Analysis of risk for launching and recovering process

The introduction of Global Positioning Systems in taxicabs could improve the industry. The industry is comprised of owners, drivers and a number of dispatch services which work independently of each other. Before GPS it was difficult to keep track of the locations of drivers and the new technology could be used to improve the efficiency of this mobile industry and help these three groups work more effectively together (Diulio, 2011). If the GPS was used to create one central dispatch service this could dramatically improve the efficiency of the dispatch system and would be a benefit to both drivers and customers as calls could be dispatched more quickly. As it stands, there are dispatch services who give priority to certain cab companies over others which means that customers may wait in a queue of calls with one company while another has cabs nearby available (Volk, 2007). The Parking Authority has implemented policies that further complicate the system and can actually increase the time that it takes for calls to be dispatched particularly in the poorer areas of the city (Volk, 2007). A centralised computer system that would dispatch calls to the nearest available driver would be fairer to the drivers and the customers would be served more quickly. However, as Lev Manovich notes, there is a fine line between

surveillance and assistance and this is a key characteristic of high-tech societies (Manovich, 2004). With GPS the city is an ‘augmented space’ with data overlaid on the physical space which could be used to assist drivers (Manovich, 2004).

However, it can just as easily be used for monitoring and surveillance purposes.

This leads to what Crang and Graham have described as a “politics of visibility”

where there is an imperative to not only render these technologies visible so that those effected are aware of the impact but also to look at how individuals are made visible by the technologies and how they are used for tracking purposes (Crang and Graham, 2007).

The flaw with the way that the Philadelphia Parking Authority is using GPS to monitor the taxicab industry is that they are prioritising the virtual

representation of the city over the real. They value software over human

experience and knowledge. Thrift and French state that software intervenes on many levels and that software changes “forms of visibility by informationalising space” and that it produces “new templates for decision making” thereby

changing the nature of expertise (2002). When the Philadelphia Parking Authority imposes fines upon drivers for not taking the recommended route they are treating the computer model of the city as the authority. This relies upon a false impression of an urban environment as static and predictable when cities are in fact the opposite. Drawing upon Lefebvre, Keith Meyer states that

“life determined by technology effaces natural time ever more decisively” (2008:

151). He goes on to describe this as “subjugation of life to the rule of the machine” (2008: 152) as is the case when individual tacit knowledge is

dismissed and flawed technology prioritised. Cities are characterized by flows and networks of people and goods moving in, out and throughout the city twenty-four hours a day. Navigating the city is unpredictable. Amin and Thrift describe how “each urban moment can spark performative improvisations which are unforeseen and unforeseeable” (2002: 4). This certainly applies to

driving within a city. However, GPS does not take into account changing traffic patterns, accidents, or construction. While it would be true to say that the model of the city is outdated as soon as it is made, this is particularly so with the

system introduced in Philadelphia as the navigation system continues to direct drivers to a sports stadium that was demolished in 2004 (Volk, 2007).

Additionally, there is not a seamless relationship between the virtual and the real. These mobile networks still must “negotiate the architecture of spaces that they attempt to inhabit.” (Matt Locke, quoted in Manovich, 2004: 12) The GPS in place in Philadelphia is practical evidence of Locke’s description of the “ebbs and flows” and “troughs and peaks” in the network. The tall buildings in Center City Philadelphia disrupt the GPS system (“Stand with cab drivers”, 2008). The GPS also has a delay and, thus, cars are often not where the GPS reports (Volk, 2007). So, not only are cities not static and predictable, but neither is the virtual representation of the city that the GPS provides. Such systems are, thus, always

“selective, incomplete, biased and subjective” and the danger is that they are being used to “transform the way that we establish meaning, construct knowledge, and make sense of our surroundings” (Mitchell, 2003: 120 ).

Without confidence of full accuracy, it is irrational for the Parking Authority to depend upon the system and to evaluate drivers based on the information that it provides. In the effort to instil within the taxicab industry the Fordist principles of efficiency, predictability, calculability and control (Ritzer, 2000) they have illogically placed the computer simulation above the real urban environment. If the system were used merely as a tool to provide navigation suggestions then there would not be such a problem. However, the system is used to monitor and evaluate the drivers. Drivers who interpret and improvise through the urban

landscape are fined up to $350 for not adhering to the virtual (Philadelphia Parking Authority, 2006). Principles from the factory cannot be practically applied to the city and to the drivers in this manner.