Data collection on Longfellow Bridge

[magid]

1. There's been a speed trap by the state cops on the Cambridge side of westbound traffic, off and on for a couple of weeks. I find it oddly disturbing to walk by a cop pointing a speed gun at traffic; my hindbrain seems not to remember the 'speed' part of that as quickly as the rest of it.
   
2. Last week I noticed one of the light posts on the south side of the bridge has been equipped with a little solar panel, a box above that (presumably for data), and a little weathervane-type thing that shows both direction and speed of the wind.
   
3. Yesterday there were two parallel cables taped on the westbound side of the bridge, close to Boston. They link to two boxes on the sidewalk labeled by the state, something about highway traffic data. I assume that the duplication is to provide a check. I wonder, though, how sensitive the cables are: do bikes register at all, and if they do, is it clear that they aren't cars or motorcycles?

Also: near a Vonnegut book in a front window at Lorem Ipsum, a note propped up: "Dear Kurt, we'll miss you, Lorem Ipsum".

edit, 1950 There's a single data collection cable on Beacon St., half a block west of Charles St. I wonder how many of them are out now.

Comments

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

With two cables you can get speed data.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I hadn't thought of that (obviously), I think because the cables are so close together.

[jaq.livejournal.com]

And direction? Though not so useful if they are on a one-way bit of road.

[magid.livejournal.com]

They are, in fact, on a one-way bit.

[ceo]

Once when I was in high school, I rode my bike past a speed trap and the cop pointed the radar gun at me and said "You're doing 20" as I passed.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Cool. Not speeding, I assume, else he'd've given you a ticket, right?
:-)

I think I managed to register on one of those big "your speed is" signs while riding my bike, but I don't remember how fast I was going.

[godream.livejournal.com]

Possibly #2 has to do with this?
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/04/11/tech_hub_to_open_sensor_data_to_anyone/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News

[magid.livejournal.com]

That sounds likely. How incredibly neat. As long as it keeps on being impersonal data, that is...

The only thing I'd seen about light posts other than that was one that Harvard had rigged up with solar panels to see whether they could be self-supporting (it's just outside the Science Center). (I couldn't find a direct story, but there's a lot about Harvard's green initiatives.)