Of Fools on the Road fromShane Conder's Whateveritis of Nothing

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Of Fools on the Road

I was merging onto the freeway this morning. Traffic was moving at about 5-10 MPH. The guy in on the freeway was moving even slower and letting onramp traffic in -- he was a big truck. Two or three of us got on the road right in front of him. Then, people swerved around us that had been behind us on the onramp and sped on by, stradling the white line. The someone following _those_ people also swerved up and tried to get in between a couple of us. It didn't work for her, but that didn't prevent her from waving frantically and giving me the finger -- even though she was in the wrong from not properly merging (I've gotten tickets for such things) not to mention the rudeness of cutting -- and then the nerve to think she was in the right! Given the flow of traffic, she must have come from at least 5 or 6 cars back on the onramp. (Actually, she didn't give me the finger... she gave me a thumbs down. Heh.)

I took a deep breath and started thinking once again about the following topic:

This is from a comment I put under this post by Russell Beattie:

I was thinking about this while driving in this morning. What's needed is a _simple_ way to get information onto your phone about the other vehicle and then, when you can pay attention to your phone, get it from your phone to the web.
I'm thinking something like you take a picture or record your voice of what happened, license numbers, etc. You then MMS it to a pre-saved location (e.g. no cumbersome typing). Or you wait to MMS it. Then, when you get done driving you forward everything to the web, log into the web site, and edit the entries to fill out a form.

In order to register to send things to the web site you'd need to enter both your phone number and license plates (or list of plates). That way, if something comes up under your plate you'll know (e.g. your center break light is out).

In order to avoid abuse, registration with a valid cell phone number would have to be required.

Additionally, the web system could allow for other people to listen to the voice or look at a picture and fill out the data for the form.

This makes the reporting system such a low distraction that you won't be reported for reporting.

The key, though, is to allow positive reporting as well.

The real question, though: Are there privacy issues with a license plate? It's out for the public to see, so I wouldn't think so. What's the harm in it being on the web? (Other than the foolish looking like, well, fools.)

Posted by Shane on December 14, 2004 9:49 AM | Permalink

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This is from a comment I put under this post by Russell Beattie:

I was thinking about this while driving in this morning. What's needed is a _simple_ way to get information onto your phone about the other vehicle and then, when you can pay attention to your phone, get it from your phone to the web. I'm thinking something like you take a picture or record your voice of what happened, license numbers, etc. You then MMS it to a pre-saved location (e.g. no cumbersome typing). Or you wait to MMS it. Then, when you get done driving you forward everything to the web, log into the web site, and edit the entries to fill out a form. In order to register to send things to the web site you'd need to enter both your phone number and license plates (or list of plates). That way, if something comes up under your plate you'll know (e.g. your center break light is out). In order to avoid abuse, registration with a valid cell phone number would have to be required. Additionally, the web system could allow for other people to listen to the voice or look at a picture and fill out the data for the form. This makes the reporting system such a low distraction that you won't be reported for reporting. The key, though, is to allow positive reporting as well. The real question, though: Are there privacy issues with a license plate? It's out for the public to see, so I wouldn't think so. What's the harm in it being on the web? (Other than the foolish looking like, well, fools.)