Traffic Reports – are they useful?

I think it is useful if you haven't left home yet, and they are speaking about a truly major delay, such as a semi rolling over and spilling its load. But for most accidents, it's my experience that they don't get the info out until it doesn't matter any longer. I was rear-ended early in the rush hour once, and went through the entire rigamarole with exchaning insurance information, waiting for the cop, telling my side of the story, getting the accident report, etc. When i got back on the road, as i was merging into traffic on the Interstate, the radio reported that there had been an accident at blah-blah, etc.--and i realized they were referring the incident in which i had been involved, and which was now completely cleared up. The tow-truck had even hauled off the other vehicle (my van was barely scraped, her little rice-burner was totalled). I think they can be useful for road repair reports or major accidents, otherwise, they just serve to make the radio station look like its on top of everything.

i think realtime internet traffic maps are more useful. for instance, look at this one for my area:

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist11/d11tmc/sdmap/sdmap/sdmap_arc.html

the problem is, most of the time it shows what i already know, that traffic's backed up for virtually my entire commute. besides, it makes a big difference to me whether traffic is moving at 1mph or 35mph.

Traffic is just insane, even in cities with public transit. I used to leave the house at 5:30 to drive to one job i had, because i wanted to avoid the traffic. I would arrive at a diner which opened at six, and then after eating my breakfast, i would drive the roughly mile and a half to my job. It frequently took longer to drive from the diner to the my shop than it did to drive the eight miles from home to the diner at dawn.

That would be useful if you had the internet in your car, unfortunately I do not. Since I usually drive in one direction, drop the kids off and then in another to go to work - the second leg of my morning is useless for any real time as this would be 20 minutes or so later. I know lots of little side roads to take if there is traffic, but I have to guess as these radio traffic reports are usually useless.

What a waste - they should just do away with it unless it is something that will tie traffic up for hours.

I live about 10 miles from work - and this is almost all highway. It takes me about 45 minutes during rush hour - longer if there are any delays - 30 minutes on a good day. If it wasn't rush hour 15 minutes. You are right it is crazy.

You know what else is crazy - when I drop off the kids during the school year I first drive 15 miles in the other direction to drop the toddler off and then drive another 10 miles to my older daughter's school and then drive another 15 to work. I leave the house about 7:00 to get to work at 9:00. At least now during the beginning of the summer I drop them off at the same place. And next month the older one will go to camp near my home since she get in until 8:00 - I will drop the toddler off in the opposite direction and then drive back toward my home drop the older one off and then to work.

I could really use a traffic report that was UP TO DATE and useful.

if you have alternate routes, Linkat, maybe the best you can do is assume the worst and use the alternates all the time. that's pretty much what i do. problem is, there are very few alternatives in my case, which is a main reason why the traffic's always so bad in the first place. the map i posted the link to does not show a large lake one freeway goes over. if you don't take the freeway across, you have to detour 8 or 10 miles, *and* those detours are usually congested as well. it's a real catch-22.

I do use the alternates if I see the traffic ahead seems particularly slow. However, the alternate routes are slower on a typical commuting day. The highway is the quickest and more direct routes even during rush hour. However, when there is some really heavy traffic or if there is a break down that causes traffic to back up then the alternate routes are quicker. Unfortunately as is stated here, the traffic reports tell you there is a problem, but by the time they do there is no longer a problem.

On the bright side - the summer is here so traffic is always lighter - I only have one drop off location (at least until toward the end of this month) so really not much of a worry until September again.

But I vote to do away with traffic reports!

won't you miss all that banter between the morning show crew & captain video in skychopper one?

They have large overhead displays over the expressways in Toronto, which can provide useful information of this type, especially as they have cameras all over the expressways. The major east-west expressway running along the north side of the city is the 401, and they have collector lanes and express lanes. The express lanes are the four inside lanes (four in each direction), and the collectors are three lanes outside the express lanes which lead to the exits. The overhead displays might read something like: "Express lanes moving slow to Jarvis, collectors moving well to Eglington." That is useful information, and by comparison to what you hear on the radio, they stay on top of the situation.

I've seen overhead displays like that in Detroit on I-75, but all i ever saw on those were things like: "Your speed is _____." or "Drinking and driving don't mix." Kind of a waste of the money, if you ask me.

that's neat, Set. i had heard a few years back, that in europe, you can see the current traffic situation on a navigation display. now that would be super slick. maybe a European member can confirm this.

while we're discussing traffic woes, anybody ever experience frustration looking for a parking spot in a large structure? i've often tried to think of a technology that would tell you which way to go for an open spot, instead of driving around blindly, but couldn't come up with one.

We've got something similar, even with prdictions about how the traffic will be in 30 ,ins and one hour: Traffic system autobahn NRW

THAT is really useful!

Setanta - recently we had similar displays put up. Again these are sometimes helpful when there are larger issues like a break down or accident. But if there is just a lot of heavy traffic there is no report - often times too if there is an accident or break down it is not on these displays.

Yitwail - I actually have seen such a technology device on the news - it is in process I don't think it has been implemented yet. Will have to let you know if I can find it any where.

walter, that's cool, but how accurate are the predictions? and what is "viscous" traffic, anyway? i see it's between dense & congested.

I know a lot of car parks where you are led to the next free row or (in older ones) just to the strey with free places.

In our town, you only can see on noteboards - though all over the town -how many places are fre at what car park.

i've never seen one like that here, unless you're talking about an attendant who waves you in the direction where there's supposedly space. back to your map, i really like the overview, where you just move the mouse, and there's a box in the lower-right that magnifies the area near the cursor--nice software.

Accuate? Well, mostly between 90 and 95% for one hour prediction, mostly better ... and really so good as the figures say. (Well, if there's an accident, of course not)

Viscous traffic = stop-and-go

Here it is the Advanced Parking system. Advanced Parking Systems obtain information about available parking spaces, process it and then present it to drivers by means of variable message signs (VMS). APS is used in two ways: to guide drivers in congested areas to the nearest parking facility with empty parking spaces and to guide drivers within parking facilities to empty spaces.

http://www.calccit.org/itsdecision/serv_and_tech/Parking_Systems_Technologies/parkrep_print.htm

And it is also called ParkingCarma.
http://www.parkingcarma.com/how.aspx

And even better - one that finds empty parking spaces on the street.
Simply use your cell phone you can find the nearest empty space - I doubt there is any guaranttee though that it is empty when you get there.
http://www.rfidjournal.com/magazine/article/2252

I think traffic reports ( on the radio ) do serve a useful purpose, when presented at appropriate times. However, I fail to understand why a detailed report at 3 am is of much use to anyone, except to perhaps Police.

Are the roadways, in any major city, congested at 3 am?

fascinating linkat, just as well i didn't spend any time trying to invent a parking guidance system. the system for street parking doesn't seem too practical for the reason you mentioned. i suppose it could warn you that a space has been taken before you actually drove up to it, but if you're already nearby, that's not saving you much time. for parking structures, a simple alternative would be the option to reserve a space ahead of time online or by phone. even so, if everyone got there at the last minute, you'd have a long delay.