Fast Lane, the New Big Brother

It was big news a couple months back that the Fast Lane transponders were crapping out on drivers. The batteries in the devices were crapping out on the drivers who had gotten them in the first wave. The little tidbit about the Fast Lane we learned in reports following the Fung Wah bus' turnover is that they used the timestamp on the entry and exit to fine the bus company for speeding. As the Globe reports:

Using Mass. Pike entry and exit times from the company's electronic toll records, inspectors calculated that seven drivers were driving above the posted speed limit for two-thirds of the time. As a result, regulators fined the bus line almost $13,000 in May for speeding, failure to keep driver records, and using a bus that had failed a federal inspection.

It's certainly disturbing that the Fung Wah's bus turned over and that 30-plus people got hurt in the accident – but we're worried about what Fast Lane users signed up for by Velcroing the transponder to the windshield. It's surely not worth the State Police's, nor the Mass. Turnpike Authority's time to manually check the records of all drivers, but a computer algorithm could be employed to start automating the process of sending speeding tickets (or at least warnings) to drivers across the state. Perhaps Bostonist is just showing our paranoia that Big Brother might be watching, not that we speed (wink, wink).