"These are emergency response signs that activate when major freeways are closed, guiding motorists to alternate routes," says Nevada Department of Transportation Public Information Officer Tony Illia. InfoWars.com contributor Paul Joseph Watson saw these signs being installed two years ago and leapt to the conclusion that they were part of a surveillance system called Project Trailblazer, designed to snoop on private communications, quoting an acquaintance who wrote that "The signs are obviously electronic with large control boxes and antennae attached."
The faces of the signs have text boxes at the top and bottom, with a silhouetted highway logo in between, and with an arrow pointing to it and yes, they are electronic, but the explanation of their function is more benign. "These are called Trailblazer signs," Illia says. "They are located near freeway entrances, and only activated in case of an emergency. The signs light up, directing motorists to alternate routes. They [are] monitored and controlled by our Freeway and Arterial System of Transportation (FAST) center, which is one of the country’s first truly integrated Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). It is designed both to monitor and control traffic through the use of video-image detection and inductive-loop detection. Visual verification of conditions is possible through closed-circuit television cameras. Traffic control is achieved through the use of traffic signals, ramp meters, dynamic message signs, and lane-use control signals."
Actually, that's what the Trailblazer signs are supposed to do; however, it turns out the conspiracy theorists can relax because, according to the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, "NDOT set those things up with batteries and those batteries do not last long in the sun. So we turned them all off." This explains why neither you nor the present writer has ever sign a Trailblazer box illuminated.
But what's behind that alphabet soup of acronyms? FAST is headquartered out of the Traffic Management Center on 4616 West Sunset Road and holds public meetings; the public may submit concerns about FAST for consideration on the agenda of the next conclave. FAST also includes a set of over 50 live roadway and highway cameras. So, in a sense, Big Brother is watching you but – if you have the appropriate software plug-in – you can watch right along with him.
FAST also manages the freeway-ramp meters that display red and green lights, controlling the flow of traffic merging onto the freeways, with the pace of the metering overseen by cameras and computers. It's an arm of the RTC and, in addition to the intelligent transportation field system devices, maintains "traffic signals, central system software and hardware, operator work stations, video wall, and communications systems including the fiber optic and microwave network." You can also receive FAST traffic alerts by downloading the RTC's Freeway Traffic Alert or following #FASTALERT on Twitter.
As for ITS, intelligent transportation systems, there is no shortage of would-be providers of these services, from Cisco to Xerox. They are entwined with homeland-security functions, from which much of their initial funding was derived. "It appears likely that the U.S. is prioritizing ITS for highways, roads, and bridges to maximize the throughput of vehicular traffic instead of—or as a supplement to—building additional roads or lanes, whereas other countries are prioritizing ITS for public transportation systems that have been operational for decades if not longer," writes Torin Monahan, in The Communication Review.
Moreover, while observed data can obviously be connected through ITS, it can be used to facilitate evacuation in a catastrophic event. And if Americans think closed-circuit TV is ubiquitous, snapping photos of the plates of cars that run red lights and whatnot, it's a fraction of the CCTV coverage you would encounter in Europe.
As to "inductive loop detection" and "vehicle image detection," the former are magnetic loops embedded beneath the pavement, attuned to the movement of large vehicles. The inductive loops tell traffic lights when there is traffic waiting for the light to change and, in some parking garages (The Cosmopolitan's and Palazzo's seem to use them), monitor the number of available spaces on any given level at any given time. Loops can be set simply to record the number of cars passing over them or to "estimate the speed, length, and class of vehicles."
"Vehicle image detection" involves the feeding of as many as eight cameras per location into a central processor. These then can read lane occupancy, vehicle speed, and can even output alarms if a car is headed the wrong way on the road (a not-uncommon occurrence on Las Vegas' freeways). This functionality enables constant analysis of traffic flow.
Oh, and by the way, there was something called Operation Trailblazer. It was a post-Iraq War system of patrols that went out in advance of major convoys, to clear the roads of improvised explosive devices and other hazards. There was also a government project to spy on Internet traffic and e-mail back during the George W. Bush administration called Operation Trailblazer, developed by contractors who included Boeing. Plagued by delays and cost overruns, it was shelved in 2006 to be replaced with a data-decryption program called Turbulence, which suffered many of the same criticisms as Trailblazer.
In short, you can at least breathe easier when you see a Trailblazer sign: They're just so much dead weight and a tangible reminder of big government's difficulty in effectively putting grandiose schemes into action on the ground.
