China to track smartphones to alleviate traffic

Details: James Barton; Category: Trends & Forecasts; 10 March 2011; 9047 views

The Chinese government has proposed tracking the location of smartphones as a means of managing and ameliorating heavy traffic in Beijing...

The Chinese government has proposed tracking the location of smartphones as a means of managing and ameliorating heavy traffic in Beijing. The city’s traffic problem is notorious; famed for smog and air pollution, Beijing last year saw a static tailback which lasted for nine days, and stretched over 60 miles.

Without providing specific details on the technology to be used, the government has declared via the Municipal People’s Government website that it will be able to determine the locations of 17 million mobile phones throughout Beijing in order to "publish real-time dynamic information to ease congestion and improve the efficiency of public travel."

The country’s Science & Technology Commission Deputy Director of Social Development, Li Guoguang, confirmed that the government does intend to put this plan into effect, but that the requisite technology for the gathering and distribution of data has not been finalised.

The plan has attracted plenty of detractors, with critics decrying it as another way for the Chinese authorities to keep watch over civilians. The professor of wireless communications at the Beijing University of Posts & Telecoms, Chen Derong, has stated: “certainly the use of the [smartphone tracking] platform will not be limited to gathering traffic information. Officials in other areas, such as anti-terrorism and stability maintenance, will also find it useful.”

The Chinese Human Rights Defenders network registered a more direct objection to the plan, telling a British newspaper: “Despite the excuse of traffic control this is part of the escalation of the use of technologies to control social discontent”. The organisation’s Wang Songlian highlighted that last year, in a move that could be seen as an attempt to keep tabs on citizens, the government made it mandatory to register SIM cards.