GPS technology gets to the ‘route’ of the problem

Last year I wrote about how GPS systems can be beneficial but suggested that the missing link was in overlaying real time traffic information. For example, it was good to know that you needed to follow roads X, Y and Z to get where you’re going but not if those roads were historically jammed by rush hour traffic from 4 to 7 p.m.

Things are changing.

Several of the higher end GPS units available for in-dash mounting and some of the portable ones as well are taking some of the road sensor information and making recommendations for quicker routes based on the amount of or the lack of congestion. Google Maps will now factor in traffic when calculating drive times. This service is only available in a few cities (not including Baltimore) but will roll out over the course of the year into more areas. Knowing how long the trip will take at a specific time of day could be just as valuable as knowing which route to take in the first place.

Sensors a sensitive subject

Speaking of road sensors and technology, there is another city not happy with the federal funding of a monopoly traffic service. Traffic.com has received tens of millions of dollars in federal funding and has turned that into a service for which it charges not just the general public but also city departments of transportation such as the one in Atlanta. The Georgia DOT has discovered that the federally funded service is only providing a small portion of what it provides to the paying public as part of the state's traffic information program.

Using federal funds, Traffic.com installed sensors in the roadways. At first, Georgia officials thought it was a good idea until, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, they read the fine print and discovered that the state would have to bargain (read: pay for) the right to use anything more than the most basic of information. Essentially, the state would have to pay a private company for the right to use information funded by the federal government.

Several other states are only learning of this because of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Sunlight Foundation, a group that seeks to make government documents more accessible to the public. Traffic.com was given a monopoly on federal funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation thanks to the efforts of a few Pennsylvania politicians on Capitol Hill.

No surprise but Traffic.com is based outside of Philadelphia.