If you use HOV lanes on TEXpress’ managed toll lanes or want to learn the new way to earn 50% off when using those speed lanes with two or more passengers, The Watchdog has important information for you.
The awkward system of signing up 15 minutes before using the high-occupancy vehicle TEXpress Lanes for a half-price discount is no more.
In late January, it was replaced by a new setup involving a phone app and a separate “beacon” or “occupant pass” in your vehicle.
The technology uses Bluetooth to read a driver’s phone app and a beacon (not a TollTag) to detect that needed second passenger to qualify for the discount.
Instead of a beacon, a second passenger can also use the GoCarma smartphone app to let the system know.
The Watchdog has two concerns about this: privacy and the ease of cheating.
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New signups
In the first six weeks, 26,000 users have registered 23,000 vehicles and ordered 600 occupant passes, say officials from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, which signed the one-year contract with Austin-based GoCarma.
Half-price discounts for HOV vehicles on 100 miles of TEXpress Lanes are available during weekday peak periods — 6:30 to 9 a.m., and again from 3 to 6:30 p.m. The discount is always available on Interstate 635 between Interstate 30 and U.S. Highway 75.
(Note that this is not a North Texas Tollway Authority project and doesn’t apply to NTTA roads. NTTA only does the billing for HOV lanes on TEXpress roads, which were built by private companies and operated by TxDOT.)
Privacy concerns
Some drivers tell The Watchdog they refuse to register for the new setup because its reliance on location services on their smartphones is a privacy concern.
Lawrence Mulligan, chief executive officer of GoCarma, tells The Watchdog that privacy is protected, but he acknowledges the concerns.
NCTCOG officials first looked at using cameras to detect violators, but they say that was too intrusive.
Ronald Cogswell of Sunnyvale started complaining to me about the old system last year because it didn’t register all his cars for HOV discounts. Is he happier now?
“This is such a big joke now that I’ve given up,” he says. “Letting an app essentially track my location at all times so that it links up anytime I’m in my car is a bit more disconcerting.”
GoCarma’s CEO says the app does not track you everywhere but only where it relates to HOV lanes.
According to its privacy policy, GoCarma collects your name, email address, phone number, password, address and license plate.
The company policy also allows for the collection of your HOV location, time stamp, user ID and cellular phone data such as “device type, battery level [and] accelerometer data” — which tracks speed.
Monitoring our speed? GoCarma’s CEO says his app is not collecting that listed metadata — but could in the future.
The company promises not to sell your data to third parties, but it adds in its privacy statement, “Due to the nature of the Internet we cannot guarantee the security of any information [while] it is being transmitted to us via the Internet.” Points for honesty.
Driver John Bingham of Dallas says, “The new process is quite invasive.” Because of that, he declines to sign up.
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Setting up
Before I show you how easy it is to cheat, a quick primer on setup.
You download the GoCarma app and register. You can also visit the GoCarma website.
If you don’t want to use a second passenger’s phone app, you request a beacon (occupant pass) — a little square that you can put in the glove compartment or elsewhere in the car.
When a driver passes through a toll gantry, the app on the phone reads the trip info and the beacon signals the presence of a second qualifying passenger.
Dumbest part? You’re supposed to take the beacon out of the car when there’s no second passenger, and put it back in when there is.
If you’re driving a child to school, you’d keep the beacon in the child’s backpack, rather than in the car so when you go home, you’re not signaling a second passenger when there is none.
The app is supposed to be left on. The GoCarma CEO says battery drain is minimal.
The beacon, he says, “is a pain to carry around, to be honest with you.”
“We will very shortly be developing a second version of this where there will be no beacons at all involved,” he says. October is the target date for the next generation gizmo.
Guess how many other cities and regions are using this system? None.
Nice to be a guinea pig, huh?
Cheating is so easy
The technology replaces law enforcement officers, who previously counted heads in cars when looking for violators. They used a flashing light system to tell if someone had properly registered before a trip on HOV lanes.
Police no longer will be monitoring for HOV violators. Tech takes over.
I’ll show you how the cheating works. I don’t condone it. But this is so obvious.
Forget the old trick of putting a fake dummy in the car. This is easier.
Just keep the second beacon in your car.
What happens to cheaters who keep a beacon in the car even without a second passenger?
NCTCOG officials tell me violators will get an “educational message” that says something like “We noticed your occupant pass is always with you. Please use it when there is an occupant with you. If you continue to do this you won’t get an HOV discount.”
Ooh, an educational message. I’m so scared.
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