TrafficLand.Com, Useful or Useless?

TrafficLand.Com. Have you heard of it? Me neither. So I thought I'd check out the site and see what it's all about. All in all I found it to be a very neat concept, and it has great potential, but only time will tell whether the concept takes off or not.

Established in September of 2001, TrafficLand.Com is a website that allows users to sign on and view traffic cameras for highways and roadways in their area. Wondering if there's a traffic jam on the route you usually take to work? Hop onto TrafficLand.Com and check to see. You get real time streaming video of the traffic conditions in your area. This can be very helpful to users because it may allow you to choose an alternate route if your normal route is backed up.

While TrafficLand.Com was originally designed to help travelers with real time traffic updates, it has since expanded and now offers a wide variety of services. This site appeals to government entities as well as private businesses, basically to anyone who is looking to utilize real time streaming video to monitor, well, anything really. Today TrafficLand.Com claims to be the largest provider of live traffic video both over the internet and on TV.

TrafficLand.Com is run via the sites unique Transportation Video Information Sharing Network™ (TVISN). This network currently consists of thousands of cameras from dozens of markets around the world. TrafficLand.Com was developed as a public-private partnership therefore the site works with local, state and federal government agencies as well as commercial enterprises to gain control of and maintain existing video networks.

Having these resources at hand allows TrafficLand.Com to fully benefit the driving public, first responders, Dot Com companies, media organizations, commercial enterprises and emergency management. Basically any entity, public or private, can benefit from the services this site provides.

TrafficLand.Com is a subscription service that provides live traffic access from both desktop computers and wireless handheld devices such as cell phones and PDA's. There are a few different levels of subscribers, non-subscribers can browse the site for free and can select to view live traffic patterns via thousands of public cameras worldwide. This free service gives users the ability to use interactive traffic maps that display where the available cameras are located. Simple point and click options allow viewers to see the life feed.

Subscribers, or paying customers, not only have access to the free services, they also are given the ability to utilize the 'favorites' tab in order to store multi-view displays of their most frequently traveled routes. This allows you to easily check your routes instantly before heading out the door.

While I do think that this site has a very interesting concept on its hands, I do see some potential faults with the site as well. First off, I can't really see government entities using this site only because I believe they already have access to the same live video feeds through these cameras. I also can't see police stations using these live feeds to catch speeders or traffic violators because this site streams these cameras for everyone to see. I believe that government entities would have their own live video department and people who analyze video strictly for government purposes.

I also noticed that they do not have cameras in every state yet, maybe they are still waiting for approval to utilize traffic cameras that are already in place. So while this site is good for some people, it is not yet good for all people. In addition, if I am paying for a service to show me where the traffic trouble spots are, isn't it logical that the other half of that service should be to provide an alternate route. It is one thing to be able to see that your normal route has heavy traffic, but what good does that do you if you don't know any other way to go?

I would suggest implementing a navigation system of sorts for subscribers so that they can view up-to-date traffic as well as get suggested alternate routes so that they are not sitting in a traffic jam. Other than that, I think this site has the potential to be very useful for individuals and businesses alike. Want to check out the traffic in your area? Visit TrafficLand.Com and see if they have live cameras in your area!

Sources:

TrafficLand.Com