Finding new ways to avoid those nasty traffic jams

If you're tired of depending on traffic reports on the radio to help you get to work on time, a better solution may be around the corner. In an effort to obtain greater volumes of real-time data, some companies are looking for ways to track mobile phones as they move along area highways. This would provide an accurate picture of where congestion is occurring at any given time. The challenge is how to share this information with the people on the road.

Now a company in California has come out with another interesting solution. Dash Navigation is selling two-way GPS devices for drivers. Essentially, this system sends out signals to other GPS devices. These, in turn, send signals back to the originating unit. This creates a constantly updating data network for drivers. So someone travelling on a highway can find out what type of traffic flow drivers ahead of one's position have just experienced and get an accurate picture of the conditions at any time.

These new systems are just coming on the market in the States. To get a better idea, you can read this story in the Washington Post.

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Thanks to Evangelos Vlasopoulos for making his photograph of traffic available on the stock.xchng.