How 'big data' segregates

The Capital Beltway recently opened new “hot lanes”, which are toll bearing lanes that guarantee a minimum speed of 45 miles per hour. The toll price automatically adjusts for the traffic volume on the toll road by tabulating the number of EZ-pass transponders that have entered this special section of the beltway.

Daniel Sarewitz, co-director of ASU's Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, points out in a Future Tense article on Slate that “the quest for speed in transportation was an unrecognized domain in which technological advance itself led to increasing inequity of distribution of social and economic opportunity.”

Meaning people with less money will be required to travel more slowly than those who have more. This exacerbates the fact that “poor people often have long commutes, because they cannot afford to live in areas of high real-estate prices where many jobs are located, and that they often must drive old, less efficient automobiles, and so have to pay more for fuel,” writes Sarewitz. 

Read Sarewitz’s entire article at the link below.

Future Tense is a collaboration among ASU, the New America Foundation, and Slate magazine that explores how emerging technologies affect policy and society. The Future Tense channel at Slate features multiple blog posts daily and several full length articles weekly.