Let's Use PAYD Insurance and GPS to Make Drivers Signal Turns

Streetfilms just produced a short video about the sorry state of signaling in Jackson Heights, Queens. About three of four turns are signaled. The Atlantic Cities has more. Failure to signal is not just a problem with BMWs, apparently, or limited to Los Angeles drivers. (A friend of mine in LA thinks drivers there don't like to signal because it gives all the other drivers an unfair advantage.) The general consensus seems to be that the signaling problem is getting worse, and this is bad for everyone on and near the road whether or not they are in a car. The good news is I have a solution.

As we move toward a model of autombility where drivers pay the marginal costs of driving and we increase the use of pay as you drive (PAYD) insurance with GPS we ought to be able to match turns taken in the auto with the use of a turn signal. If a car turns right onto a known street, the PAYD GPS device can--with some additional modifications to the car's turn signal system--detect that a signal was used. If a signal is not used, then the voice that all cars now have can pipe up and shame the driver to use their blinker. If the driver continues to not signal, then the insurance company can get involved and raise rates. If drivers do not like being watched like this, they can opt out of PAYD but pay for much more expensive average cost insurance (the people most likely to opt into PAYD insurance programs are those who drive the least. As the conventional pool shrinks the average costs to insure will increase as only bad drivers and those who drive a lot will remain.).

So through a bit of technology and PAYD insurance we can easily solve the scourge of blinkerless turns, except for BMWs, of course, which don't even have turn signals installed.

GPS Tracking is Still Illegal. Should It Be?

Legal issues with what is allowable spatial tracking will likely become major issues for scholars/developers/planners who want to use GPS data for their work. We focus a lot on legal issues of data ownership but the Fourth Amendment may prevent many applications. This case was decided partly on the SCOTUS' ruling from January ruling about GPS tracking. it's too early to know how this will all play out but it is worth keeping an eye on. From the story:

"In this case, the DEA agents had their fishing poles out to catch Lee," Thapar wrote. "Admittedly, the agents did not intend to break the law. But, they installed a GPS device on Lee's car without a warrant in the hope that something might turn up." 

 ...

The U.S. Supreme Court in January struck down law enforcement's use of GPS tracking in investigations without a warrant. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the 5-member majority that it was the attachment of the device that violated the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. That case involved a GPS placed on the Jeep of suspected Washington, D.C., drug kingpin Antoine Jones. The ruling overturned Jones' conviction and life sentence.
Lee's attorney, Michael Murphy of Lexington, said the only evidence against Lee was the marijuana found in the truck. Murphy said he based his argument in part on the Jones case.
"If they are going to be that intrusive on our lives, they should do it under the supervision of a court," said Murphy, a former federal prosecutor.

Obviously these cases are drug related, but if the argument is that the state cannot track people without a warrant there will likely be challenges to other public uses of tracking data. We know there are limits to when taxi cab GPS data can be collected, such as only when the meter is on. This limits research on interesting and important questions about what cruising taxi cabs do between fares. Hopefully mutually beneficial solutions can be negotiated before our data rich future gets swamped in litigation.

Visualizing NYC Taxi Activity

New York City Taxi Activity from Juan Francisco Saldarriaga on Vimeo.


Above is an animation of yellow cab origins and destinations in New York City by time of day. This is drawn from some current research of mine where I am exploring the ways that taxi services complement conventional fixed route transit. In the video there are a couple of things to notice. First, and I argue most important from a planning perspective, is that taxi origins and destinations are geographically asymmetrical. This matters because it means that individual's travel journeys are multi-modal. If we want to have transit oriented cities we have to plan for high quality, door-to-door services that allow spontaneous one-way travel. Yet for all of the billions of dollars we have spent of fixed-route transit and the built environment we haven't spent any time thinking about how taxis (and related services) can help us reach our goals.

The second thing to look for changes by time of day. In the AM rush lots of Upper East Side travelers head to Midtown. (Origins and red and destinations are blue). By midday Midtown is largely in balance with origins and destinations. In the evening, there are many Manhattan to Queens and Brooklyn trips.

Here is the abstract of my current paper (with Jon Peters and Matt Daus):

ABSTRACT

            Taxi services are critical aspects of urban transportation systems. Taxicabs serve the public in a variety of ways, from metered fares to informal jitneys, and provide critical mobility for people of all income levels. Despite the ubiquity of taxi service in cities, there is limited scholarly research that explores how people use taxi service to support transit-oriented lifestyles and enhance mobility, and there is scant research exploring the complementary aspects of taxi service for conventional transit.  In this paper we argue that taxi service is a critical aspect of a transit system, and taxi usage exhibits complementary characteristics to conventional transit. Specifically, taxi usage is asymmetrical where origins and destinations have very different spatial distributions. This suggests that taxi riders have multi-modal travel journeys. In many cases taxi trips are part of journeys that began with transit trips, yet planning and expanding taxi service as an extension of transit networks is rarely undertaken in practice.  We use regulatory and Global Positioning System (GPS) data from  New York City as a case to demonstrate the asymmetrical nature of taxi usage and innovative regulatory approaches that foster high rates of taxi usage that complement transit ridership.