Get Ready For the High-tech Beach

coondoggie writes "Ocean City, New Jersey is a nice, family-oriented beach that will apparently soon be the high-tech model for seashore lovers and now perhaps geeks everywhere. The city has on its plate a $3 million plan for myriad public services and Internet access using radio-frequency identification chips (RFID) and Wi-Fi wireless technology. A wireless network will let Ocean City expand economic development and control the cost of local services. Wireless allows the City to save on cell phone usage, T-1 lines, and it adds efficiency. The city is looking to replace its ubiquitous but mostly annoying beach tags — which indicate you paid to get on the beach $5 per day, $10 for a week, or $20 for the whole summer — with wristbands that contain an RFID chip. Yet another cool feature of the high-tech beach will be the ability to track beachgoers — an application that is being touted by parents."

Re:I live in the land of the free.

[hb253]

I live in New Jersey and am annoyed to no end that we have to pay to use the beach. Worse yet, there are some wealthier commmunities along the shore where the residents think they own the beach. They make it extremely difficult for day visitors by restricting parking and obscuring or outright hiding the beach access points between the mansions. It's sickening, but it seems that money always wins.

Re:Hmm...

[mike_the_kid]

A beach tag costs about $15 for the season, and are available for the week or day as well. The trash and recycling cans on the beach fill up each day, and the beach tag essentially pays for this, as well as lifeguards. There are about five swimming areas per mile, each with two lifeguards. And they also pay some kids to walk up and down the beach checking for / selling tags.

The beaches are kept safe and clean. People do complain about the cost of the beach tag, but when you consider that people often drop $3,000 to rent a beach house for a week, the beach tag seems pretty reasonable. You don't have to get it if you don't want to go to the beach.

Re:Hmm...

[Hans Lehmann]

Why should people who never go to the beach have to pay for it?

I've never driven on 90% of the interstate highways in this country, so why should my federal tax dollars be used to build & maintain them?
I've never needed to go to the emergency room either, so why should I have to pay taxes to support those frivolous hospitals?
My house has never been attacked by a foreign nation, so why should I foot the bill for our trillion dollar armed forces?
Get the point?

I hate the beach as much as you; it's too hot, too sunny, and too sandy. I have *no* problem, however, with paying taxes to help keep the beaches clean and have lifeguards on duty. Our ocean's beaches are a national resource, and should be maintained for the good of the entire public, not just for scum like David Geffen http://www.calcoast.org/news/beach0050415.html [calcoast.org] that try to lock up portions for themselves.