Beat the Traffic Blog

At Beat The Traffic, we work very hard to reach our vision to help commuters avoid traffic hassles, and we try our best to make our traffic updates available on every screen of every device… in every region.

Today, we are extremely excited to announce that KOAT 7 ABC is unveiling its brand new Beat The Traffic system to help New Mexico drivers.

According to the Texas A&M University Mobility Study, Albuquerque is the 49th most congested city in the USA, totaling in excess of 11 million hours of delay, 7 million gallons of excess fuel and a congestion cost of $244 million per year. The gridlock-induced delay more than tripled from 11 hours per traveler per year in 1982 to 34 hours in 2007.

Starting today, KOAT 7 viewers, as well as KOAT.com and KOAT mobile/WAP visitors will benefit from real-time traffic speed information pertaining to their routes, which will help them plan better and react to traffic problems.

“Traffic is a big challenge in New Mexico because of the congestion in Albuquerque as well as the very wide territory that we cover. Large portions of the interstates may be closed because of harsh weather, strong winds, etc., leaving travelers with limited options unless they were informed in a timely manner. Our viewers can really use the help KOAT 7 and KOAT.com will provide using the Beat the Traffic® system,” says KOAT News Director, Sue Stephens.

KOAT 7 will report transportation problems for a wide territory: from Las Cruces/Deming to Raton on 25 and Gallup to Tucumcari on 40. So, if you are one of the many commuters of the Albuquerque region, tune in to KOAT7 for the latest traffic updates and tips on how to beat the traffic!

A new study of morning television newscasts, commissioned by Beat the Traffic and conducted by Greg Miller of Kovsky and Miller Research LLC , revealed how TV stations use traffic reporting software to deliver the most complete and relevant reports. The results were derived from an analysis of 60 hours of morning newscasts in 2 top 20 and 1 top 50 market between 5-7 a.m. during one week in October, 2009.

Among other things, the study shows that the Beat the Traffic system provides complete analysis rather than fragmented reports. TV stations in the study spent nearly 10% of their newscast content time making viewers aware of morning traffic conditions and hazards. Stations using Beat the Traffic technology covered 25% more topics like accidents, road conditions, and visibility despite spending nearly 17% less time on traffic reports. Thus Beat the Traffic stations were 46% more efficient in keeping a broad audience informed of impending auto transportation problems.

Greater use of maps was responsible for the breath of coverage and effective time usage advantages at Beat the Traffic stations. These stations spent nearly 23% more time than its competitors giving traffic information via various map displays.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to see that all stations relied heavily on traffic cameras in their reports. Placing more importance on immediacy vs. relevancy to the audience, the stations spent nearly 60% of their time showing traffic cameras even though more complete reports for the broadest audience comes from a balanced use of traffic technology and live cameras.

For more information about the study, please visit our websites Beat the traffic/Triangle Software. You may also call 408 777 6509.

Today we are very excited to announce that Time Warner Cable is launching Beat the Traffic® in Southern California. Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties commuters are about to become a lot savvier when it comes to getting around on their congested roads and freeways!

The cable giant will make Beat the Traffic®’s traffic info available in three user-friendly ways: On cable channel TWC SoCal 101, online at www.twcbtt.com and via mobile device at www.twcbtt.mobi.

Quit Burning Fuel – And Time

Incredibly, Southern California has been reported to have the worst traffic congestion in the entire United States – and anyone who’s ever driven in it will probably agree. The average Southern California driver wastes approximately 70 hours per year – and about 53 gallons of fuel – while sitting in standstill traffic. With its new partnership with Beat the Traffic®, Time Warner will offer broadcasts during peak morning and evening commute times that will alert drivers about trouble spots and other exceptionally up-to-the-minute traffic information.

Get More From Your Cable Service

Since Beat the Traffic® is provided absolutely free of charge to Time Warner Cable customers, there’s no reason not to take advantage of it. This vehicle traffic reporting solution system can dramatically improve your commute, providing accurate trip times, information on key routes and alternate routes in the case of problems or backups. If you’re not already a Time Warner Cable customer, this is just one more great reason to become one. Get the most out of the best cutting edge technology available today – tune in to Beat the Traffic® reports online, on TWC SoCal 101 or through our mobile device today.

For more information please visit our websites beatthetraffic.com or trianglesoftware.com. You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube youtube.com/beatthetraffic
and follow us on Twitter twitter.com/btt3d

Beatthetraffic® App Helps Users Do Just That

The Beatthetraffic® iPhone App is now available as a free download on Apple’s App Store , providing users with a new “crowd-sourced” software that helps travelers get where they are going at faster.

Beatthetraffic® is an iPhone application which compiles data from diverse sources to provide users with accurate traffic data in real time as well as short term traffic forecasts.

Users can view detailed traffic information for over 100 cities in the US and Canada from Miami to Vancouver. The transportation departments of 33 cities have also included their live traffic camera images, allowing users to view traffic in points along their route in real time. Camera locations are pin-pointed on the map, giving users a geographical context for traffic camera images.

Best iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ

Available features include graphs that show traffic volume along routes at various times of the day and night. Weather and traffic map data is combined to give users the most accurate picture of traffic and weather conditions simultaneously.

The map shows color-coded information, showing users areas of congestion and the exact locations of accidents, construction, or other events that can cause delays.

Beatthetraffic® also takes into account local events that may affect traffic conditions including sporting events, conventions, and concerts. If there are events specific to an area, Beatthetraffic® also provides this information in detail. Examples of these events are Mardi-Gras in New Orleans or the Latter-Day Saint’s biannual church conferences in Salt Lake City.

Construction and accident information is highly detailed and comes directly from the source, giving users the best chance of finding faster alternate routes.

Users of Beatthetraffic® also participate in the process, anonymously joining with millions of other users in providing data that will help others on their way.

This method of gathering data, known as crowd-sourcing, adds the benefit of data gathered on the phones and navigation systems of actual drivers currently on the roads and highways. This provides more immediate, accurate, and timely data than traditional methods. Crowd-sourced data transcends traditional traffic information, giving travelers an up-to-the-second picture of traffic conditions.

While the Beatthetraffic® software application covers several cities all over the country, users can save their favorite routes, cities, and regions. This makes the information users need instantly accessible and personalized to their preferences. While the App is completely free and complete without the personalization feature, the My Traffic personalization is a subscription add-on for $19.95 per year, which is less than 5 cents per day. There is a two week free trial. My Traffic works accross the www.beatthetraffic.com website and on web-enabled mobile phones as well.

“We are thrilled to offer this innovative tool to our US and Canadian users. This is the first app to
mix traffic, weather information and personalization:
says Andre Gueziec, President & CEO of Triangle Software LLC who operates Beat the Traffic®
Reviews have been very encouraging: “Love the Application” “Best Traffic App Ever” “An Everyday App”

We just released a new version of the Beat the Traffic® App for your BlackBerry! Perhaps you might want to give it a try to stay clear of the crazy Thanksgiving traffic.

You can download it here!

The Beat the Traffic® App for BlackBerry provides live traffic maps, showing traffic speeds and incidents on major routes for more than 100 cities in the USA and Canada.

The Beat the Traffic® App for BlackBerry offers the following benefits:

• Get up-to-the-minute, accurate traffic information centered on your location
• Get information on traffic incidents, and view live traffic images in 33 cities
• Participate in the data collection effort. With your permission, Beat the Traffic® crowd sources real-time traffic information from GPS devices. You may even report back to Beat the Traffic® an incident that you witness.
• The Beat the Traffic® App is free of advertisement and only shows up-to-the-minute traffic information.

The application has already received more than 17,000 downloads. It is exclusively available on the BlackBerry AppWorld portal for a one-time lifetime! flat fee of $9.99 ($10.99 CND). A free version, Beat the Traffic Free with a reduced feature set is also available on the AppWorld, as well as on our mobile website www.BeatTheTraffic.mobi.

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Below is a link to the CBS 5 Interview from November 17, 2009

Click here for the youtube video.
The transcript reads “Bay Bridge: Ever since the semi accident on the Bay Bridge changes were made to slow down drivers on the S curve and the CHP has been writing speeding tickets. -Bay Bridge traffic footage- driver says the traffic is slow. Andre Gueziec the CEO of beatthetraffic.com a traffic software company was asked to examine the speed of traffic on the Bay Bridge. During Aug the avg speed during the morning drive was 39 mph. On Aug 31st the speed dropped to 29 mph. On Mon Sept 14 after the S curve was put in speed fell to 24 mph and on Nov 16th traffic was going 13 mph. Gueziec, talking about the study. Drivers, commenting on the speeds on the Bay Bridge. John Goodwin, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, commenting on the study, says people will get used to the slower speeds. Joe Vazquez reporting.”

Yesterday, we were contacted by Joe Vazquez, a KPIX/CBS 5 reporter seeking some data on a potential slowdown on the West Bound lanes of the SF Bay Bridge in the recent days/weeks. Using some of the analytic capabilities of the BeatTheTraffic.com system, we were happy to help the best we could.

Here is the content of our message to Joe:

“For the Bay Bridge Westbound, from the Cantilever Section through Treasure Island Rd, (so this would include the new S curve section) I have some average speed of traffic data from the Beat the Traffic(R) system (note that we have multiple sources but in this area it is mostly from the 511 system)

For comparison purposes, I have graphed the same day of week:

• Monday August 3
• Monday August 31
• Monday September 14
• Monday October 12 (Columbus Day)
• Monday November 16

The data indicates that the average speed of Morning commute is getting increasingly worse, except for Monday October 12 of course, which was Columbus day and a special case.

Morning commutes drop from 39 mph or so on August 3 to:
- Monday August 31: 29 mph (this also corresponds to back to school increase in traffic)
- Monday Sept 12: 24 mph
- Monday Nov 16: 13 mph.

So it seems your intuition might be correct and there is a downward trend of travel speeds on the Bay Bridge in that section, which affects the entire travel time.

I am not aware there were adverse weather conditions on either day that could explain slowdowns,
but perhaps this should be checked. Tuesday October 13 was a very bad storm, but that is another story”

See the graphs below:

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Since we started Beat the Traffic®, we keep striving to improve the efficiency and automation of our system for managing traffic information. We do our best to provide reliable, complete, timely, and concisely stated traffic information.

In July 2009, our efforts were rewarded with the U.S. patent #7,557,730!

We’ve introduced the following innovations:

We merge traffic data from several trusted sources:
We collect data on a 24/7 uninterrupted basis. Our Beat the Traffic system operates to merge data from numerous trusted sources of up-to-the-minute information. For instance, incident data from a state police dispatch system may be merged and augmented with highway monitoring speed sensor data produced by a department of transportation.

We automatically collect, correct, merge, and publish information about traffic, weather, public events and other information
Our data processor analyzes the traffic data, determines whether the fed data is new or not, assigns a beginning and end time for each record of fed data, determines whether the data is active and assigns an importance or severity level to the data. We gradually remove all outdated information. As soon as available, the information is processed and published with very short delays.

We offer a personalized service
Our MyTraffic service lets you personalize the information for your travel routes and trip schedules and get alerted of delays and incidents. You can also obtain a traffic forecast.

All the details about this patent can be found on the www.uspto.gov website. Click here more more details.

We just received a new U.S. patent # 7,610,145 in October 2009 focusing on our alerts and forecasts solutions.

Beat the Traffic determines the optimal travel route and recommends departure time based on, among other things, destination, and arrival time and changing traffic conditions.

You can input a starting location, a destination, a desired arrival time and other optional attributes such as maximum desired speed and vehicle type. Using a database of predictive road speeds and a routing engine, the Beat the Traffic system determines your optimal route and recommends a departure time for your pre-selected arrival time.

You can also choose how you would like to be alerted (e-mail, SMS, telephone, instant message or other). We will then send you the information through your desired device.

Starting prior to your departure, as well as after you departed, we keep evaluating the suggested route, and we alert you when there is a significant change in the recommended route or forecast.

The availability of such information can significantly reduce your trip time, thereby resulting in increased on-time arrival and an overall reduction of stress!

All the details about this patent can be found on the www.uspto.gov website. Click here to have more details.

In this recent Blog Post on Engadget.com Darren Murph explains
how Katherine Whaley, KHOU’s traffic reporter uses a Wiimote to control the Beat the Traffic graphical system she uses to illustrate her reports.
See another link on the topic KHOU 11 makes Net news for Wii traffic remote.

In a recent post we explained how our technology to control the display using a Wiimote was introduced at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in April 2009.