Beat the Traffic Blog

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 We gradually remove all outdated information.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.

Here is what a user wrote to us over the 4th of July weekend:

“When we were stopped in traffic Friday, July 3rd at I-5 near the Westley rest area, I checked NBC Bay Area, KCRA, sigalert.com and the CHP site and couldn’t find any information as of 10:30 a.m. When I googled “best traffic site in northern california” your site popped up and HAD THE INFO on the accident that had happened an hour earlier. You beat everyone else. Thank you and great job!”

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We’ve added great new features for your mobile phone. Check out the brand new version of our WAP site:

• Now you can zoom in and out to get a better view of the location you want. Easily change maps views using the navigation buttons.
• Cameras images and maps load faster, as image sizes are specifically adapted to your mobile device.
• You may access our new WAP website from any web-enabled mobile phone.

Give it a try !

If you already surfed on our mobile site, you will see these changes next time you connect your device to www.BeatTheTraffic.mobi.

Otherwise, try it now! Type www.BeatTheTraffic.mobi on your mobile web browser and you will be redirected to the mobile menu of Beat the Traffic® .
By selecting a city, you will be able to access the map you want, travel times for the most common routes, a listing of relevant incidents, as well as live camera snapshots in selected markets.

Do you want Beat the Traffic® to remember your personal routes?

From your PC, create your personal routes. Then, you will have one click access to instant travel times on your personalized routes. Just login to MyTraffic from your mobile phone or PC.

You may also create alerts, so that Beat the Traffic® will send you a text message to alert you of incidents and delays.

The mobile version of BeatTheTraffic.com www.beatthetraffic.mobi was recently featured on the http://www.berryreview.com/ website!

The reviewer mentions that it is “nice and clean”, “gives free access to a wealth of information”, and offers Maps, Routes, Incidents and Traffic Cameras, all for free.

Please follow this link for the original post. http://www.berryreview.com/2008/10/13/beatthetrafficmobi-traffic-cameras-maps-incidents-more/

Another nice feature is the capability to access your “MyTraffic” profile that you can create on the full featured version of the website.

Our Beat the Traffic team is glad to announce the launch of a new Triangle Software corporate website.

Amongst the new features you’ll find a new product page as well as a new video page where you can watch TV airchecks from Beat the Traffic’s clients and 3D map demos of Beat the Traffic’s technology.

Have a look and give us some feedback!

Introducing our latest improvement to BeatTheTraffic.com: Dopplar radar map overlay! Now, not only do we have current weather temperatures and conditions as well as seven day weather forecasts, we also have Dopplar radar imagery that can be viewed as another layer directly over the traffic maps. This allows you to correlate traffic information to weather information.

For example, say you wanted to drive to your parents house for Christmas dinner, but you notice on BeatTheTraffic.com yellow and red along the freeway you are planning to take. Is this just normal Christmas traffic or is bad weather playing a role? You turn on our weather radar layer and you see red indicating heavy rain. Now you know that the other freeway with less rainfall will probably be the faster route. This tool can also prove valuable to tentative drivers who might want to wait safe at home until the weather conditions clear up. At the very least, the radar imaging can help you decide to put the top up on your convertible or to bring an umbrella to work.

So how do you use and access this great tool? For now, you can access the radar overlay by zooming out on the map as far as you can and the layer and legend (right) will appear. We plan to add a layer check box (at the top, along with accidents, roadwork, cameras, and weather) once the radar tool is completely ironed out. The legend has been made for easy interpretation, indicating the approximate level of rainfall.

So drive safely and we hope you enjoy this new feature providing you even more traveling information.

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!