National News: Traffic alerts on your phone – Highways Agency tunes into latest technology
Traffic alerts on your phone
Travel on England's motorways and strategic trunk roads is being made even easier thanks to new software that can be downloaded to a mobile phone.
A free iPhone app provides constant live updates from the Highways Agency's National Traffic Control Centre - helping road users plan their journeys and avoid congestion hotspots.
It pinpoints the user's current location, gives a breakdown of any planned roadworks, displays live traffic updates and tunes in to the Highways Agency's own radio station which broadcasts round the clock from the National Traffic Control Centre.
Simon Sheldon-Wilson, Highways Agency director of traffic management, said:
“This new iPhone app is the latest in our range of free journey planning tools. It homes in on the user's current location to give the latest traffic news, and provides constant updates about incidents on the network.
"This sort of project is a key part of our information strategy aimed at getting traffic information out to road users where and when they need it, allowing road users to plan their journeys better, helping reduce congestion and lower emissions.
“Last year we also launched a mobile version of the Agency website, which is proving to be one of the most popular ways of accessing our live traffic data. We are clear you should never use a mobile phone while driving, but we also encourage drivers to take frequent breaks and that is an ideal time to check the road ahead"
Other services fed by the live data from the National Traffic Control Centre include
* overhead variable message signs on motorways;
* telephone information services;
* Traffic Radio on DAB digital radio and the internet;
* travel bulletins on nearly all local and national radio stations;
* Google maps; and
* more than 300 different websites run by various media organisations.
The Highways Agency website itself shows where England's motorways and major A roads are flowing freely, including incident reports, traffic speeds and the view from CCTV cameras. There are also options for people to download widgets, a desktop ticker and RSS feeds.
Posted Monday February 15th 2010
By Highways Agency