Los Angeles Traffic Cam brings live gridlocks to your cellphone

We have all ideas (okay, so we know it for a fact) that the Los Angeles Traffic Cam was designed for those living in LA, but we can't help but imagine how drivers in less congested cities could use this to make their own daily commute not seem so bad. NBC4 and 3rd Dimension have teamed up to beam out live video and nearly live still shots from some 270 LA-area traffic cameras to those with compatible mobiles, and being that it's ad-supported, the whole thing is completely free to end users. Of course, for all you know, they could just loop a clip of gridlocked traffic during rush hour and call it reality. Sadly, said idea would almost work.

[wazzupalex @ Jun 24th 2008 8:42PM]

This is nothing new! In fact, live traffic cams were one of the first uses of the web going back to 1995. And there is nothing at all original about making any web content accessible on a phone. Now, a system that would intelligently divide diverted traffic between several alternative routes WOULD be useful - and no fancy video would be required, just some basic sat nav commands. No serious bandwidth required!

[itsnotabigtruck @ Jun 24th 2008 9:56PM]

Yeah, this is nothing new. They've had something like this in Portland for a long time (though the traffic jams are much less severe :p )

http://www.tripcheck.com/Pages/CamerasPortland.asp

[Echo1 @ Jun 25th 2008 3:41PM]

In my spare time, I was thinking on how to minimize delays on streets by argumentation of vehicle mass and speed at cross roads by using transponders in the vehicles. Reckon that a system like this might work on a highway setting, by using the transponders to broadcast average speed to one another, and alert motorist of lower than average speed miles before the backup?

[grull27 @ Jun 24th 2008 8:48PM]

That's useful, if you want to kill somebody.

[Flashpoint @ Jun 24th 2008 9:20PM]

Driver's shouldn't be watching ANYTHING while they are in gridlocked traffic

That's when rear impacts are probably at their highest.

I can't wait for the future when car's have low speed adaptivee cruise control that stops the car at 1 meter from the next car.
I have that on my S550 but regular consumer cars don't have it. Slowly it is becoming an option on all luxury cars.

[zann243 @ Jun 24th 2008 8:51PM]

Yay! Ads and traffic jams! My two favorite things to use up my data plan with!

[Alex @ Jun 24th 2008 9:04PM]

Hmmm... Just downloaded the application. Camera coverage for the 10 and 405 freeways in the West LA/Culver City areas is completely lacking. Of course, I can probably guess what the traffic conditions are like in those regions right now without this app. Still kinda neat.

[pina @ Jun 24th 2008 9:23PM]

I hear you, the 405 near Culver City is a joke.

[Daniel @ Jun 24th 2008 9:19PM]

first, and i htough it was illegal to use your phone while driving so this seems like an instant failure to me.

[Peter @ Jun 24th 2008 9:25PM]

Wow, first you say that you're first, then you misspell "thought;" EPIC FAIL!

[tchapp @ Jun 24th 2008 9:33PM]

illegal to talk on the phone. still perfectly legal to text and browse the intrawebs

[MadMike @ Jun 24th 2008 9:39PM]

Peter, the comment system is royally fucked and only firefox has the built-in inline spell checker.

[MadMike @ Jun 24th 2008 9:34PM]

It's not that sad... I mean if that certain area is gridlocked when they show a gridlocked picture, I have no problem with that. Just as long as its accurate. Don't show a gridlocked picture when traffic is free flowing, or if its a 2 minute delay from some left-lane dicks who can't move right.

I try to use Traffic.com, but the coverages and accuracy in the Philadelphia, Philly suburbs and the NJ areas are abysmal. I've been in dead-stop traffic on the PA and NJ turnpikes when Traffic.com said that there was almost no traffic. It's not that its just slow, it was just plain wrong because I would check every couple of minutes.

I want to be able to plan my routes ahead of time. Say, at 4:00pm on a Friday I want to leave work and god down the shore. I want to check my various routes I have pre-planned and see what the traffic is now, and what the forecasted traffic is during the time I will be driving my route. Obviously forcasted traffic can't be 100% accurate, but it will at least give me an idea. Accidents do happen, and I would like to know about them without killing the battery in my Fire Dept. radio (I don't have a car charger for it, and those Motorola 800MHz radios don't get great battery life and the battery loses its stamina very quickly). That and NJ is still on analog radio. PA is all 800MHz digital. I need to have a separate scanner for the analog.

Oh well, this is for LA, meaning it will take 5+ years for it to reach the east coast and even then, I doubt it. NJ and PA relish in being in the stone-age of technology.

[MadMike @ Jun 24th 2008 9:40PM]

DUDE, WTF is with the comments. I'm triple checking that my post didn't show before I repost and yet it still repeats! WTF, SERIOUSLY, WTF!

[A B L @ Jun 24th 2008 10:21PM]

@itsnotabigtruck : yes, webcams. But can you get Portland webcams *on your cellphone*? If so, how?

Pretty neat app, actually. And fast on my Samsung SPH A900.

[Redbeaver @ Jun 24th 2008 10:26PM]

@MadMike u fail


:P

but yeah, i can see this actually can b pretty useful, outside the fact alot of people will use it just for bragging rights and hence get themselves into some stupid accidents...

[dreampc @ Jun 24th 2008 11:15PM]

uh.... we've had that for years, here in Austin, Texas.... 2001 in fact.

mobile.kxan.com

[AJ in the East Bay @ Jun 25th 2008 12:23AM]

"Cingular" Blackberry. Engadget throwing it back!!! Props!!

[tblack @ Jun 25th 2008 12:32AM]

Been available in Houston for some time via our local CW channel...not really groundbreaking or engadget newsworthy

[Steffen Jobbs @ Jun 25th 2008 1:06AM]

Be better off using a nice bright 3.5 inch screen from the bitten fruit company instead of that tiny BB screen. That danged keyboard hogs too much real estate. Better still, just look out your car window to see if you're sitting in a traffic jam.

[Distortedloop @ Jun 25th 2008 12:33PM]

Too bad the iPhone's not on the list of compatible phones. Must be a flash based website.

I hated Flash before the iPhone, now I hate it even more, and I'm not too pleased with Jobso for refusing to allow it on the iPhone.

[Rob M @ Jun 25th 2008 6:52AM]

The service is produced in partnership with the local departments of transportation. In this case CalTrans and Metro Traffic. The cameras all run continuously and update in near-real time so the accuracy is very good.

This means it is a bit different than just a loop of traffic video (though I can see how that might work in LA too).

Full Disclosure: I am 3rd Dimension's PR guy

[h0rk @ Jun 25th 2008 9:20AM]

am i the only person that would errect some funny sign on the grass where the camera points?