and "have nothing to hide"(TM), knowing where you are can also tell others where you aren't.

It gives the possibility to infer patterns from your travels, or can, for instance, give a thief the opportunity to rob your place knowing that you are 200 km away and won't be home any time soon.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#67

Post by acdha » Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 1:11 PM UTC

mattw2121 wrote: post #57

drsim wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Narrow thinking. Cargo bikes come in a variety of shapes and sizes to carry children, adults, parcels, moving boxes, and more. As for the weather... well, as we say in Denmark: there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.

Denmark - max temp 72F/22C Florida - max temp 100F/38C Have fun biking in Florida, unless there is a shower ready for you at each end.

If you're doing something dressy, you need that shower anyway unless you're never spending more than a couple of minutes outside — or you dress appropriately for the weather and it's not an issue.

Florida is also an interesting example given that it's both the southernmost point of the continental United States and at significant risk of catastrophic damages from the climate change caused in no small part by driving cars. Whether or not you prefer the status quo, continuing it isn't an option.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#68

Post by jefftk » Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 1:14 PM UTC

csunbird wrote: post #58

jefftk wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All vehicles have things that they are better or worse at, but you overstate the case against bicycles. For example, with passengers, you can add a child seat or trailer to an ordinary bike, or you can use a longer bike designed for bringing others. Cars also have situations they're a poor fit for: places without good parking, if you have to take part of your journey by another mode (bus, train, etc...) and need your…

All vehicles are better at some things and worse at some things. That is why replacing all cars with bicycles won't work at all, and we should stop pushing this idea. We just need to use more bicycles.

I don't see anyone here proposing replacing all cars with bicycles?

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#69

Post by carlob » Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 1:15 PM UTC

myself248 wrote: post #54

hunterb123 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bike is a great mode of transportation when you don't need to carry anything heavy, bulky, passengers etc. and when weather permits. It's not a replacement for a vehicle, nor will it ever be.

Or people with asthma or any number of other disabilities. Bike-centric design is transparently ableist.

Bullshit: a city designed around bikes is a city designed around wheelchairs.

Not to mention asthma never prevented anyone from cycling. Maybe you won't win the Tour, but you can definitely commute cycling with asthma if your city is designed around humans and not cars.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#70

Post by bambax » Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

The DB5 in Goldfinger (1964) had revolving licence plates.

A cursory Google search comes up with some shady websites that sell similar tech, but it would be a nice DIY project to make a licence plate screen that can be changed on the fly (e-ink based maybe).

Has anyone tried it?