Report on Traffic
January 5, 2010
Local Resolutions Part 3 of 29
This is the third in a series of 29 ways to help your local community online in 2010. If you missed it, you may wish to read the introductory post.
In this post, I suggest that telling others about traffic backups to avoid is a great way to help others from your cell phone or mobile device. I have already written about inventing new awards and responding to questions in Yahoo Answers.
Tell others when traffic is bad
Today’s suggestion for using the power of the Internet to help your community is simply to provide major traffic updates from your cell phone when you have the occasion.
For the smartphone-impaired (a group that included me until just last week), this is one way you can help others in a digital way even when you’re away from your computer.
The easiest way to share traffic updates is through Twitter. If you get stuck in traffic, tweet to let others know to avoid the route. It’s OK to text while driving if you’re in your traffic jam, right?
Make remote tweeting easy on yourself
I don’t receive any twitter updates on my phone, but I’ve still enabled remote updating of my Twitter account via my cell phone. It’s easy to do. Log in to Twitter.com, go to settings, and follow the instructions under “mobile.”
Of course, if you have an iPhone, Droid, BlackBerry, or other smartphone, there is, as they say, an app for that.
(If you’re new to Twitter and are looking for people to connect with in the Lancaster area, I have a list of local active Twitter users.)
Even better, you can use a service like TwitterFone or Jott to post new updates to Twitter. You speak your message into your phone, those services turn it into text and tweet it for you. That makes it easier if you’re behind the wheel.
I have benefited several times from people tweeting to “avoid Prince St. in Lancaster” or “Rohrerstown exit backed up on 30.” I know others have benefited from my similar messages.
People like us tend to listen to podcasts more than Traffax, and to follow Twitter updates more than traffic updates. Sure, Twitter isn’t the most efficient system for spreading traffic information. But it sure is a great way to get that information—with speed and reliability—to people who don’t listen to traffic reports but do listen to you.
Photo by Flickr user N-O-M-A-D
3 comments
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Daniel Klotz, Daniel Klotz. Daniel Klotz said: Local resolution idea No. 3: Use your cool gadgetry to warn others about bad traffic http://wp.me/pGql1-h0 [...]
by Tweets that mention Report on Traffic from Your Phone | Daniel Klotz Lancaster Blog -- Topsy.com on January 5, 2010 at 5:45 pm. #
This morning’s pileup on Rt30 is an excellent example!
by Paul Stoltzfus on January 6, 2010 at 9:47 am. #
You’re right, the timing of this post with the Route 30 backups this morning was uncanny.
Unfortunately, it seems that even though many people were warned, even the alternate routes were in bad shape. At least the tweeted warnings encouraged those who were able to stay home.
by Daniel Klotz on January 6, 2010 at 5:18 pm. #