Category: General

Citizen proposes secret cameras to monitor politicians in response to TxDOT hidden cameras

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Dear Ms. Hall:

I’d like to submit an idea for you and your group to explore and possibly lobby for as new state legislation, seeing Texas State Government officials have no objections to secretly monitoring citizens via cameras everywhere we travel on public roads.

According to TXDOT, and other agencies, these secret monitoring efforts are always for “public safety” or for “monitoring regional mobility” concerns.

Here is my suggestion. We as citizens in return, are also concerned for the safety of our government employees and in addition we are also concerned that tax revenue is spent wisely.

Therefore, in the interest of our concern for the safety and security of our elected officials and ALL state government employees, why not propose and lobby for a measure to require real time live streaming camera surveillance (to be posted 24/7 on the Web) of any and all elected state officials and their employees while those individuals are in their offices, inside a publicly owned government facility conducting their duties, or while traveling in any State owned method of transportation?

(Of course audio monitoring should be included in the measure)

It would certainly help constituents to rest easy each night knowing their public officials and employees are safe while in public facilities. They would be virtually free from any attempt to be bribed while they are in the public building or vehicle.

It would would additionally provide physical security, since criminals would be less likely to attempt harm to any state employee or elected official due to it being public knowledge digitized record of any crime would assist in identifying them for conviction of any crime.

All State automobiles could be equipped with cameras monitoring the INSIDE of the vehicle, and perhaps RFID chips could also be of assistance in some similar fashion to monitor the vehicle’s travel.

Just a thought, since Governor Perry’s administration sees no problem at all with TXDOT secretly recording the images of Texas motorists, in their ongoing efforts to unselfishly serve and protect the people of the State of Texas.

Sincerely,
Gary
Dripping Springs, Texas

Talk of gas tax increase…citizens cold to increase without taking tolls off the table

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Link to article here.

Legislators are finally getting a clue that people don’t want toll roads and they’re starting to look at the most affordable transportation solution…the gas tax. However, without putting the lid on toll roads, raising the gas tax under current law and policies amounts to a DOUBLE WHAMMY, a gas tax increase AND toll proliferation!

Here’s what I told reporters, but you can see how little of it got printed…
Until TxDOT undergoes a top to bottom review of its books and until their funding gap figures are resolved (State Auditor and A&M Study found it was off by $30 billion) and a trustworthy determination of the true transportation needs are made, we cannot support a gas tax increase. This is because no one knows the real dollar amount that a gas tax increase would need to raise. Also, we cannot support ANY transportation tax increases until lawmakers put the lid on tolling. Our fear from the beginning has been that we’d get a gas tax increase and STILL pay tolls across Texas. A DOUBLE whammy for taxpayers!

It’s abundantly clear TxDOT and our politicians refuse to change gears away from tolling over the loud public outcry, and unless TxDOT’s December 18, 2003 Minute Order mandating all new capacity be tolled is rescinded, the taxpayers risk crippling transportation tax increases from every side. The public has completely lost faith in our highway department, and frankly, in most of our politicians. Accountability and the public trust need to be restored before taxpayers will accept granting this rogue agency any more of our hard-earned money!

However, we appreciate a lawmaker courageously stepping forward to start the discussion of a REAL solution other than tolls!

Since the Prop 12 bonds are going to be used solely for TOLL ROADS not FREEways, we will work very hard to defeat it. Read the official legislative analysis that says so here.

Senator urging funding for roads
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News
10/11/2007

State lawmakers don’t seem to have a clue when it comes to gauging public tolerance for higher gasoline taxes or hearing demands to scale back toll-road plans, a ranking Texas Senate member said Thursday.”We need leadership on these issues,” said John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security. “I’m very frustrated from the governor of Texas on down.”

He made the remarks to the Express-News Editorial Board while stumping for Proposition 12 on the November ballot, which would allow $5 billion in bonds backed by general revenue to be spent on roadways, although he concedes that’s just a quick fix.

Texas Department of Transportation officials said two weeks ago they face a funding meltdown because federal and state lawmakers refused for more than a decade to raise gas taxes and state legislators this year began curbing the agency’s ability to privatize tollways.

TxDOT will slash $1.8 billion in road construction over the next three years, including at least $57 million to widen several San Antonio highways.

Carona didn’t dispute the crisis, but said TxDOT should pull back some on using toll roads and privatization — the most hated and costly solutions — to fill the funding hole.

“I’m not opposed to all the toll roads,” he said. “I just think they need to be part of the mix, not all of the solution.”

But that means other options are needed, he said. Between now and the 2009 legislative session, the senator will rally support for three initiatives:

Raising the state’s 20-cent-a-gallon gas tax by a nickel or a dime.

Indexing the gas tax to construction costs but capping increases to 3 percent a year.

Asking voters to consider a constitutional amendment to ban diversions of highway funds for other uses — including a fourth of the gas-tax pie going to schools, but only if all of that funding can be replaced from other sources.

Carona believes he can push some version of all three measures through the Senate.

“It’ll depend wholly on what’s going on in the House,” he said. “The time to go after this is right now, while there’s heightened legislative awareness.”

House Transportation Committee Chairman Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, said he’ll stick with Carona all the way, but there should be a backup plan because similar bills have failed over the years.

“The backup plan has got to be bringing private investment,” he said. “The Legislature pretty emphatically said no to indexing, to increasing the rate.”

Gov. Rick Perry, a staunch advocate for privatization and tolling, has long opposed proposals to increase the gas tax but would be open to allowing indexing, spokeswoman Allison Castle said. He also wants to stop gas-tax diversions.

“The governor believes toll roads are the fairest form of taxation, you only pay if you use them, but he’s willing to consider a number of options, including indexing the gas tax,” she said.

Toll critic Terri Hall of San Antonio Toll Party said she can’t support a higher gas tax until TxDOT’s finances are probed and the agency chucks a policy to toll new highway lanes whenever feasible.

“However, we appreciate a lawmaker courageously stepping forward to start the discussion of real solutions other than tolls,” she said.

Pennsylvania to toll I-80, despite opposition

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Link to article here. Does this sound familiar or what? Politicos push tolling of existing highways by any means necessary, regardless of PUBLIC OPPOSITION, in order to subsidize everything under the sun with this new infiniti DOUBLE TAX. This is the equivalent of tolling I-35, which is in TxDOT’s toll plans, which means economic disaster, and the politicians just don’t care. Throw the bums out!

Tolling Of I-80 Nears
By: Dan Hirschhorn, The Bulletin
10/09/2007

As rural residents and lawmakers continue their opposition to plans to the tolling Interstate 80, state officials are inching closer to that first tollbooth.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) expects to sign a lease within days allowing it to manage – and toll – the massive highway stretching across Pennsylvania, according to a commission spokesman.

“We are at the point right now where we expect to have an executed lease this week,” PTC spokesman Carl DeFebo said.
A current draft lease agreement, which lawyers for both PennDOT and the commission have discussed for weeks, stipulates no revenue from tolling I-80 may be used for mass transit in the state, a sticking point for rural constituents unhappy at the prospect of subsidizing city transit they don’t use. The first tollbooth wouldn’t hit the ground before 2011.
Instituting the tolls is part of the state transportation funding package that passed in Harrisburg in June. The legislation called for about $965 million in additional yearly funding for roads, bridges and mass transit throughout the state, money that would come from sales taxes, tolling I-80 and, later, toll increases on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The dedicated funding SEPTA secured through the same legislation is dependent on the extra revenue.
Almost immediately after the bill, Act 44, passed in June, area residents and government leaders, uneasy at subsidizing SEPTA with local taxes lashed out against the plan to toll I-80. They have insisted it would devastate local economies while maintaining that rural residents should not have to pay for city transit.
Two northeastern Pennsylvania GOP congressmen, Reps. Phil English and John Peterson, this summer tucked an amendment into a large federal appropriations bill attempting to block the tolling plan. While that appropriations bill passed the house, the amendment was removed in the Senate.
Simultaneous efforts have been made to completely repeal Act 44, but the chairman of the state House Appropriations Committee last week said a repeal was out of the question.
“It’ll never get out of my committee – put it that way,” Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, said.
Such opposition also led Gov. Ed Rendell to reopen the idea of leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike to increase revenue, and 34 companies submitted letters of interest to PennDOT last month.
Meanwhile, PTC CEO Joseph Brimmeir has taken considerable steps in recent weeks to blunt criticisms of the tolling plan, promising that no money from tolls on I-80 will fund SEPTA. Rather, he has said, toll revenue will fund only projects in the region.
Toll revenue would fund, among other things, $2 billion worth of capital improvements on I-80 during the first decade of tolling, Mr. DeFebo said.
Though neither Mr. English nor Mr. Peterson could be reached for comment over the weekend, they and their allies remain on the offensive.
“While we recognize this is going to be a fight. I know that Congressman English and Congressman Peterson are committed to keeping a toll-free I-80,” Julia Wanzco, a spokeswoman for English, said in August.
Local politicians have fiercely criticized the opposition for blocking the tolling efforts. State Sen. Vincent Fumo has gone so far as to call Mr. Peterson and Mr. English hypocrites. But for the commission, instituting the plan is a matter of law.
“We have a responsibility to move ahead with the implementation of Act 44,” Mr. DeFebo said. “It’s a law, and we’ve got to move ahead implementing.”

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RMA votes to pay LOSING bidders on toll projects

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Link to article here.

We testified against the policy to pay LOSING bidders on toll projects citing that even BIG TIME pro-toll Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson called the practice as “nutty as fruitcake.” But as usual, the unelected appointees did the bidding of the highway lobby over the interests of the public. Once again, all we’re told is there is no money for roads, yet they continue to spend money on advertising, $10 million rest stops, and special “pay-offs” to highway contractors who won’t even be building the project. Board member Christina Rodriguez had it right when she said, architects spend $250, 000 or more to bid on government projects all of the time and NEVER get reimbursed for it. So why should highway engineers get special treatment? Welcome to Texas where the highway kings reign supreme!

Then, after consulting with a bond attorney, we found that the RMA’s intention to reimburse itself from capital improvement project bonds on 281 is illegal! They cannot reimburse themselves for salaries and operating expenses from capital improvement bonds.

Of course, when questioned, they said they could. Once again, looks like a court will have to decide. But if you take the RMA’s logic to its conclusion, the City of San Antonio could float bonds for street improvements and then use those bonds to pay City employees salaries and operating expenses. That’s not the purpose of public bond debt for a tangible capital project like a road. Not to mention, the RMA is relying on financial advice from a former City finance official who was reportedly fired from his job having been found in a drunken stupor at his desk. Gives you great confidence that the government is lookin’ out for us, eh?
Paying the losers
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
October 11, 2007Just one vote made the difference Wednesday to let San Antonio’s toll agency to pay losing bidders on a U.S. 281 tollway project.

Alamo Regional Mobility Authority board voted 3-2 to pay losers either $200,000 or 0.1 percent of the project’s cost, whichever is lower, for their detailed proposals.
Voting for:

  • Bill Thornton
  • Jim Reed
  • Reynaldo Diaz

Voting against:

  • Maria Cristina Rodriguez
  • Jesse Jenkins

Officials say the payments encourage more bidders to take a shot with projects such as the U.S. 281 tollway, in which design and construction phases are combined, by reimbursing them for their work. The mobility authority will own the losing plans and can implement any good ideas.

RIC WILLIAMSON1.jpg
Ric Williamson

The stipends are sore spots with critics, who call them give-aways that would be better spent on actual construction. The Texas Department of Transportation is paying millions of dollars worth of stipends for toll projects around the state.

Texas Observer reporter Eileen Welsome said in a December story that Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson called the stipends “nutty as a fruitcake” and said they might be a holdover from an era of big government. But it was an omnibus transportation bill passed by the Legislature in 2003, giving TxDOT tolling and privatization powers, that ushered in the payments.

Not just any company can submit a detailed bid. They have to be invited after first showing their qualifications.

The mobility authority is accepting credentials from companies through Oct. 19 for the U.S. 281 project. The agency will shortlist proposers Oct. 24 and begin seeking detailed bids Nov. 29. Final bids are due Feb. 28.

Construction to rebuild U.S. 281 into a tollway with non-toll frontage roads from Loop 1604 to Marshall Road or beyond could start soon after and be open by 2012. Toll fees could start at 17 cents a mile.

Also Wednesday, the mobility authority board voted to use upcoming bond funds to reimburse itself up to $250 million for development of the U.S. 281 tollway.

The board also agreed to exempt $42,000 a year in U.S. 281 toll fees for VIA Metropolitan Transit, enough to allow buses and vans to ride free. Adding in other VIA vehicles such as vanpools would cost, but the transit agency gets to choose how to divide the exempted fees among its various vehicles.

Other recent news about the mobility authority:

Hundreds turn out to oppose elevated tollway, Grand Parkway

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Link to article here. This Grand Parkway project is widely reported to be a connector to the Trans Texas Corridor, TTC-69 project.

Says a local business representative:

”You all that proposed this plan, you have awakened a sleeping giant.”Hundreds turn out to hear Grand Parkway plans
Oct. 11, 2007
By DUSTIN WENZEL
Houston Chronicle
More than 250 residents spilled into Manford Williams Elementary on Wednesday night to voice their concerns about plans to develop Segment C of the Grand Parkway into a four-lane tollway.

Hosted by the coalition STOP, or Stop Tolls on Parkway, the meeting drew a standing-room only crowd with representatives from eight communities near the proposed highway, which will run from U.S. Hwy. 59 to U.S. Hwy. 288.

”This road is obviously built to accommodate the future residents in Fort Bend County. We are not being accommodated, said Ann Franson,” a Brazos Lakes representative from STOP. ”We are just like the people that will come later and yet we have not been invited into the dialogue of this road.”

Current plans for Segment C show it to be a four-lane road with grassy medians and access ramps that begins with an overpass over U.S. Hwy. 59 connecting Segment D. It will continue along Crabb River Road until curving to the west at Rabbs Bayou before hugging the north and east edges of Bridlewood before traveling past the George Ranch and eventually connecting with U.S. Hwy. 288.

STOP is asking for a 60-day comment period and the elimination of tolls on Segment C. The group also seeks the removal of the planned overpass on U.S. Hwy. 59 and access ramps near Bridlewood and Brazos Lakes subdivisions.

Grand Parkway Association executive director David Gornet said he does not have the authority to extend the comment period and that the Texas Department of Transportation’s Houston-area district engineer, Gary Trietsch, will make the final decision on the segment’s route.

Gorent said after a study team completes the final environmental impact statement, which is due before the end of the year, TxDOT will hold another public meeting. Construction on the segment will not start until at least 2010, he said.

Need for road discussed

Community representatives took turns grilling Gornet about how the segment’s route was planned and the need for a tollway through a scarcely-populated area with little traffic.

”Prior to reaching Brazos Lake, there is farmland, people — open land,” said Lynn Franklin, representing Canyon Gate at the Brazos. ”I guess were trying to operate on the ‘Build it and they will come’ theory.”

Franklin said she is concerned how much impact taxpayers have on a ”road that goes to nowhere” and that the tollway will produce more traffic around their communities.

Other residents openly complained about the view of a tollway outside their community and the potential increase in air and noise pollution in a rural area.

”If you look at the (proposed) fly-by (connecting U.S. Hwy. 59 to the Grand Parkway), its like a roller coaster – but its a roller coaster ride you dont want to get on,” said Cheryl Rambaud, a five-year resident of Canyon Gate at the Brazos. ”From my vantage point instead of looking at the trees and the sky and my neighbors’ two-story homes, I will be looking at the Jetsons’ version of the roller coaster.”

Gornet later [responded on]explained why he believed elected officials favor Segment C and included it in the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s 2025 transportation plan.

”The Grand Parkway possibly provides continued growth of our county. (Elected officials) have seen that it has been a benefit as you go south from (Interstate 10),” he said.

County judge opposes tollway

Franklin wasn’t the only audience member who questioned the need for the tollway. Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert said the county is against constructing the segment now, but added the county can’t stop TxDOT from building a state highway.

Hebert, though, wouldn’t rule out the need for Segment C in the future.

”One of the principles of doing tollroads is that tollroads are devices of last resort,” he said. ”You have to have cars to pay for it. Fort Bend County has no plans to make Segment C a tollroad. Theres no traffic out in Segment C.

”I agree with you folks, now is not the time to even be considering the subject. I’m not opposed to tollways. (But) Segment C is not needed at this time.”

Impact on businesses

Quart Graves, the owner/operator of Chick-Fil-A Greatwood, represented various businesses in the River Park Shopping Center on the northeast corner of the Grand Parkway.

He called the tollway’s potential construction horrific and compared the tollways impact on businesses inside the center to Town and Country Mall, which eventually closed after construction to the Sam Houston Tollway limited access to the shopping center.

Tentative plans call for the construction of direct connectors with U.S. Hwy. 59 directly over the edge of the shopping center. If construction proceeds, Graves said Chick-Fil-A, Mattress Firm, Bank of America and Whataburger would be forced to close.

Other businesses on Crabb Road that lie in the segment’s proposed right-of-way include Exxon, Burger King, The Z Icehouse and Greatwood Automotive. However, Gornet said, TxDOT will not take any action on businesses that sit in the right-of-way until it issues a record of decision to purchase the right-of-way.

Regardless of the timetable, Graves said he will fight the proposal.

”The cement has barely dried on my business,” Graves said. ”You all that proposed this plan, you have awakened a sleeping giant.”

For information on Segment C, visit www.grandpky.com.

Vicente Fox: North American currency, Amero, on the way

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Ex-Mexican prez: ‘Amero’ on the way
Vicente Fox confirms long-term deal worked out with President Bush

Posted: October 9, 2007
 By Jerome R. Corsi
 © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Ex-Mexican President Vicente Fox last night on CNN

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox confirmed the existence of a plan conceived with President Bush to create a new regional currency in the Americas, in an interview last night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” It possibly was the first time a leader of Mexico, Canada or the U.S. openly confirmed a plan for a regional currency. Fox explained the current regional trade agreement that encompasses the Western Hemisphere is intended to evolve into other previously hidden aspects of integration.

According to a transcript published by CNN, King, near the end of the broadcast, asked Fox a question e-mailed from a listener, a Ms. Gonzalez from Elizabeth, N.J.: “Mr. Fox, I would like to know how you feel about the possibility of having a Latin America united with one currency?”

Fox answered in the affirmative, indicating it was a long-term plan. He admitted he and President Bush had agreed to pursue the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas – a free-trade zone extending throughout the Western Hemisphere, suggesting part of the plan was to institute eventually a regional currency.

“Long term, very long term,” he said. “What we proposed together, President Bush and myself, it’s ALCA, which is a trade union for all the Americas.”

ALCA is the acronym for the Area de Libre Comercio de las Américas, the name of the FTAA in Spanish.

King, evidently startled by Fox’s revelation of the currency, asked pointedly, “It’s going to be like the euro dollar (sic), you mean?”

“Well, that would be long, long term,” Fox repeated.

Fox noted the FTAA plan had been thwarted by Hugo Chavez, the radical socialist president of Venezuela.

“Everything was running fluently until Hugo Chavez came,” Fox commented. “He decided to combat the idea and destroy the idea.”

Fox explained that he and Bush intended to proceed incrementally, establishing FTAA as an economic agreement first and waiting to create an amero-type currency later – a plan he also suggested was in place for NAFTA itself.

“I think the process to go, first step is trading agreement,” Fox said. “And then further on, a new vision, like we are trying to do with NAFTA.”

Fox’s reply to the CNN viewer was captured in a clip posted on YouTube.com. CNN posted video of the interview but did not include the segment with questions from viewers.

Last week, WND reported BankIntroductions.com, a Canadian company that specializes in global banking strategies and currency consulting, is advising clients the amero may be the currency of North America within 10 years.

Coin designer Daniel Carr has issued for sale a series of private-issue fantasy pattern amero coins that have drawn attention on the Internet.

WND also reported the African Union is moving down the path of regional economic integration, with the African Central Bank planning to create the “Gold Mandela” as a single African continental currency by 2010.

The Council on Foreign Relations has supported regional and global currencies designed to replace nationally issued currencies.

In an article in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, entitled “The End of National Currency,” CFR economist Benn Steil asserts the dollar is a temporary currency.

Steil concluded “countries should abandon monetary nationalism,” moving to adopt regional currencies, on the road to a global “one world currency.”

WND previously reported Steve Previs, a vice president at Jeffries International Ltd. in London, said the amero “is the proposed new currency for the North American Community which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.”

A video clip of the CNBC interview in November with Jeffries is now available at YouTube.com.

WND also has reported a continued slide in the value of the dollar on world currency markets could set up conditions in which the adoption of the amero as a North American currency gains momentum.

Perez's stint as toll-road front man

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Link to article here.
Perez’s stint as toll-road front man
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
October 10, 2007

Richard Perez, selected as the new president of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, is one of the most effective toll-road advocates around.

webPerez.jpg
Richard Perez

As chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the past two years, Perez was a tenacious fighter for some 70 miles of planned toll roads. Yet, I never saw him try to bully anyone. He was dogged but always a gentleman.

Those are powerful qualities.

Perez skidded into the toll controversy in August 2005, just two months after starting his second term on City Council and taking over as MPO chairman, when he helped beat back demands for an independent study of local toll plans.

Toll critics soon made Perez a top target for his “deplorable behavior AGAINST the PEOPLE.”

Over the next year, Perez found himself looking for a new MPO director, admonishing a state transportation official in a public meeting, contemplating potential impacts of high gas prices on future toll roads and digging in against cries to revert a U.S. 281 toll plan back to a gas-tax only plan.

Perez left the MPO last May with as much clamor as ever. An effort led by Mayor Phil Hardberger to keep him on the board, which included a sudden policy change, drew shrieks from critics and the mayor soon dropped the idea.

But now Perez is back in the spotlight, and he’ll likely be a strong spokesman for toll roads.

State surplus $1.5 billion more than expected…more money for roads

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Link to article here.

State surplus grows by $1.5 billion
Much of the money already committed
By Jason Embry
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, October 10, 2007Texas collected more in taxes last year than expected, Comptroller Susan Combs said Tuesday.

The state ended the 2007 budget year Aug. 31 with an $8.5 billion surplus, which was $1.5 billion more than Combs projected in January.

“State sales and use tax collections, which registered a 10.9 percent increase over fiscal 2006, have proved particularly robust, propelled in large part by vigorous activity in the mining, construction, manufacturing and trade sectors,” Combs said in a letter Tuesday to Gov. Rick Perry and legislative leaders.

The additional surplus amounts to about 1 percent of the state’s $151.9 billion budget for 2008-09.

Some of the extra money will go to so-called contingency appropriations, which are items in the two-year state budget that lawmakers said they would fund if the state collected extra money.

For instance, $242 million will go toward a state employee pay raise of 2 percent per year for the next two years, although Combs had assured lawmakers that the money for the raise would be there.

Another $300 million is headed to the Texas Department of Transportation for road-building.

Transportation Department spokesman Randall Dillard said that final decisions about how the money would be used have not been made, but he said it would “help offset skyrocketing inflation.”

Highway construction costs have increased 62 percent since 2002, Dillard said.

Combs spokesman R.J. DeSilva said agency officials were still crunching numbers Tuesday to see how much of the new money was already committed and how much will be left over.

Whatever is left will be added to the $2.5 billion that lawmakers left unspent this year so they’d have it for the budget they’ll write in 2009.

That extra money could help in a couple of ways. For one, Combs has said that growth in state sales-tax collections is expected to slow in 2008 and 2009 as compared with the robust growth of the past few years.

Also, it could help if the state’s new business tax, which companies will pay for the first time next year, brings in less than expected.

“How the money should be spent will depend on the next session of the Legislature,” House Speaker Tom Craddick said. “However, I am much more comfortable having $1.5 billion more than expected than $1.5 billion less.”

TxDOT spies on citizens, hides SECRET cameras to collect data

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If have to ask ourselves if we just leaped into some Orwellian nightmare when we read this…twice in ONE WEEK we hear of the government (in Maryland and now Texas) monitoring its citizens with cameras on highways. In MD, to catch people with expired registration, in Texas to collect information about people’s driving habits, either way, NO ONE ASKED US!

It’s one thing to be out and about in public, it’s another to be spied upon while going about our daily lives! TxDOT has been hiding cameras in orange barrels along I-35 in Austin and I-10 in San Antonio. They’re taking pictures of people’s license plates and then mailing them a survey asking questions like:

1) The trip’s origin and final destination
2) How often the driver makes the trip
3) How long a driver stayed at my destination before returning

Link to the Austin story here. Link to Houston Chronicle story here. Link to Express-News article with map of camera locations here.

State recorded license plates for transportation study
10/10/2007
By: News 8 Austin Staff

State officials say cameras tucked into orange barrels videotaped the license plates of thousands of drivers on Interstate 35 as part of a transportation study.

Critics of last month’s study questioned whether it invaded motorists’ privacy.

But a Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman says the study is vital to transportation planning and was not meant to sneaky.

The state contracted Alliance Transportation Group to conduct the study.

The company mailed about 150,000 surveys to homes explaining that their license plate was randomly recorded. It asks questions such as the trip’s destination and purpose, and the number of people living in the home.

Transportation Department spokeswoman Gaby Garcia says about 3,000 people have responded since the survey was mailed out three weeks ago.

She said the information won’t be shared or sold and will be securely disposed of.

The department plans similar surveys next year in the Houston, Galveston, Beaumont and Port Arthur areas. Garcia says drivers will be notified ahead of time.

Austin motorists DOUBLE CHARGED on tollways

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Link to AP article here. Interesting how this “glitch” didn’t cause under-billing, and the article says the double billing could still happen, just less frequently. How comforting…

DOUBLE BILLING is also occurring in Tyler, TX. See the news story here.

Equipment glitch causes double-billing on Austin toll roads
Associated Press
October 9, 2007

AUSTIN – About 50,000 vehicles have been double-billed on Austin-area tollways because of faulty equipment, Texas Department of Transportation officials said.

The agency said Monday that the problem has occurred about one out of every 600 times a car passed one of the tolling points since charging began in January.

The agency has adjusted its equipment and software in the past few weeks to stop the problem, although it could still occur at a less-frequent rate, like once every 2,000 toll transactions.

Officials said the charges will be reversed for any customers who have been double-billed.

“We will reverse all of them,” said David Powell, the department’s director of turnpike information technology and toll operations.

Powell said the problem occurred at tolling plazas where the overhead flat-panel antennae were out of adjustment, causing faulty communication with electronic toll tags on car windshields.

If the antenna is not aimed correctly, it can read the tag on one car while believing that it is communicating with a car in a different spot. Then, those cars that have already seen debits to their tag accounts might be photographed by the equipment at a different spot and charged again.

Powell said a number of antennae were out of adjustment, but the one causing the most problems was on the westbound center lane at the Lake Creek toll plaza on Texas 45 North.

He said the antennae could have been installed incorrectly or knocked out of adjustment during construction.