Privacy as a planning problem: Some transport‐related examples

Abstract

There are potential but unwanted privacy‐invading elements inherent in modern transport surveillance technology, and we have no satisfactory decision rules to resolve the value conflicts that the use of this technology might create. The practical examples of transportation planning instruments eroding privacy deal with toll technology and intelligent vehicle‐highway systems. The theoretical part shows how such technology, by violating privacy‐rights, can cause the liberal paradox of social choice to arise in transportation planning. Liberalism is taken to grant each individual the right to decide within a protected sphere. Amartya Sen has proved that such liberalism cannot be guaranteed, given the combination of preference sovereignty and rational social decision‐making. Privacy‐rights contribute to the establishment of protected spheres. When the collective meddles with decisions in protected spheres, the Pareto principle and privacy‐rights may conflict and thereby cause the liberal paradox.