![401 Traffic Cam](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/401_Traffic_Cam.jpg)
Traffic reporting is the near
real-time
Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...
distribution of information about
road
A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation.
There are many types of ...
conditions such as
traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is a condition in transport that is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. Traffic congestion on urban road networks has increased substantially since the 1950s. When traffic de ...
,
detour
__NOTOC__
A detour or (British English: diversion) is a (normally temporary) route taking traffic around an area of prohibited or reduced access, such as a construction site. Standard operating procedure for many roads departments is to route an ...
s, and
traffic collisions. The reports help drivers anticipate and avoid traffic problems.
Traffic reports
Traffic reporting is the near real-time distribution of information about road conditions such as traffic congestion, detours, and traffic collisions. The reports help drivers anticipate and avoid traffic problems. Traffic reports, especially in ...
, especially in cities, may also report on major delays to
mass transit
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
that does not necessarily involve roads. In addition to periodic broadcast reports, traffic information can be transmitted to GPS units, smartphones, and personal computers.
Methods of gathering information
There are several methods in use today to gather traffic speed and incident info, ranging from professional reporters, to
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
crowdsourcing to combinations of both methods.
*
INRIX
INRIX is a private company headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, US. It provides location-based data and software-as-a-service analytics — such as real-time and historical traffic conditions, road safety, and parking availability — to automak ...
uses its network of over 175 million vehicles and devices to gather speed data from
mobile phones
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
, trucks, delivery vans, and other fleet vehicles equipped with GPS locator devices including smart phones and
Ford SYNC
Ford Sync (stylized Ford SYNC) is a factory-installed, integrated in-vehicle communications and entertainment system that allows users to make hands-free telephone calls, control music and perform other functions with the use of voice commands. ...
and
Toyota Entune
Toyota Entune is an integrated multimedia navigation and telematics system for Toyota automobiles that provides satellite-based information on traffic, weather, sports scores, stocks, and fuel prices via subscription through SiriusXM. When connect ...
and much of Europe, South America, and Africa.
*
Google Traffic works by
crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...
the GPS information from phone users. By calculating the speed of users along a stretch of road, Google is able to generate a live traffic map. Its subsidiary,
Waze
Waze (; he, ווייז, label=Hebrew), formerly FreeMap Israel, is a subsidiary company of Google that provides satellite navigation software on smartphones and other computers that support the Global Positioning System (GPS). In addition to ...
, also allows users to report directly via a smartphone app.
*
TomTom Traffic uses crowd-sourced data from mobile phone users, along with data from traditional sources such as induction loops and traffic cameras.
* Monitoring
police radio
Police radio is a radio system used by police and other law enforcement agencies to communicate with one another. Police radio systems almost always use two-way radio systems to allow for communications between police officers and dispatchers.
...
frequencies. Some radio stations have agreements with states' highway patrol that permit a direct connection with a law enforcement computer. This enables real-time information gathering of the latest accident reports to highway patrol divisions .
* Many areas have
helicopters
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
to overfly accident scenes and other areas of high traffic volume. For example, by the company
Global Traffic Network
Global Traffic Network is a traffic reporting service that provides reports to radio and television stations across Australia, Canada, Brazil and the United Kingdom. The company was formed in 2005 by principals from Westwood One and Metro Networks ...
.
*
Traffic camera
A traffic camera is a video camera which observes vehicular traffic on a road. Typically, traffic cameras are put along major roads such as highways, freeways, expressways and arterial roads, and are connected by optical fibers buried alongside or ...
*
Giditraffic is an online social service which employs
crowd sourcing
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...
as its primary means of providing real-time traffic updates to subscribers. The service is delivered free of charge.
* RoadPal
uses
crowd-sourced
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...
data from mobile users as well as the social media to provide users with traffic information of places of interest to them.
* Roadside
speed sensor
This is a list of sensors sorted by sensor type.
Acoustic, sound, vibration
*Geophone
*Hydrophone
*Microphone
* Pickup
*Seismometer
*Sound locator
Automotive
*Air flow meter
*AFR sensor
*Air–fuel ratio meter
* Blind spot monitor
*Cranksha ...
s, either infrared sensors for spot measurements or
automatic number plate recognition
Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also #Other names, other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing close ...
for measuring speed between two sites (
Trafficmaster
Teletrac (branded as Teletrac Navman; formerly Trafficmaster) is a software as a service company headquartered in Southern California, with offices in the United Kingdom. It provides cloud-based GPS fleet tracking software, stolen vehicle tracki ...
have a network of sensors on motorways and trunk roads in the UK).
Methods of transmitting information
* GPS units (see
Integration of traffic data with navigation systems Integration of traffic data with navigation systems enables navigation systems to use traffic and other related data to optimise routing and travel times by taking into account traffic conditions and other disruptions to traffic flows. The integrat ...
)
* Smartphones
* Radio via voice
RDS, and
TA
*
Electronic road signs
*
5-1-1
5-1-1 is a transportation and traffic information telephone hotline in some regions of the United States and Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to t ...
traffic information phone line or similar.
* Television and web
Providers
Total Traffic & Weather Networkis the largest provider of real time broadcast traffic information in the United States. TTWN's broadcast traffic information appears on hundreds of radio and television stations as well on a multitude of automotive and gps navigation systems throughout the United States. TTWN traffic reports reach approximately 125M commuters per month. In 2011, TTWN acquired then competitor Metro Networks for $125M, about 1/10th of the company's $1B sale price to Westwood One a decade earlier. In 2006, TTWN partnered with BMW to become the first company in the United States to bring a product to the consumer market that displayed real time traffic information on an in-vehicle navigation system. TTWN's parent company is iHeart Media Networks.
*
NAVTEQ provides data used in a wide range of applications, including
automotive navigation system
An automotive navigation system is part of the automobile controls or a third party add-on used to find direction in an automobile. It typically uses a satellite navigation device to get its position data which is then correlated to a position on ...
s for many car makers. Most clients use Navteq to provide traffic reports in major metropolitan areas throughout North America. NAVTEQ partners with third-party agencies and companies to provide its services for portable GPS devices made by
Garmin
Garmin Ltd. (shortened to Garmin, stylized as GARMIN, and formerly known as ProNav) is an American, Swiss-domiciled multinational technology company founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao in Lenexa, Kansas, United States, with headquart ...
,
Lowrance,
NDrive and web-based applications such as
Yahoo! Maps
Yahoo! Maps was a free online mapping portal provided by Yahoo! Functionality included local weather powered by The Weather Channel, printing maps, and local reviews powered by Yelp. It shut down on June 30, 2015. For a time in 2019, Yahoo! Maps ...
,
Bing Maps
Bing Maps (previously Live Search Maps, Windows Live Maps, Windows Live Local, and MSN Virtual Earth) is a web mapping service provided as a part of Microsoft's Bing suite of search engines and powered by the Bing Maps Platform framework. Since 20 ...
, and
Nokia Maps
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
.
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its s ...
and
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings.
Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, Sirius ...
use NAVTEQ data to show traffic information on navigation systems.
NAVTEQ's media services was spun out to form Radiate Media in 2011, which subsequently merged with Global Traffic Network in 2016, forming US Traffic Network (USTN).
*
Tele Atlas
Tele Atlas is a Netherlands-based company founded in 1984 which delivers digital maps and other dynamic content for navigation and location-based services, including personal and Automotive navigation system, in-car navigation systems, and provi ...
, a subsidiary of
TomTom
TomTom N.V. is a Dutch multinational developer and creator of location technology and consumer electronics. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first generation of satellite navigation devices to market in 2004. ...
. delivers digital
map
A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes.
Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...
s and other dynamic content for
navigation
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...
and
location-based service
A location-based service (LBS) is a general term denoting software services which use geographic data and information to provide services or information to users. LBS can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, indoor object search, ent ...
s, including personal and
in-car navigation systems, and provides data used in a wide range of mobile and
Internet map applications.
* Google Maps uses a variety of governmental and private traffic reporting organizations to provide information, along with its
Waze
Waze (; he, ווייז, label=Hebrew), formerly FreeMap Israel, is a subsidiary company of Google that provides satellite navigation software on smartphones and other computers that support the Global Positioning System (GPS). In addition to ...
subsidiary, which uses
crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...
to provide observed traffic conditions.
References
{{Authority control
Road transport
Journalism