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More security is coming to the buses! The Daily News is reporting that hundreds of Manhattan buses are going to be decked out with lots o' new security cameras:
Each bus will be equipped with a handful of digital cameras, according to a transit official who described the safeguards as the agency's biggest push into electronic surveillance on buses to date. The TA hopes to purchase the cameras later this year.
But wait, that's not all! Starting in November the MTA is going to start playing with the satellite tracking program they keep hinting at. Not only will the MTA be able to know exactly where its busses are, but they'd be able to listen into the busses with a "covert microphone." (uhm, kinda creepy, no?). The pilot program will start on the following lines: M15, M31, M35, M57, M66, M72 and M116.
Now if only they used the new satellites so bus stops could tell people how long to expect to wait...
NYPD Bus from Tien's flickr stream via Contribute.
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The whole Big Brother trend is disturbing.
Also the plural of bus is "buses" not "busses", although I did see a sign with a similar error somewhere out of town.
Meh! I say let them listen.. The only conversations I hear on buses are about how some woman can't keep her hands off her baby daddy when she's sneaking around behind his back anyways...
Or about some guy that just got tested for STDs...
That will surely make the terrorists think twice about attacking a bus...
Many countries have a display at their urban bus stops to tell you when the next bus is due to arrive. I would have thought NYC could manage that, but hey, the MTA thinks paying by credit card is a big deal (Dear MTA, those ads make you look like you live in the 19th century!!).
And could you print up 1 or 2 extra maps for the subway cars? Jeez.
Don't get your hopes up. I wrote an article about this same bus-tracking program in NYC, oh, six years ago, and the engineer dude i spoke with said a major problem to any system like this is that with too many tall buildings/skyscrapers in midtown it was proving impossible to get a decent signal to make the thing work. Here's hoping they've figured out how to deal with that over the last 6 yrs, but i'm certainly not holding my breath.
The word is buses. Busses are (archaically) kisses.