Show HN: Automated license plate reader coverage in the USA

(alpranalysis.com)

Built this over the last few days, based on a Rust codebase that parses the latest ALPR reports from OpenStreetMaps, calculates navigation statistics from every tagged residential building to nearby amenities, and tests each route for intersection with those ALPR cameras (Flock being the most widespread).

These have gotten more controversial in recent months, due to their indiscriminate large scale data collection, with 404 Media publishing many original pieces (https://www.404media.co/tag/flock/) about their adoption and (ab)use across the country. I wanted to use open source datasets to track the rapid expansion, especially per-county, as this data can be crucial for 'deflock' movements to petition counties and city governments to ban and remove them.

In some counties, the tracking becomes so widespread that most people can't go anywhere without being photographed. This includes possibly sensitive areas, like places of worship and medical facilities.

The argument for their legality rests upon the notion that these cameras are equivalent to 'mere observation', but the enormous scope and data sharing agreements in place to share and access millions of records without warrants blurs the lines of the fourth amendment.

Show context

yannyu ◴[10 Dec 25 20:28 UTC] No.46223289[source]▶

>>46220794 (OP) #

I've thought about this a lot as I see more and more reckless driving in the areas I live in. Surveillance is generally a net negative, but it's also bad when you see people speeding around schools, rolling through stop signs, and running red lights. We seem to have a worst of all situations where traffic is getting increasingly difficult to enforce, driving is getting more dangerous year by year, and we're terrified of government overreach if we add any automation at all to enforcement.

I don't know the solution, but I do know that in the US we've lost 10-15 years of progress when it comes to traffic fatalities.

replies(21): >>46223317 #>>46223332 #>>46223650 #>>46223843 #>>46224145 #>>46224165 #>>46224204 #>>46224218 #>>46226450 #>>46226479 #>>46227209 #>>46227657 #>>46229645 #>>46229870 #>>46229990 #>>46230607 #>>46232310 #>>46232462 #>>46233814 #>>46234258 #>>46246685 #

quamserena ◴[10 Dec 25 21:30 UTC] No.46224165[source]▶

>>46223289 #

Part of the public pushback is that people almost always drive the “feels like” speed and not the posted speedlimit. We build 6 lane roads and then wonder why people go 50mph when it’s 35 posted, it’s because it’s 6 lanes and 35 feels slow. Cities profit from this in the form of speed cameras, which is why they’ve been outlawed in a lot of places.

replies(4): >>46224241 #>>46225117 #>>46226402 #>>46226997 #

1. asdff ◴[10 Dec 25 22:51 UTC] No.46225117[source]▶

>>46224165 #

The driver blithely keeping with the flow of traffic is not the one I am worried about. It is the one who is aggressively trying to cut through the flow of traffic while putting everyone and themselves in danger that I worry about.

replies(2): >>46226411 #>>46230168 #

2. dylan604 ◴[11 Dec 25 01:11 UTC] No.46226411[source]▶

>>46225117 (TP) #

I love when cities time their lights so that aggressive drivers just get hit with waiting at a red light while driving the speed limit means hitting greens for long stretches.

replies(2): >>46227264 #>>46230194 #

3. toss1 ◴[11 Dec 25 03:19 UTC] No.46227264[source]▶

>>46226411 #

Yes, and about twice I've seen this done really right, wherein they post signs of the synchronization speed (e.g., "Lights Timed for 35mph"). I just get in sync with one light and adjust speed and it feels almost magic to go a few miles hitting every green light (it kind of is the macic of math).

It'd be cool if more roads were implemented that way.

replies(2): >>46227489 #>>46227771 #

4. dylan604 ◴[11 Dec 25 03:59 UTC] No.46227489{3}[source]▶

>>46227264 #

There's a part of downtown here that is known for being set up like this. However, it's been a bust while there's been a lot of construction blocking lanes so nothing moves at speed.

5. the_sleaze_ ◴[11 Dec 25 04:45 UTC] No.46227771{3}[source]▶

>>46227264 #

I have the same in my area, but instead the lights are synchronized to slow traffic as much as possible. They literally coordinate to make you stop at as many lights as possible and grid lock at rush hour so the highway doesn't get flooded.

I walk my kids to school, but when I do drive the 1.1 miles there are no less than 12 stoplights/stop signs.

6. potato3732842 ◴[11 Dec 25 11:40 UTC] No.46230168[source]▶

>>46225117 (TP) #

Upping the speed limit reduces the incidence of the latter because just about everyone has a "fuck this I'm weaving" threshold and the number of people who hit it goes down when you reduce the incidence of rolling clusters of traffic caused by the handful of people who religiously follow the speed limit even when not appropriate.

7. potato3732842 ◴[11 Dec 25 11:44 UTC] No.46230194[source]▶

>>46226411 #

Sure, some people will get hit with the reds. Some people will learn the timing and learn that you can run just one red and then hit all greens, or that it will save you 5+min if you hammer down and pull a "clearly not ok" pass to get around some idiot who's going too slow to make the green timing.

So yeah, you're reducing speeding, number go up, pat yourself on the back. But you're also increasing the incidence of something rarer than speeding, but way worse.

This is the same problem that 4-way stops at roads that don't deserve them create, you're basically teaching people that the signage is bullshit.

↑