HawthorneVillager.com

Thanks JTP.

Will pass onto regional and town staff to review and respond.

Colin Best
Vice-Chair Halton Planning & Public Works Committee

_________________
Become a Fan! Visit my website! Email: colin.best@milton.ca Twitter Follow! 905-878-3623

I'm sure at this stage implementing wouldn't be easy, or even the best course of action. We should at least be asking if we can look at the data and how it's being used. If we can play with their "real-time" results and see how it works (or doesn't) for York, we'd have a good idea if it would fit for Halton. I've been looking for this kind of data to use in Milton since MiltonTV launched. (I'm a little sick of traffic reports that end at Mississauga Rd.) Google lets you overlay traffic on their maps, but they only show the "major" roads traffic and I'm not sure how "live" it actually is. This new data, combined with the Google data and maybe some from the GPS companies would go a long way, I think, to helping fix our traffic woes.

1- It only reads Rogers cell phones (ironic as they are hemorrhaging the most customers)

2- I have $50 that says once a privacy group gets wind of this they will be up in arms (no real reason to, I just think they are all nuts)

Did I miss something...he said they would pick up the ping from Rogers cell phones that someone is talking on meaning DRIVING while talking. What if most people obey the law and realize that "hands free" is also a major distraction. How would they gage traffic then???

_________________

Cell phones "ping" even when not on an active call. They just ping more when you're chatting. The data will still be there.

But only if it's turned on right?

_________________

Yes

But there is a privacy concern. It even mentions it in the article. Even google stole info when they were doing their street view system. When it comes to technology i think there will always be a concern for privacy and to just dismiss it would just open the door to a lot of problems.

Saying that i do think it is a great new way to tackle gridlock in the GTA. However, i think a much larger transit system in the GTA would be the real way to solve gridlock. it's a better long term investment.

Hi JTP,

Thanks for this article and idea. As Colin said, I also will look forward to staff's thoughts on this. Thanks for looking out for ways to improve our traffic.

Best,
Tony Lambert
Local/Regional Councillor
Milton/Halton Region

Not that I don't believe you, but you can link to your source for this?

Tackling gridlock in the GTA is to encourage businesses in downtown Toronto to open satellite offices in milton, oakville, mississauga, whitby, pickering etc by giving them tax free loans and other incentives.

If I was a milton member of council I would bring this up and find out what we can offer them to set up an office here in town and I'd take it upon myself to hit Toronto with the offer. A quick call to Rob Ford could find out if he's interested in doing a joint press conference. It would be good for all involved to garner votes and save the planet.

I think he is referring to the fact it will be less accurate if less people are chatting (as fewer pings)

All 3 companies are publicly traded...
The smaller companies don't publish data but the big3 always have

Last report I saw from Rogers showed that they gained subscribers in the last quarter, which is why I was wondering what your source was.

http://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.portal ... IR_LANDING