I was driving through a rural stretch the other day and noticed how much more cluttered the roadside has become lately. It feels like everywhere you look, there’s some new piece of tech bolted to a pole or tucked into a tree. Most of the time, it's stuff meant for "efficiency" or "monitoring," but honestly, it’s starting to feel like visual clutter that’s just begging for a distracted driver to hit it.
I’m not even talking about the privacy stuff for a second—though that's a whole other rabbit hole—I'm talking about the physical presence of all this hardware. We’re installing more and more gear right at the edge of the asphalt, often in spots where visibility is already tricky or the shoulder is narrow. It feels like we’re prioritizing data collection over the basic physics of staying in our lanes.
Does anyone else feel like the push for high-tech oversight is creating new physical hazards we haven't really accounted for yet?
I’m not even talking about the privacy stuff for a second—though that's a whole other rabbit hole—I'm talking about the physical presence of all this hardware. We’re installing more and more gear right at the edge of the asphalt, often in spots where visibility is already tricky or the shoulder is narrow. It feels like we’re prioritizing data collection over the basic physics of staying in our lanes.
Does anyone else feel like the push for high-tech oversight is creating new physical hazards we haven't really accounted for yet?