If all went to plan, last week Government turned on the RFID tags that have been applied to every car and truck in Bermuda.
It is hoped the “radio frequency ID” tags will reduce the number of vehicles operating without a license. Government reckons that around 6,000 vehicles in Bermuda are unlicense, costing at least $11 million in uncollected taxes. One can also also assume that many of those vehicles are also uninsured, causing additional problems.
Government has built several roadside tracking stations (on Middle Road across from Devonshire Post Office, next to Aberfeldy Nursery on Harbour Road, at the top of Rural Hill, etc.) that read the tags on passing cars using lasers and confirm that the license is valid. If it is not (or there is no tag), they take a picture of the license plate and a ticket is sent to the vehicle’s owner by mail.
So …. given the intensity of Bermuda’s road use thousands of tickets should have been issued by now. What’s up Doc?
- What proportion of the addresses in TCD for unregistered vehicles are still valid? Do they have a team to track down and correct the bad addresses?
- If the cops are too stretched to enforce vehicle registration, how will they enforce the mailed tickets?
- If the court system is too paper-based to handle the points system, how will they handle this additional wave of infractions?
- What about the intent to use the system to keep trucks off certain roads at certain times?
- Will the system’s tracking data be used for criminal investigations or for other surveys of road use?
- What about bikes?
- Will the system be used for toll charges/congestion tax?
