North Idaho Slow Growth
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"No One is Spying on Folks"
Most Kootenai residents have long been weary of traffic cameras because of their obvious ability to track movement of specific vehicles. Yet KMPO planners believe that yet more surveillance is necessary and are currently accepting bids for a federally funded "Traffic Management Center," which they insist is necessary for the region. This excerpt is from a 2018 article promising Kootenai residents that a TMC Could Cut Congestion.
" 'If a TMC is approved, motorists would see additional cameras at busy intersections', Sausser said. However, transportation officials say existing cameras and new ones aren't recording devices. 'No one is spying on folks,' Sausser said. Still, planners are aware that the public adapting to more cameras may be a process."
It is obvious to any thinking person that a TMC would do nothing to improve area traffic, so there must be another reason for its existence. There is, but first, for those readers who are not sure what a TMC looks like, it is worth watching this short video of Ada County's TMC in action. The video shows a harmless looking older woman in a multi-million dollar high tech data center, attentively watching video screens, showing grandmotherly concern for the safety of travellers.
"They do not record anything"
Now that you've seen what TMC propaganda looks like, let's start by debunking the false assurances that the TMC's only deal with live feeds, and that "They do not record anything". The fact is, all electronic data that passes over the internet is accessible by anyone with proper authorization or sufficient technical know-how.
The real question, is, what would government agencies, traffic consultants, or private parties do with the traffic data if they had access to it. Most people think in terms of protecting visual information, but the proponents of "Intelligent Traffic Systems" think in terms of DATA. Worrying about recording video feeds misses the point.
The blurry camara feeds shown above are intentionally misleading. Modern "traffic cameras" are very high resolution and digital recognition software has advanced to the point that "intelligently" processing a few frames of a car in traffic can determine the speed, vehicle type, license plate, and passenger facial characteristics of every car under surveillance. This information would be stored in an encrypted digital form that was unrecognizable to anyone who did not have the necessary encoding algorithms. The "data" derived from video feeds would appear as "aggregate" traffic statistics, but in the wrong hands could be used to keep tabs on every vehicle in Kootenai county.
There is no doubt at all that such such Invasive Surveillance Technology already exists. But it's OK because our Federal Government has assured us that they would NEVER do such a thing. But of course they would, and they would lie about it as well; and there is every indication that the planning agencies behind TMCs are closely affiliated with the CIA. More about that later. First let's prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that . . .
TMCs provide NO VALUE to local Transportation Districts.
Zero, zip, nada, NONE. This is because TMC's offer a technological solution to a problem that has already been solved. Google Maps, 911 dispatching, and traffic signal synchronization software already provide all the benefits promised by TMCs.
Almost every driver in America already has Google Maps on their phone. Google Maps (which was itself originally developed for the CIA), already uses aggregate cellphone data for "real time performance analytics," notifies its users of traffic delays, and suggests alternate routes. And Google's method of using aggregated cell data to provide traffic analysis on all possible routes is far more effective than visual feeds from stationary cameras ever could be.
The 911 system already provides "early incident detection, notification, and response capabilities" and it works quite well. When incidents occur that block regular traffic flow, 911 dispatchers have access to multiple on site witnesses in immediate proximity, who can provide far more useful information than stationary cameras ever could.
Yet KMPO is serious about buildng a Regional TMC facility. An RFP for RTMC Planning has already been issued with proposals due by June 20. There is no credible justification for this and the only reason it is being done is that KMPO is a Federal agency that takes its direction from Globalist Institutes and is not accountable to the people of Kootenai County.
Missing Arterials, Missing Interchanges, Disfunctional Traffic Grids
The TMC would be a waste of time and money, even if Kootenai County had a functional traffic grid so that traffic could actually be re-routed in case of congestion. But many regions of Kooteni County have very poor, entirely disfunctional traffic grids. We have discussed this at length in previous articles, and obvious problems with Kootenai's traffic grid are already known. Yet KMPO's RFP claims that a TMC is needed in order to "Identify improvements to the most significant traffic challenges."
No it isn't. Robust, regular Traffic grids are common sense. 1) Build full interchanges at existing over passes at McQuire, Seltice, and Huetter. 2) Build interconnecting minor arterials on half mile intervals throughout undeveloped Post Falls and West CDA, and 3) STOP allowing allowing housing developments and walled subdivsions to BLOCK arterial routes. GENIUS!!! We just saved KMPO five million dollars!
The CIA is the force behind TMCs
We assumed it would take much longer than it actually did to prove our central thesis, that TMCs are associated with domestic intelligence agencies. Within thirty minutes of looking into the matter, we had all the evidence needed to proceed with this article. To follow our logic, all you need to know that the CIA Headquarters is in McLean, Virginia, and that it works with numerous private contractors.
The first indicator that spy agencies were involved in materminding a nationwide network of TMCs was the fact that Booz Allen Hamilton, which the N.Y. Times has referred to as "a Vast U.S. Spy Operation, run for private profit", was involved in some of the initial planning. For example, this TMC Handbook was written in 2005 by BAH consultants, and focuses mainly on methods of convincing local transportation agencies, that TMCs are necessary.
BAH specializes in high security Information Technology and is a major government contractor for both the CIA and NSA. Edward Snowdon, famous for exposing NSA's domestic syping operations, was an employee of BAH when he made his disclosures. Booz Allen Hamilton headquarters is in McLean Virginia.
But there is more. Kapsch Trafficcom, the agency that was actually contracted by KMPO for the initial RTMC study, is also conveniently located in McLean, Virginia. Kapsch specializes in traffic-related IT, and is a privately held Austrian Company with world wide operations. It's company website is a mishmash of Agenda 21 style high tech gobbledygook promising "digital transformation" "sustainable mobility", and "Individually developed AI solutions". Here are a few choice quotes:
"The transport industry has set the goal of making every journey more sustainable. . . In order to support the realization of climate goals, Kapsch TrafficCom has further developed its portfolio of joined-up TM solutions that can be implemented to reduce vehicle emissions."
So it appears that the company KMPO has contracted for aTMC study hates cars, but that is not surprising, since the Federal Transit Administration, which funds KMPO, also hates cars.
Another significant thing about Kapsh Trafficcom, is that it is a foreign, "Family Owned" company. For complicated reasons, if a federal agency intended to integrate spyware into American Data Centers, it would be prudent to use a foreign, privately held corporation to do so. As it turns out, prohibitions against domestic surveillance and "Freedom of Information Requests" are unenforceable against foreign, privately owned companies.
There is more to say about this whole subject than we can fit into one article, so this topic will be revisited. But for now we will close by saying, that there is an enormous amount of circumstantial evidence that KMPO's Traffic Managment Center is intended as a spy hub. Enough evidence that concerned citizens should object strenuously to this project and do all in their power to shut it down.
KMPO—UNACCOUNTABLE AGENCY WITH A GLOBALIST AGENDA
NOTE: This article is one in a series that is intended to expose the anti-Car, anti-Freedom, and pro-Densification agenda of the KMPO. KMPO is a FEDERAL PLANNING AGENCY that has enormous influence over local planning decisions, but is not accountable to the citizens of Kootenai County. Other articles in the series follow, and several more are being prepared.
- How Federal Highway Funding Dictates' Kootenai Growth Plans
- Would a Huetter bypass relieve congestion on U.S. 95? No. This is Why
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Comments
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Mary says (Jul 13, 2022):
All of these cameras are a slippery slope.