Relying on erroneous traffic news from helicopters flying above American highways is soon to be a thing of the past.
Thanks to technological advances that measure and monitor traffic from roadside digital sensors, drivers can now subscribe to a free service offered by Traffic.com, known as MyTraffic, which enables users to:
What's more, for about $5 a month drivers can also receive updated traffic reports by text to a cell phone or another wireless device.
What is Traffic.com?
Traffic.com is the leading commercial supplier of digitally gathered traffic data. Since its start in 1998, the company has signed up with about 200 radio stations and 40 TV stations as customers.
Most of the company's data is derived from digital roadside sensors along highways in six metropolitan areas (nine more will be added this year); however, commercial and government partners and operations centers run by the company in major cities supplement the sensor-generated data, and allow the service to be offered in 23 cities.
Thanks to these advancements, broadcast stations are now able to offer comprehensive and highly accurate reports, enhanced with animated graphics, on traffic flows and jams.
Coming up Next ...
While the market for daily commuters is obvious, many business travelers are also tuning in to digital traffic reports.
Considering the majority of business travelers using rental cars cited getting lost to be one of their chief worries in a survey, Avis is working to blend data from Traffic.com with Global Positioning System data from Motorola, and is rolling out the service in 24 cities in a major reformatting of its Avis Assist road navigational system.
New York Times July 19, 2005 (Registration Required)
As I mentioned in the last newsletter, one of the wonderful undeniable aspects of technology is that we are getting more and more of everything faster and faster. One of my best mentors in this area is Dr. Richard Swenson, who is a teaching physician at the University of Wisconsin and with the Christian Medical Society.
He wrote a book 10 years ago that has been enormously useful in my own life and it expands on this principle. The book was, Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives. But, he now has a newer version of the book out called, A Minute of Margin: Restoring Balance to Busy Lives.
Unlike the brain simulators in that prior article that were worthless, this is a technology that has the potential to significantly help you out. I live in the Chicago suburbs and it is common around here to realize that there are only two seasons, winter and road construction.
One of my biggest pet peeves in life is crawling in traffic and wasting time. Particularly annoying are the gaper's blocks that are not at all related to an accident on the side of the road you are traveling, but from dimwitted drivers that just must slow down to see the accident on the other side of the road.
I knew for quite awhile that we have had the technical solution to solve this problem but only recently found the company that had implemented it. Now most of you can simply go online to www.traffic.com and find out the real-time traffic situation. This is absolutely delightful.
A few people will actually be able to integrate this service into their car's GPS system. This will rapidly be available for everyone in the next few years, but for now if you have a mobile connection (Internet over cell phone) you can find this out in your car while it is moving.
High-speed cellular wireless was introduced by Verizon earlier this year and unlimited access is $80 per month. Sprint will introduce their EVDO service to a widespread market later this year and continue to increase coverage until early 2006 for the same amount. I have been using a slow dial-up Sprint wireless Internet for over two years now, but this new EVDO service from Sprint promises to be five times faster.
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Finally No More Guessing, "What Will Traffic be Like?" What Causes Most Car Accidents?
Finally No More Guessing, "What Will Traffic be Like?"
What Causes Most Car Accidents?