Cameras on the road

[streaminwild]

Recently, I started noticing camera installation's in the middle of nowhere. I know that cameras in the city is for traffic reports, but now I noticed cameras on every overhead sign in the city. When traveling have you seen camera's in the middle of nowhere? I wonder if we are all being watched. Just curious if anyone else has noticed.

[SCOTTinNJ]

A lot of those cameras are replacing embedded loops for triggering the lights. They are not necessarily recording.

[AtomicNo13]

It's Putin.... he is watching!

[martin300662]

Be thankful you aren't in the UK.

This from the latest report on 'smart roads'

"Last year, 52,516 fixed penalties were issued on 11 smart sections, including on stretches of the M1, M25 and M6.

This compared to 2,023 on the same stretches in 2010-11, before they were upgraded to smart motorways"

There are now entire regional police forces funded by the revenue from tickets.

[dznf0g]

I have seen very rural, spaced out cameras on the interstates, primarily in heavy snow and blizzard areas. In my previous interaction with DOTs in my job, I believe many of these are placed to monitor weather situations for potential gate dropping and highway closures, as well as to monitor traffic. I have been in some of these "control rooms" and they can switch around and watch many cameras at once.
Urban and suburban ones are much more densely populated and monitored for traffic volume, flow and accidents much more than the rural ones.

And I would not count on the fact that they aren't recorded and saved, at least for some period of time.

[streaminwild]

These could be observation cameras for traffic or weather or ?. Sometimes placed on overhead signs or on a 4ft pole with solar panel. I live in Montgomery Co...the traffic camera capitol of the U.S.A. I've donated plenty to these charities. Thank god these violations don't go on your record, or I would be posting this from a cell block.

[MelGoddard]

Remember "1984"??
Big Brother IS watching you��

[Airdream99]

Originally Posted by streaminwild

Recently, I started noticing camera installation's in the middle of nowhere. I know that cameras in the city is for traffic reports, but now I noticed cameras on every overhead sign in the city. When traveling have you seen camera's in the middle of nowhere? I wonder if we are all being watched. Just curious if anyone else has noticed.

Big Brother is indeed watching but lots of these cameras are available online as well.

[Thalweg]

The Wyoming Department of Transportation has them all over the state. I use them all the time to assess road conditions in the winter.
https://map.wyoroad.info/wtimap/index.html
Click "Add Layers" and choose webcams.

[Neophyte]

They are ubiquitous.
Add license plate and/or face recognition and "1984" is our future.

[jcl]

We depend on cameras in the middle of nowhere for trip planning, and weather issues. Our cameras are operated by DriveBC (BC provincial highways dept)

http://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwayca...www/index.html

You can look at different regions of the province, select a favourite list for regular updates, and replay tapes of the last 24 hours for many of the cameras. Our most frequent use is to check US border crossings.

Great link for those planning a trip through BC, or to Alaska.

Jeff

[Boxite]

Originally Posted by Neophyte

They are ubiquitous.
Add license plate and/or face recognition and "1984" is our future.

It's already here. Driving thru LaGrange, TX I saw a police car sitting 100' off the road in a restaurant parking lot. I was travelling down a state highway at 60 mph, and my car was never closer than 250' and 90-degrees to the police car. After I passed and was another 1000' down the road he started-up, and came onto the hiway, ...a half mile later he hit his lights...and I presumed he was out on a radio-dispatch call.
Nope.
His "gum ball" sitting on top of the light-bar was a digitized camera driven by a computer which could read my 1-1/2" X 2" license-plate sticker from that distance, that 90-degree angle, while I passed at 60 mph and determined I was 5 days late paying for my renewal.
He gave me a "warning" and was very proud of his new, experimental equipment, telling me all about it. It can read bar-codes which are 3/16" wide on license plates while travelling in opposite-direction lanes even. The intention is to be able to identify "BOLOs" (Be On the Look Outs) on the hiways. Pretty cool if properly utilized.
(Keep in mind, if you're out in public... many of your rights to privacy are compromised by law.)
Cameras is how they caught the Boston Marathon bombers.
I'm not doing anything I should be nervous about and am not too bothered.

[kdickinson]

It's nothing new and yes they've propagated significantly in the past few years. I guess there are two ways to look at it like everything and I'm not sure if the plusses outweigh the minuses but nevertheless they are out there for sure

[Jekerrville]

Resistance is futile.....human.

[cazual6]

Originally Posted by Jekerrville

Resistance is futile.....human.

I hate to admit it. If it has a camera, microphone, anything that connects online, you are being watched, recorded, catalog. Even this post is being recorded and watched by someone/something.