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Infrared Scans May Regulate HOT Lanes
The scanning device shines an invisible infrared light on people in vehicles to zero in on human skin.
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In Virginia, even straightforward, carpool-only enforcement has been a challenge. More than a third of the drivers using the carpool lanes on I-95 were cheaters before an aggressive state police campaign, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation. Now, state officials estimate, one in five drivers are using the lanes illegally. Fines range from $125 for the first offense to $1,000 for the fourth.
As more private firms and state officials partner for HOT lanes, there will be stronger incentives to use more automated -- and potentially more invasive -- enforcement, researchers said.
"What you typically think of as privacy threats are going to be magnified," Goodin said.
Engineering such systems has not been easy.
Some burgeoning technologies that use video, microwaves and radar to count passengers can be thwarted or confused by low light, tinted windows, a waving hand or a heat-emitting cup of coffee, according to the FHA study. Other proposals have involved using in-car cameras or seat sensors to verify passenger counts. Researchers said the infrared technology proposed in Virginia is promising but expensive. No such system is in use in the United States, Goodin said.
In Virginia, where lawmakers have fought over red-light cameras for years, it's unclear how far state officials will go.
"Questions of new technologies in law enforcement are not just about technology. They involve safety of law enforcement, they involve community acceptance and they involve considerations of personal privacy," said Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer, who emphasized that state and federal authorities have not approved the infrared technology. Homer also said the issue is not spelled out in agreements with Transurban and its partner, Fluor.
There is general agreement in Virginia on some aspects of enforcement.
Under the current plan, all drivers using HOT lanes, including those accustomed to cruising carefree on existing I-95 and I-395 carpool lanes, would need a transponder, like an E-ZPass, for tracking and proper billing of travel. Carpoolers would flip a switch to avoid being charged.
Although carpoolers would get new lanes, opponents are wary of the changes.
Transportation officials "are gambling with the only form of mass transit on the 95 corridor," said Corey A. Stewart (R), chairman of the Board of County Supervisors in Prince William County, who carpools between Woodbridge and Rosslyn. "It sounds like voodoo science."
In addition to the infrared system, Transurban cites the 407 Express Toll Route in Toronto and HOT lanes in the Minneapolis area as models of the sort of advanced system the company plans for Virginia. Both use tracking technology developed for military uses by Raytheon, a defense contractor.
