Technology: In Traffic? Next Time, Use an App

The average commuter in the United States spent 34 hours fuming in traffic in 2010, according to the 2011 Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. And traffic congestion isn’t just irritating, it’s costly. The report estimates that in 2010 gridlock wasted 1.9 billion gallons of fuel and, coupled with the associated loss in worker productivity, ended up costing $100 billion.

Avoiding traffic tie-ups is a particularly vexing problem because there is no single source of live traffic information. Municipalities may have cameras at major intersections and old loop sensors buried in a handful of roads, but lack information about secondary streets. Accident reports help to identify bottlenecks, but by the time the information is reported it’s too late for hundreds of drivers already stranded by a fender bender.

The ideal solution would be to gather live information on the speed and location of most vehicles on the road, and then to transmit the relevant traffic conditions to drivers so that they can avoid problems ahead. A sampling of three services suggests that this is finally starting to happen with improved accuracy, thanks to the growing popularity of in-car telematics and — perhaps more important — the pervasive use of smartphones.

The basic idea is to gather information from drivers on the road through in-dash or smartphone GPS and cellular connections. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. To receive traffic alerts, drivers allow the services to collect anonymous information on their own speed and location.

Inrix, for example, offers a welter of data on its free Traffic smartphone app. In the past, the company has aggregated traffic information from a wide variety of sources — including local transportation departments, emergency first-responders, construction reports and commercial fleet operators — and then analyzed the data in real time to deliver live traffic information.

Inrix’s smartphone app adds more information by tapping app users. On the screen, one will see color-coded roads — green if the traffic is flowing well, red if the going is slow — as well as orange and white cones marking construction sites and exclamation marks for accidents. A premium $24.99 edition of the software for the iPhone adds unlimited routes and icons for traffic cameras. Tap on the camera graphic, and you’ll see a snapshot of vehicles at that location.

The traffic-obsessed traveler can use the app to see whether, if the trip were shifted several hours later, the traffic is predicted to be lighter. A-type personalities can send a message noting the estimated arrival time to a friend or co-worker waiting at the destination.

Inrix is also hoping that a traffic community, of sorts, will develop. So app users are encouraged to help improve the traffic flow by confirming an obstruction or noting that one has been cleared.

Inrix’s software is focused solely on traffic. You can plot a route and it will tell the estimated travel time, but it doesn’t provide turn-by-turn directions or automatically reroute you in the event of a major tie-up ahead. This downside became painfully clear when I failed to notice a traffic alert and ended up stuck on Interstate 95 in Connecticut for an hour and 20 minutes waiting for an accident to be cleared. (Alerts are refreshed on the phone every three minutes.)

While parked in line with scores of fellow motorists, I tried another free app called Waze. Unlike Inrix, Waze relies primarily on the location and speed information culled from users of its app to determine traffic conditions. It also offers turn-by-turn navigation.

Its real strength, though, is that it shows the location of other Waze drivers on the screen as moving manga-style icons. This is more than a novelty. While sitting in the I-95 backup, I could see whether drivers ahead were picking up speed (indicating that the congestion was clearing) or getting off the highway in search of quicker routes.