How Bluetooth traffic readers will use your phone for Windsor border delays

Ahead of the Gordie Howe International Bridge opening this fall, 15 Bluetooth traffic readers are being installed this summer across Windsor-Essex.

Each unit being put up is the size of a "Kleenex box," according to Windsor's transportation manager Ian Day.

They'll be hung on street lights and traffic poles — and accompanied with small solar panels and modem boxes.

There will be 11 spread across the border city — most along Huron Church Road approaching the Ambassador Bridge, and a few near the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel, he says.

The remaining four will be positioned along the E.C. Row Expressway and on Highway 401 in Essex County.

They're meant to track how long it takes vehicles to drive between sensors to help determine border wait times.

The Bluetooth Travel Time system measures and calculates vehicle travel times based on the detection of anonymous unique addresses of Bluetooth devices onboard vehicles travelling past readers, according to the Ministry of Transportation (MTO).

"Speed is then estimated on the travel time and distance between readers," said MTO spokesperson Julia Caslin.

"Only Bluetooth devices onboard vehicles are captured and while the Bluetooth address is unique, it is not linked to a particular individual or entity."

That data is then sent through to be displayed on signage hanging above Highway 401 that was erected late last year. 

"Testing for the Border Advisory System (BAS) [overhead] signs is close to complete," said Caslin. 

"Actual border delay information will be displayed on the signs when the Gordie Howe International Bridge opens later this year."

And once they do, they'll refresh every five minutes, reflecting wait times for both commercial and passenger vehicles at the three crossings.

Day says all of the collected data is meant to provide motorists with advance warnings and a chance to adjust their travel plans and choice of what crossing they want to take.

"You get to pick your routes … increases safety and tries to decrease delays at the different border … crossings." 

How it reads your phone

Day says Bluetooth readers can track cell signals within roughly 100 metres of where they're positioned.

"Your cell phone, if your Bluetooth is on, is constantly chirping out its security codes," he said. 

"You drive by one of these readers, it grabs onto those codes. What that does is it now knows where you are, how fast you're travelling by as it picks you up at successive readers, takes that information, uploads it to the ministry."

Day says reader statistics he's seen indicate the actual pickup rate for Bluetooth by readers is only seven to 10 per cent because for their short range.

"But with the volume of traffic going down the road, that seven to 10 per cent still gives them a pretty good representative value of what's going on on the highway."

Security fears?

According to Day, people shouldn't be concerned about the readers or MTO being able to collect unrelated personal data from your phone if a Bluetooth connection is made.

"It can't get any personal information because you haven't allowed it to pair," he told CBC News.

He says there also isn't public access to where the reading information ends up.

"It's all [a] secure site, nobody can get into it but ministry employees."

The equipment for the readers will be procured within the next four to five weeks, says Day. It should then take another week or two to put them up and test them, he added.