Traffic Cams

Most of us have more useful information at our fingertips than we could ever make use of. It isn't gathering information that is difficult nowadays. With the Internet, there are live weather reports, traffic cams, continuous stock reports, global news channels, and anything else you might want. The difficulty is separating the wheat from the chaff and finding ways to use the information efficiently.

In my opinion, traffic cams are one of the most undervalued resources out there. Many people don't even know that most of the traffic cameras on major intersections are actually wired to the Web. That means that, depending on the city you live in, you may be able to check literally thousands of intersections to determine how the traffic is before you set out on your day's journey. Everyone believes his time is valuable, so knowing how to use the traffic cam efficiently can help you to save a particularly valued resource.

The first key is to research traffic cams. A lot of news channels use traffic cameras for their reports. If you live in an area and know it well, you should be able to recognize what traffic cam is being used. Sometimes these are proprietary news cameras, but as often as not they are actually traffic cams that are accessible by the general public. You may not be able to get high frame rate webcasts of the traffic camera, but you should be able to at least see some information.

After that, you should look for some additional traffic cams in particularly useful locations for you. Don't do this by just googling words names of streets blindly. Pay attention, and save yourself some time. When you are out driving, look for traffic cameras. They are rarely well hidden, and usually pretty easy to spot. Note the intersection and then see if you can find a live web stream of the traffic cam. Web cams are usually pretty easy to find, so you shouldn't have much problems.

Google Earth is an invaluable resource for locating traffic cams. Many city maps often have the locations of traffic cameras linked to the program and well labeled for your convenience. Pay attention to main thoroughfares. They are two or three times more likely to have traffic cameras posted online than smaller, less important roads. Nonetheless, sometimes the smaller intersections are as helpful as the larger ones for planning your route. They can help you see which low traffic routes might have not been exploited so far and plan your drive accordingly