Cell Phone Signals May Help States Track Traffic

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ome state transportation agencies have begun testing technology that allows them to tracking cell phone signals and mapping them against road grids to monitor traffic, the New York Times reported Friday.

The technology, being tested in Virginia and Maryland among other places, underlines how readily cell phones can become tracking devices for private companies, law enforcement and government agencies, the Times said, though the development has troubled privacy advocates.

Such traffic systems can monitor several hundred thousand phones at once, as long as they are on and even if they are not in use. By using software, it is possible to tell whether a signal is coming from a moving car or a pedestrian, the Times reported.

State officials say that the systems will monitor large clusters of phones, not individual ones, and that the benefits to could be substantial, in providing updated pictures of traffic flow across thousands of miles of highways.

aryland is set to begin tests in December for a cellular tracking system in the Baltimore area, while Virginia plans to test a system around the Norfolk, Va., beltway, the paper reported.

And Missouri says it is about to sign a deal that will allow it to monitor traffic movements over 5,500 square miles of state roadways, the Times said. Similar mapping technology is in use in London, Israel and Belgium.