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December 16, 2004

Searching For...Gridlock?

Thought you all might think this as cool as we did (and very useful for us commuters). Yahoo! Maps now includes real-time traffic, construction & accident reports, and even speed/congestion information which can then be overlaid onto your map or driving directions. When you pull up a map or driving directions, click on the module on the right to activate traffic info. For example, San Francisco traffic:

traffic.gif

Coverage is in 70 top metro areas right now. The data comes from many sources including government agencies responsible for traffic info collection in those cities and it works much the same way that SmartView does.

Play around with it and let us know what you think!

Jeremy Kreitler
Product Manager
Yahoo! Local

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Comments

love it!

works liks a charm. nice work hooligans

Posted by: dave | December 16, 2004 07:18 PM

It's nice, but it would be better if I could plug in an origin and a destination and not have the accompanying directions. I know how to get where I'm going in this case, I just want to see how the traffic is between points A and B. Also, my A and B are Sunnyvale and Sacramento. So the tiny direction map makes it hard to make out the traffic details.

Posted by: Ryan | December 16, 2004 10:46 PM

Any plans on factoring the traffic conditions into the estimated travel time for directions?

Posted by: charlie | December 20, 2004 12:45 PM

I mentioned a couple of issues and possibly small steps to solutions (leave the real thinking to you) in a blogpost: http://www.nathanslaughter.com/yahoo_real-time_traffic

SUMMARY
Issues...
1) Firefox navigation arrow control gets lost once the traffic data loads.
2) Scheduled construction reports often say they're accident reports.
Opinion...
I like it. I'll either name my first born Traffic or Yahoo depending on whether it's a boy or a girl. Good job!

Posted by: Nathan Slaughter | December 20, 2004 11:33 PM

It would be good it you could set the default on/off to include the traffic report with you direction search.

Also, I think the site would benefit for a link to Yahoo! alert service for change in traffic conditions.

Lastly, it would be good to incorporate this service on the Yahoo! mobile offering as well.

Posted by: Dave Golden | December 21, 2004 08:59 AM

*Very* nicely done. Useful, time-saving stuff.

Thanks.

Posted by: DianeV | December 22, 2004 02:21 AM

well done!
waiting for china's

Posted by: Brad | December 22, 2004 06:13 AM

Where is the SMS alert?

Posted by: Dimitar Vesselinov | January 3, 2005 05:51 AM

How about expanding outside the U.S./Canada (hint: Tel Aviv, Israel would be great)?

Posted by: avi | January 6, 2005 05:07 AM

FEATURE REQUEST

Could you replace the little dots and triangles with directional arrows so we can get a visual indicator of the direction of the problem.

Posted by: sk | January 11, 2005 12:48 AM

how about blank intersection grid maps available for download used in reconstructing motor vehicle accidents. the insurance companies would love you if they don't already have such capability

Posted by: jack | April 11, 2005 12:20 PM