For a couple of years we have been able to see traffic info and even webcams for Aucklands motorways care of the NZTA. The system is also tied into the message boards at motorway onramps to give indications as to travel times to certain destinations, the main routes to/from the airport were also added last year just before the RWC.
Now Google has gone a step further and launched their traffic layer a few weeks ago which overlays live traffic data on to the map and as you can see it has a lot more coverage. I’m not sure exactly where all of the information is coming from but I suspect it is from a variety of sources but regardless it is incredibly useful. It even lets you change the day and time of the data to an idea of what things look like at a certain times which is based off historical data, their aren’t as many routes shown you do select that but it is probably just a case of building up more data.
It would be great to if could publicly get real time information for our PT network the same way, even better would be to be able to compare the two bits of information when people want directions and to show people the fastest way of getting from A to B. Perhaps something for the smartphone app developers out there to do and also something I think routes like the Busway would do very well on:
Northern Motorway at 8am on a weekday
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The data comes from people who own smartphones and use Google services such as Google Maps, Navigation, Latitude and Traffic widgets. These products send current location of the user to Google periodically and if a motion is detected, and fits within Google’s algorithms to make sure it’s usable, then it gets collated and displayed. I saw me driving using google maps, on a road with no traffic information, and within a few minutes, the path I just travelled got “lit up” with the traffic info. I’m sure they’re using very clever algorithms to work out what the actual traffic is, as someone traveling on a bus on the Northern Busway during peak, could easily stuff up the traffic information… but that’s where the algorithms come into play…
Having similar layer for Public Transport would be fantastic, but the only way I can possibly think of achieving is, if Auckland Transport would share the real-time-information in a more transparent form, than the current “real time departure information” on the bus signs and on the net. Theoretically it could be scraped off that information, but it would not be very reliable (especially that AT still don’t tell us if the info shown is “actual from GPS” or “scheduled”)…
“The data comes from people who own smartphones and use Google services such as Google Maps, Navigation, Latitude and Traffic widgets.”
Are you sure? This is an NZTA web site and they mention that “we” update the maps. There is no Google branding, except as the source of the maps. I would assume that the traffic volumes are coming from the motorway operations center. Presumably NZTA already had some sort of technology for monitoring and measuring traffic flows and detecting blockages, and all they’ve done is put the information on the web.
For the motorways the NZTA site uses their own data via sensors embedded in the road surface, their site is is also linked into the system that controls the message boards so you can actually see what they are saying by clicking on the sign. The google traffic layer most likely incorporates this data along with other sources to give a larger view of the city (it also works outside of Auckland).
Yes, I’m sure. These maps are what this post is about: http://g.co/maps/52uzz (otherwise accessible via maps.google.com add layer “traffic”, or use your smartphone). You are, however, probably referring to: http://traffic.transit.govt.nz/ – which is what this post is not about. Transit, or ATOMs, they use google maps as their background only, but for the traffic data, they use overlays, which is updated by combination of sensors and manually by cameras. Google does not use Transit’s data. They describe here how they get the data: http://goo.gl/619ZK “How do we get this information? We anonymously combine speed and location information of GPS-enabled devices currently traveling on the road. This, combined with historic traffic data, helps us determine the traffic time estimate. IF you’d like to help make our estimates better through crowdsourcing and have a GPS-enabled phone, try using Google Maps for mobile the next time you’re in traffic.”
Having a quick play around highlights something I had suspected for a while – that reports of Auckland’s traffic being terribly are completely overblown. Even at peak hour most of the motorway network is green, even supposed bottlenecks like the Harbour Bridge.
It just further raises questions about why we’re spending such huge amounts of money on building more motorways when actually congestion isn’t too bad.
Yes Peter, and there are problems but they are on our local roads, you can see it in the top map above. And the big problem is that every increase in in capacity on the urban SH system generates increases in sudden dumps and bottlenecks in the surrounding street structure. This is the problem with our imbalanced system. For example expanding road capacity across the harbour would help SH1 flow better most of the time [although put yet more pressure on the next tight points] but will be an absolute disaster for all the roads around the on/off ramps and in the city itself lead to appalling logjams and loss of street quality.
And it is this way because NZTA is well funded and mandated not really as a transport agency but simply as a highway builder and widener. It has almost only one answer to any question: expand the highway space. This does really need to change. Because as an answer to the question ‘how can we best enable more people to cross the harbour, or cross town, or enter the city?’ Building more motorway capacity is increasingly not the best or the most cost effective answer.
This is great stuff. I think it depends on how they define Green or Red. The NZTA site shows red/black all the time during the peaks.
Exactly Ari. And if congestion is your best argument to keep doing what you do with billions of our dollars then isn’t it likely that you will have lots of little toys to show how much of it there is all the time? Funny really, because doesn’t it really just show that 60 years of urban motorway building hasn’t worked, can’t work, on these terms?
So properly understood; NZTA is in the congestion business not the movement business. It’s their main product, and yet, strangely, their main argument to keep doing what they do. Catch 22.
Of course they’re just highway engineers, it’s the MoT that is supposed to be able to deal with the slightly more mentally taxing issues of strategy…..? No? Government then…? Oh I see…..
The colours for speeds are explained here: http://goo.gl/tm5H5 – note that only applies to “highways”:
Green: 80 kilometers per hour
Yellow: 40 – 80 kilometers per hour
Red: less than 40 kilometers per hour
Red/Black: very slow, stop-and-go traffic
Gray: no data currently available
What I was raising was that google maps and NZTA congestion displays are not comparing apples with apples with each using different numbers on congestion. I would rely on the NZTA motorway loops compared to GPS data which is more difficult to datamine and with probably a lot fewer data points to extrapolate from. Google traffic data may cover a larger area,but until there is greater uptake of smart phones and with people using google navigation, I don’t think it can provide consistent and accurate information. The real time travel signs get their data from the motorway loops and provide reasonably accurate travel time information. I know that at peak times, large parts of the motorway are red/black, so I think they are accurately portraying congestion. But even if you had it red and black all day, that doesnt mean we should be building more motorways. It is a reporting tool, not a tool to base policy on.
How does it get data for Broadway, Newmarket??? Would really be interesting to see what sources they use.
Take a look at this: http://googleblog.blogspot.co.nz/2009/08/bright-side-of-sitting-in-traffic.html
It seems stranded on the north shore (first comment) has it right, that Google taps into the data of people using its Nav products on smartphones.
Do the smartphone developers need to get on it? Seems to be rather well done already.
I discovered this on Friday on the way to Coromandel in the Great Southern Parking lot.
Uncannily it picked the exact places where the traffic stops dead and clears up again.
A HUD version of this (or on existing GPS viewer screens) would almost be a safety feature too.
But mostly an answer to the question “Should we leave early or late, when is everyone else going?”
Great feature! Heads up to Google or NZTA or whoever’s making it work.
In Houston they read the last three digits of toll tags at major intersections to give comprehensive real time info, one unintended benefit of tolling!
Given the level of detail I can’t imagine that the data is just from smart phone users running Maps. It matches well with the data from the AA website so I suspect they get a feed from there using the data from the live updating GPS devices from Navman etc.