Traffic application aims to drive down stress

Traffic is as American as apple pie-millions of commuters face challenges and choices every day as they search for the least stressful, most direct route to work. Indeed, morning and afternoon radio and television news programming is saturated with traffic reports aimed at giving commuters tips to avoid gridlock wherever possible.
3rd Dimension Inc. is now hoping to capture some of those drivers’ interest on its free Mobile Traffic Cam application that enables cellphone users to view real-time traffic via video on their screens.
“When you’re driving along on a highway and all of sudden everybody’s stopped in front of you . you want to know if it’s clogged for the next two exits or the next 10 exits,” said Bruce Laskin, executive VP and COO of 3rd Dimension.
The service is live in parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and the company plans to roll out to a total of 50 markets nationwide by the end of the year. “Places where there’s traffic that matters,” he said.
“With traffic, we have something that people want to have on their phones,” Laskin said. “We have something that is a constantly growing and subscribing user base.”
The application is designed to work on entry-level and application-centric devices and re-transmits looped video feeds from local departments of transportation and other government agencies with video cameras rolling along highways and major intersections.
“This is meant to be a companion to the information you get from the radio in the car . and a companion to the helicopter reports that come over the radio,” Laskin said.
3rd Dimension not only collaborates with government agencies to acquire the video signal, it also partners with a media outlet in each market to help get the word out.
“If enough people use these tools enough, we reduce stress in human beings, we reduce pollution,” he said. “It’s both green and healthy to not be in traffic.”
The program uses interstitial advertisements that appear on the screen while the application cues up and loads the video transmission from the camera selected. “The advertising is only there at a time when we’d have no other choice than to show . a progress bar,” he said.
Once more markets are rolled out, 3rd Dimension plans to pursue regional and national advertising models. “Even without locatable phones, by virtue of what cameras you’re choosing, we kind of know where you might be,” Laskin added. “We can both segment by what you’re choosing to look at and the time of day. In a way, this particular application even transcends this industry’s goal of knowing where everyone is.”
The company also has plans to develop technology to count cars traveling in each lane of traffic over a period of time and use that data to determine the average speed on the highway.
While the service provides information that will be of use while driving, Laskin asserted that drivers should still err on the side of caution and not use the application while driving.
“We designed our Mobile Traffic Cam application to be used as a planning tool, before you set out on your trip. You can use our application when you are walking out the door to get in your car, when you are parked at a gas station or rest stop, when you are waiting for an elevator, when you are watching television, or even at your desk. The great thing about a mobile device is that you can always have it with you. That doesn’t mean you should always be using it. In most places it is against the law to even be holding a cellphone while actually driving,” he said.