Mobile Phone Reviews
 
 
Watch motorway traffic jam clips on your mobile phones

Thu, 12 Jan 2006

Drivers will be able to download video footage from Highways Agency CCTV cameras onto their mobile phones as part of a 12-month trial on some of the busiest roads in the country, including the M60, M61 and M6 in and around Greater Manchester.

The footage was previously only available to road contractors, the police and emergency services.

The system has been launched by the Highways Agency in a bid to cut tailbacks on the badly congested motorway network.

Drivers can now avoid traffic jams by having pictures of busy roads sent to their mobile phones.

The service is expected to prove especially useful during the Christmas period, at the start of school terms, on football match days and concert nights in Manchester. Drivers who sign up to the scheme can tell what the roads will be like before they leave the house and can plan their journeys to avoid traffic hotspots.

Images take three seconds to download and update every five seconds.

The trial starts with 100 cameras on the M25, M1, M6, M4, M5, M40, M42, M54, M60, A1M, M61 and will extend to the full Highways Agency CCTV network by the end of the year and could be used on ordinary roads if it proves a hit with motorists. The technology is already is use in 14 American cities, including New York, San Francisco and Dallas.

Drivers who register for the British service pay nothing for the first 14 days, then £4 a month or £1 a day if they wish to continue after that. The cost of transferring the information to a mobile phone is about 1p a second.

A Highways Agency spokeswoman said, "We're carrying out this 12-month trial to see if we can help our road-users plan their journeys and avoid any delays on the network.

"You'll be able to check real-time traffic conditions on the busiest parts of our network from the convenience of your handset and time your journeys to cut out the worst of the traffic.

"At this stage it's difficult to gauge how much it will cut congestion, but if lots of motorists sign up for the service, we'll have lots of motorists staying off the country's busiest roads at the busiest times, improving traffic conditions."

The Highways Agency has developed the service with MX Data - a firm that provides map-based traffic and travel information to mobile phone companies. It is compatible with more than 100 handsets and networks O2, Orange, Vodafone and T Mobile.
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