Do you remember at some point reading or watching the news when a case was made that photo radar cameras placed at traffic intersections were necessary for public safety? Well, photo radar cameras may soon return to a city near you. This time, however, they will read license plates to measure air pollution and send notices of fines to certain vehicles deemed emitting high pollution. If you shop in a business in one of the designated clean air zone, you will pay a pollution tax at the point of purchase for doing so.

Birmingham, England has implemented a clean air zone and the results have been dire. San Diego County, California approved using cameras that could have laid the groundwork for on there a couple of years ago, allegedly for clean air research. Siemens is the company manufacturing the infrastructure for these schemes and is profiting handily from it. Meanwhile, Leeds, England tried something similar to Birmingham but, fortunately, ended up cancelling the program last year due to air pollution dropping faster than originally thought.