Beat the Traffic Blog

You have probably heard us promote our unique and useful Traffic Forecast feature, but have you been using it to its full potential? This blog post is dedicated to the Traffic Forecast feature, including what it is, where to find it, and how to use it.

What are Traffic Forecasts?

You are all probably more familiar with weather forecasts, watching the local news channel for the able hands of the weather reporter to gesture in front of a blue screen and conclude there will be rain on Wednesday. Traffic Forecasts are based on the same principle, using data to predict what future conditions will be. Except instead of tracking jetstreams, we use historical traffic data to predict traffic flow along popular routes, specific to time and date. With the seven day forecasts, you can plan your trips ahead of time and look to see what the traffic flow will be like. Traffic Forecasts prove especially useful when you are unfamiliar with the traffic patterns of the area or during holidays, when the traffic can be especially unpredictable.

Where do I find Traffic Forecasts?

First, choose the city you are interested in using the drop down menu or the US map on the homepage. Next, click on the “Forecasts” text in the grey bar at the top of the page (pictured below) to be redirected to the Traffic Forecast page for your area.

How do I use Traffic Forecasts?

Traffic Forecasts are very useful for when planning how to beat the traffic, especially if you are unfamiliar with the local traffic pattern or are from out of town (great for vacations or business trips) and during holiday traveling. On the Forecasts page, you will be able to view popular travel routes, along with their ideal travel times and a link to view their current conditions. To view the seven day forecast charts, simply click on the name of the route of interest. Below, seven graphs will appear, labeled with the date they are forecasting. The vertical axis of each chart is labeled with minutes, the amount of minutes to travel the route. The horizontal axis is labeled with the hours of the day. The red line on the chart rises and falls throughout the day, as heavy traffic times correspond with longer travel times. Highlighted segments help you see when the worse traffic occurs, therefore those times should be avoided. Simply by leaving a few minutes before or after these peak traffic times can save you several frustrating wasted minutes and gas spent in traffic.

For example, as you can see in the graph to the left, if you leave work at 6:15 pm instead of at 6 o’clock, you can miss over 5 minutes being stuck in traffic. This saves you the frustration of traffic, gas, and allows you to do something productive in those last few minutes at work.

My Traffic

A final feature of Traffic Forecasts is the ability to create custom Traffic Forecasts for routes you drive! If your commute route isn’t one of the popular routes provided for your area, you can create customized routes specific to your needs with a My Traffic account. One of the many great features of having a My Traffic account is the ability to easily create custom routes that you can then receive Travel Times and Traffic Forecasts that are most pertinent to you. $19.95/year is a small price to pay for all of the time and gas money you will be saving. Read what people have to say about their My Traffic accounts here.

I hope this information proved useful to you and that you are now better equipped to Beat The Traffic!

BeatTheTraffic.com’s historically based traffic forecasts can tip you off about the busiest traffic times during the week of popular travel routes in your area, helping you avoid them, but have you ever wondered what the nation wide worst traffic times are? Or what time has the least traffic? Or maybe you wonder which US city has the most traffic? Or where the nation’s worst Bottlenecks are located? All of these questions and more are answered in the Inrix Traffic Scorecard that analyzes 2007 traffic information across the nation. Here are some of the highlights:

Best and worst drive times:

• Worst Day: Friday
• Worst Hour: Friday 5-6 PM
• Worst Morning: Wednesday AM
• Best Day: Monday
• Best Commute: Friday AM
• Best Hour: Friday 6-7 AM
• Best Afternoon: Monday PM

Metropolitan Rankings:

• Worst Drive Time Congestion and Overall Congestion- Los Angeles/Long Beach/Santa Ana followed by New York/Northern New Jersey/Long Island
• Worst Travel Time Delay- Honolulu followed by Los Angeles/Long Beach/Santa Ana
• Worst Travel Time Delay during peak hour- Honolulu followed by Bridgeport/Stamford/Norwalk CT
  
• Highest % Decrease in Drive Time Congestion 2007 vs. 2006- Cape Coral/Fort Myers FL
• Highest % Increase in Drive Time Congestion 2007 vs. 2006- New York/Northern New Jersey/Long Island followed by Detroit/Warren/Livonia MI
• Worst Bottlenecks % by Market- Los Angeles (25.8%) followed by New York (17.7%), Chicago (10.8%), and San Francisco (4.9%)

For 2007, the nation as a whole averaged with 13% extra travel time caused by traffic congestion, an increase of 1.9% from 2006. The study points out that the impact of higher fuel prices likely slowed the rate of growth of congestion and suggests traffic will likely worsen at a higher rate in the future (however, as gas prices continue to rise, this should be fascinating). It is also interesting to note that regions where housing slumps have occurred have seen a decline in congestion in 2007 and the report suggests this trend will continue in 2008. Lastly, over 1000 road segments experienced at least 20 hours of congestion and the nation’s 100 worst bottlenecks were congested an average of 60 hours each week with an average speed of less than 14 mph.

I hope you found this information as interesting as I did and be sure to check BeatTheTraffic.com regularly so you can avoiding being one of the many Americans stuck in traffic.

If you are from California, especially in the Los Angeles or southern California regions, you have probably heard the dreaded Sig Alert announced on your local radio station and crossed your fingers in hopes the freeway you are on isn’t mentioned. But have you ever wondered what “Sig Alert” actually means?

For all of you who aren’t Californians, as you have probably guessed, Sig Alert is a road incident reporting system used by the California Highway Patrol to disseminate information across the state via the radio, internet, television, and electronic message signs along the freeway. The California Highway Patrol defines a Sig Alert as “any unplanned event that causes the closing of one lane of traffic for 30 minutes or more, as opposed to a planned event like road construction, which is planned separately.”

But why is it called by the seemingly meaningless term “Sig” Alert? My co-worker asked me this question after he noticed a symbol on our map titled “Sig Alert” (left). I at first assumed SIG must be an acronym for something (possibly Signally Information that is Groan-worthy?), but as you see, I couldn’t think of anything plausible. So I looked it up and here is what I found:

Sig Alert originated with the Los Angeles Police Department in 1955. As the number of cars on Los Angeles streets rose, so did the number of accidents and traffic jams. There became a need to report these incidents to warn drivers on the road, but the LAPD refused to report them to radio stations, forcing radio stations to instead individually call up the police department for information update. The ultimate result was an inefficient telephone line mess.

This is where the “Sig” in Sig Alert comes into play. Loyd C. Sigmon (you see the connection?), having experience in the US Army Signal Corps and local radio, developed a specialized radio receiver and tape recorder that would turn on and record when bulletins were transmitted. Costing $600 , the LAPD’s chief, William H. Parker, was interested but skeptical and was quoted telling Sigmon, “We’re going to name this damn thing Sigalert.”

Radio stations began using Sig Alert receivers and ironically one of the first major Sig Alerts actually caused a traffic jam when doctors and nurses were asked to respond to a train derailing, resulting with too many people showing up. In 1969, the CHP assumed the responsibility for freeway traffic and the Sig Alerts as well. Now, although voice messages are still broadcast, most radio stations read the information online.

So there you have it. Next time you see a Sig Alert symbol on a BeatTheTraffic.com map, you’ll know it indicates a CHP Sig Alert.

Ever wonder who is behind typing these blogs, running BeatTheTraffic.com, or developing Beat the Traffic 3D? Well wonder no longer! Now this post will finally satisfy the many inquiring minds (all of you, I’m sure) who want to know who we are. With so many people in and out of our office here in beautiful Campbell, CA, this picture is a rare commodity!

Pictured left to right: Rina, Yann, Michelle (thats me!), Briac, Michael, Seth, Andre, Matt, and Mickael.

Not pictured are: Fred (left), Edgar (right), Paul, and Glenn.

Now here are a few little known facts about our Beat The Traffic team:

• Yann, Briac, Andre, and Mickael are originally from France! Hearing them speak their native tongue is not uncommon, but so far all I have been able to pick up is Bonjour!
• Michael loves riding his mountain bike and adventuring outdoors.
• Body boarding in Santa Cruz is Mickael’s favorite pastime since being in the states for the summer.
• Check out Briac’s Picasa web album; he jokingly calls himself a “famous photographer”.
• I (Michelle) love to swing dance in my free time. Bring out the Big Band!
• Yann plays softball in a small local league in Sunnyvale and his team has a shot at winning the championships! Gooooo Bundys! (don’t worry, he doesn’t know what a Bundy is either)

So now you have some faces to connect as the driving force behind all of Beat the Traffic’s wonderful products and services. We are small but mighty, and very friendly/helpful to boot!

We are very excited to welcome CBS 6 WTVR-TV as our newest customer of Beat the Traffic 3D! As of July 21st, viewers in the Richmond and Washington DC area benefit from dynamic, animated road speeds, flows, forecasts and travel times: a first for the region! Also, colorful and detailed 3D landmarks unique to the area, such as the Richmond airport, coliseum, and capitol, help viewers orient their commute plan and add visual interest (see screen shot at bottom). Viewers can watch Amanda Meadows use Beat the Traffic 3D on CBS 6 Beat the Traffic segments throughout the morning and evening commute times as well as anytime access to the custom branded web component at WTVR.com (pictured left), featuring maps automatically updated with the latest traffic information in the Richmond and Washington DC area.

With the price of gas now topping $4 a gallon, avoiding traffic congestion has become a top priority! The Texas Transportation Institute reproted in a 2007 study that Richmond drivers lost over 10 million hours and over 6.3 million gallons of gas due to rush hour traffic in 2006. By utilizing the Beat the Traffic system, WTVR aims to assist their viewers save time and money with this valuable tool .

Traffic reporter Amanda Meadows comments on her excitement about the implementation of the new system:

“With the cost of gas and congestion skyrocketing, it is even more important to make smart driving decisions, such as when to leave, what route to take, and how to take advantage of other commuting alternatives…Our visually-striking, easy-to-understand animated traffic maps, up-to-the-minute travel times and road speeds, and ability to fly into traffic trouble spots allow us to provide the most advanced traffic reporting in the market.”

With the help of this new technology, Amanda also maintains a popular traffic blog including traffic forecasts for the week and weekend.

So welcome CBS 6 WTVR-TV and its Richmond viewers to the uncomplicated, visually striking, accurate and timely traffic information of Beat the Traffic: A New Direction in News. Happy traveling!

A few weeks ago, Beat The Traffic announced the launch of our new Beat The Traffic mobile website. Now you can access BeatTheTraffic.com when you are on the go on your Blackberry or other mobile device at www.beatthetraffic.mobi. This website is specifically formatted for easy navigation on smaller screens, allowing you to check current traffic conditions anytime. Let me give you a run down about all of the great features of this new website as well as how to use them.

Go to BeatTheTraffic.mobi

First things first. Go to the website! Simply type www.beatthetraffic.mobi into your webrowser on your mobile device and the first thing you will see is the page to the right. The next step is to simply select the blue arrow to view the drop down menu that includes all of the cities already available on BeatTheTraffic.com. Once your city is selected, you will see a page like the one below:

Map

Click on ‘Map’ to view a current traffic map, complete with color coded road speeds and incident symbols. You can click on the incident symbols to view more details, as well as the camera symbols to view live traffic camera shots.

Routes Click on ‘Routes’ to view a listing of the most popular traffic routes in your area and their current travel time, along with how many minutes of current delay. You can also click on each specific route to view current traffic incidents on that route.

Incidents The ‘Incidents’ link leads to a list of up-to-the-minute traffic incidents ordered by freeway/highway. These incidents include accidents, planned events, roadwork and other information that can affect your travel times. By knowing where these incidents are ahead of time, you can plan your route to avoid them and beat the traffic!

Cameras Although only available in select cities, the ‘Cameras’ link will display a list of traffic cameras available in your area. Now you can view live images from the roads you are about to drive to see for yourself what the traffic flow looks like.

MyTraffic If you don’t already have one, be sure to sign up for a MyTraffic account on BeatTheTraffic.com. All we need is your email address and you can try a week free trial. You have nothing to lose! MyTraffic only costs $19.95/year after that, which is a great deal considering the time and money it will save you. With a MyTraffic account, you can create custom routes that allow you to view travel times and traffic forecasts as well as an option to receive custom email and/or text message traffic report alerts.

On the mobile website, when you click the ‘Login to My Traffic‘ link, you come to a page like the one to the left. After you enter your email and your password, you will be able to view a list of the current travel times as well as the number of minutes of delay specific to your custom routes pre-set on BeatTheTraffic.com.

So there you have it. Finally, up-to-date traffic reports right on your Blackberry or other mobile device. Play around with the mobile website and enjoy current traffic reports right at your fingertips!

Yah we’re cool, we’re hip, and to prove it, we are now on YouTube! Beat the Traffic recently created its official YouTube account. We currently have eleven videos on our playlist, with more sure to come in the future. Check them out at www.youtube.com/BeattheTraffic.

Videos include short tutorials for how to navigate the website maps featured in our FAQ blog article as well as Beat the Traffic 3D in action! Check out this video of Beat the Traffic 3D in High Definition being used by our friends at KLAS in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can see for yourself how Beat the Traffic 3D helps display traffic information in a highly visual and understandable way, as well as the easy integration of video feeds into traffic reports.

You will also see several demos included in our YouTube playlist, featuring Beat the Traffic 3D in Manchester, NH, Columbus, OH, and Richmond, VA. These demos feature 3D landmarks associated with the area, animated traffic flow roads, and really cool animated 3D traffic incidents (like a car on fire, or a siren flashing ambulance!).

We also added a link to our YouTube account on our blog (found under “Corporate”), so you can check out our YouTube playlist with ease. So pull out some popcorn, hunker down at your computer, and enjoy the wonders of Beat the Traffic 3D: A New Direction in News!

“Beep! Beep! Beep!” You think to yourself “Whoever decided the frequency of that alarm clock buzzer should be shot.” This is how most of us wake in the morning.

Then, after slamming the off button, you sluggishly slink out to brew the morning’s coffee and boot your computer to check the traffic and weather for the day. As you mindlessly select Beat The Traffic from your “favorites” menu to check the morning traffic, you notice something different on the traffic map. What are those yellow globes? Wait a second, Beat The Traffic now has weather on their site! Sweet! Now your lazy sleep self thinks how awesome it will be to conserve energy by no longer needing to check another website for your daily weather information. Maybe you can set your clock 5 minutes later…

Now no need to drown us in thank you comments (well, if you must) but our programmers (thanks Edgar and Briac!) just made your life that much easier. Using data from Custom Weather, Inc.’s over 4,500 weather stations across the US, you are now able to see small icons representing the current weather conditions and temperatures right on your local traffic map, as well as access to a seven day forecast!

How to use it

This weather feature offers more than meets the eye. The most obvious use is to check current weather conditions, with icons and temperatures that appear directly on the map. If for some reason you don’t see the weather icons, you might have them turned off. To turn them back on, simply left click to check the “Weather” box at the top of the map. This also allows you to turn them off if you don’t wish to use the weather feature (though not recommended as the “look out the window” test is rather inaccurate).

You can also view more information about the current weather information by rolling your cursor over the icon, at which point a text box will appear with the location, descriptive details, humidity level, wind speed/direction, atmospheric pressure, and dewpoint temperature.

Another exciting feature is the seven day forecasts. Left click on the weather icon in the area you are interested in and a seven day forecast will display at the top left of your screen. The forecasts include the high and low temperatures for the day, a description of the predicted conditions, and the chance of precipitation. What more information could you need?

So I hope you are as excited as we are about this new weather feature and we welcome any suggestions and comments about its design as we finish developing it. Also, keep your eye out for the future addition of weather on Beat The Traffic 3D for the use of your local TV broadcasters.

“Man, that bird hasn’t budged the whole time I’ve been at this red light!” Actually, that is not a comatose bird you are looking at, but instead a red light camera. Red light cameras capture images of license plates and, in some cases, drivers who run red lights. The owner of the car is then sent a ticket in the mail for their violation.

These cameras have been the center of much controversy. Not only does the presence of many cameras set off alarms for the sci-fi fear of Big Brother, but they are also highly debated as being a tool to gain more government revenue from tickets and not just a way to promote safety.

As like most things in life, there are two sides to every coin. So let me just lay out the basic arguments on both sides so you can make the choice for yourself.

People who smile for the red light cameras say…

• According to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS), drivers running red lights accounts for 22% of all traffic accidents in the United States.
• An IIHS study in Oxnard, California showed that red light running violations dropped 42 percent after a camera was introduced. A similar study in Fairfax, Virginia showed violations declined 40 percent after one year of photo enforcement.
• Publicity of red light cameras is supposed to deter violations, not just simply a sneaky way to catch people in the act.
• Red light cameras don’t have biases and therefore cannot unfairly profile.
• Privacy issues are null because of the public setting. Also, only people violating the law are photographed (its actually really cool how the cameras are triggered; check it out at howstuffworks.com).

People who throw obscene gestures at the red light cameras

• The owner might not have been driving the car, yet they are mailed the ticket.
• Cameras increase other types of accidents, such as rear-ending, when people notice the camera and make hasty decisions to avoid ticketing. A Virginia Transportation Research Council study shows an increase of accidents with the installment of red light cameras.
• Longer yellow lights can make intersections much safer, in an easy and inexpensive way (check out the findings of the Texas Transportation Institute)
• There is no standardization of yellow light duration and several cities have been caught shortening them around a red light camera to increase revenue.
• Insurance companies (including IIHS) support red light cameras because more tickets mean they can raise insurance rates
• The accused receive notification months after the violation and sometimes without a picture, making it difficult to remember if they actually did violate the law or if there was a mistake.

So in conclusion, whether red light cameras improve safety or not, they probably aren’t going to disappear in the near future. If you’re really worried, take a look at photoenforced.com for red light cameras locations near you. Please, just drive smart and safely for the benefit of all.