Photographing drivers - legal?

Some of you likely noticed that mybikelane.com has shut down*, stating "This has always been a side project, and unfortunately I do not have time to properly maintain the site or the service."  There's a TCL thread about it here.

But I still regularly hear need for such functionality.  People are muddling through using Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr.  But I could easily render it with massup.us** so I want to explore the issue.

This is probably contentious, so let's stay focused:

  1. Is it legal?  LAWYERS please: No public expectation of privacy versus publishing license plate numbers?  You tell me.

  2. Is there already a good place/way to post such photos?

* You can still see what MyBikeLane.com looked like in the internet archives here.

** MassUp.us can automatically post emailed photos with geolocation.  It'd work exactly like the abandoned bikes reporting here: http://massup.us/llbb/c
If it's legal and not already well done, I'd add an address like douche@massup.us - just need a better name, and to be sure it's not a terrible idea.

And CONGRATS JULIE!!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on January 4, 2013 at 8:50am

Thanx!  But MyBikeLane.com wasn't mine.  In some of my web research I saw others mention contacting its author to offer to take over hosting.  So there's hope yet.

But at least now I know Twitter's an alternative

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on January 4, 2013 at 9:48am

OH yeah, that sounds right.  The key is can't be used for profit.  I had a friend who appeared accidentally in a brochure, photographed while in public, and it was a problem.  So... any MyBikeLane type service would have to not be a commercial enterprise.

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on January 4, 2013 at 12:34pm

I enjoyed that site! Maybe The (new and improved) Chainlink can have a thread of sorts that people can post parked in the bike lane photos.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on January 4, 2013 at 1:11pm

I suppose one could already create that.  A MyBikeLane thread here.  Nice idea!  Feel free.

I always figure though such a thing must be impulse capable, to post in a flash.

One can email photos to TheChainLink.org (MyStuff > My Photos > Add Photos, near lower right it shows personal email address just like Facebook).  That goes to your personal photos, and lacks geolocation, but it's something.

Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on January 4, 2013 at 1:16pm

I never used mybikelane as a cyclist because I assumed it didn't get a ton of traffic, judging by the relative lack of comments for the photos and well...lack of photos.  Since Steven Vance has proved getting law enforcement to seek justice for the offenders was pretty fruitless via more proactive means, a site like Mybikelane seemed to sadly exist somewhere in the ether of irrelevancy (like most things with a www. attached to them) on the net.  That said, I'm not opposed to it's reemergence since as you say, Andrew, it could contribute to an aggregate effect if more and more people take (any) action to keep cyclists rights in the public eye.  

I'm not sure what Dug or H' 1.0 are hoping to see done about the bike lane parkers, but posting in this thread has surely given them an outlet to voice a contrarian opinion and stir some people up.   

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on January 4, 2013 at 5:24pm

When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view.

Permalink Reply by We all have an inner Beast... on January 4, 2013 at 8:40pm

Andrew,

Let me first clarify that I am NOT a lawyer.

The reason Google blurs faces and license plate is because they do not want stupid people looking for the Purple person with a yellow shirt and brown pants standing next to the red sedan with the AZ license plate that read "1D1OT" at the corner of Adams and Halsted, when they are actually at the corner of Adams and Halsted and can't find those things.

And please tell me that you don't know at least one person that that exact scenario would actually make them look for those things?

Just saying.

 

Respectfully,

 

Manny
 
Andrew Bedno said:

If legal, why then does Google street view blur them?  I'll wait for a lawyer to chime in.

Permalink Reply by We all have an inner Beast... on January 4, 2013 at 9:17pm

Also,

Since Rahm and McCarthy are so into using technology for policing the public (kind of like tracking  personnel in the military - Blue Force Tracker, for all of you military types out there)....isn't there a "liason" to CPD (like maybe an Active Trans member, DOT worker, etc) that we could send pics (time & date stamped, with location in a brief description? And Have CPD get "bike cops" (sorry, I don't know their actual designation...Bicycle-mounted Police Officers? BMPO's ?BPO's?) in every district/neighborhood/etc. (instead of JUST in the downtown/MAG MILE area).

Their responsibilities would be to enforce parking/bike lanes (and responding to nearby calls, of course) within their assigned sector/district/etc.

We could send in the pics to a dispatcher/liason/etc.. that would then be sent out to the appropriate districts/etc.

And for those of you that will use the "wild goose chase" arguement....

It would save $ in "wear & tear" costs of cars/SUV's, make the offciers fitter/healthier, and (I think most importantly) it allows the officers to have a better/closer interaction with the public (community) that they serve. (like they used to do whe I was growing up in Little Village. The Police Officers in the 23rd & Drake area - as well as the ones that worked in the Piotrowski Park (31st & Keeler) area - knew my name, my dad, what team I played for, what our ranking was within the league, when we were going to have pizza parties at Home Run Inn Pizza, etc - and NOT because I was always in trouble !  I have NEVER been arrested in my life ! And no member of my family - immediate or extended - is in CPD. They seemed more concerned about "their" commmunity - yes, they were considered members of the communities that they patrolled - than almost all of the officers that I have met since retiring from the military and decideing to return to my hometown. The more modern officers suffer from an arrogant, self-imposed, elitism that serves to only distance themselves from the communities that they serve. I am willing to bet that there is only a handful of police officers that have "a finger on the pulse" of their assigned community/district. They are so out of touch with the public that they serve.

Aren't those positive things?

 

Sorry, everyone, out on a tangent.

My apologies.

 

Respectfully,

 

Manny

Permalink Reply by EevelWeezel on January 4, 2013 at 10:00pm
You know, aggeregate data is more useful if it's collected in consideration of an underlying plan. What if there was a "list violations by ward" feature, along with a "what to say to your alderman" kit, available for download?
Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on January 6, 2013 at 6:57am

I guess the underlying plan would be to...stop people from driving/parking in the bike lane?  Your idea would be something nice to see on a wish list for someone like Active Trans, League of Illinois Bicyclists to come up with though.  

Permalink Reply by Luke Gardner on January 6, 2013 at 10:45am

My understanding is that it's absolutely legal to take pictures of anyone on a public street. Google blurs out license plates and faces to protect peoples' privacy and reduce complaints. You could certainly irk some people but I'm not convinced they'd have a case as you aren't revealing anything that anyone on the street couldn't see anyway. I am not a lawyer :P though I'd say you'd have to be diligent about requested takedowns.

I don't know what stopping to take a picture of someone parked or stopped in a bike lane will accomplish, though I'm all for shaming bad drivers and cyclists alike. That said: this happens to me on my ride every day. I just slow down and go around. If I got upset about every little idiotic thing that happened to me because of negligent or oblivious drivers I'd spend half of my commute cursing and screaming. The road is only so big and there are only so many places for people to go, and only so much time to do it in.

It's not worth being constantly frustrated about. Then again - I'm of a calmer variety, so I might be wrong.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on January 6, 2013 at 1:17pm

Great stuff! (PS. I love bike cops.)

I'd say the legality question is settled.

Diligence about take down requests sounds like a lot of work, and ineffective due to archives and caches. ChicagoFunNews.com's many thousands of photos have only generated a few such requests ever, but MyBikeLane.com was world-wide.

Frankly, my top interest in the subject is a fondness of bicyclist relevant crowdsourced geodatasets.  Personally, I've only had a few incidents ever where it would have even been possible.  Most utility I'd expected was mining by insurers, and could identify worst hotspots.

I assumed a broader set than bikelaneparkers, but am now thinking anything worse (potholes, accidents) is 311/911 territory. Just gotta await their automation.

I'm still thinking Twitter's a best bet. Advocates could reference it there. It does require login, but 'cmon, it's Twitter.  MassUp.us could feed from there if we ever really wanted plots and such.  Just needs a memorable hash tag or user.

I previously suggested #mybikelane (or @thisisabikelane) but now wonder if it should be more Chicago specific?

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