Mapping Real-Time Road Traffic

This interactive map of Palo Alto shows the live status of traffic signals. The map also uses live data to show how many vehicles are waiting at different intersections and how many pedestrians are waiting to cross at each intersection. The live traffic data on the map comes from TrafficWare's streaming TidalWave API.

The colored traffic approach lanes on the Traffic map show the color of the traffic signal when approaching from that direction. If you click on a colored traffic approach lane you can actually view a countdown timer to when the traffic signal controlling that lane will change. Opaque approach lanes mean that at least one vehicle is currently being detected in that lane. Translucent approach lanes mean no vehicles are currently detected.

The purple intersection markers mean a pedestrian is currently waiting to cross at that intersection. Animated circular blue ripples emanate from intersection markers when new vehicles are detected. Purple circular ripples appear when new pedestrians arrive at an intersection. The dashboard counters (down the right-hand side of the map) show the numbers of flowing vehicles and the number of vehicles waiting at intersections. The purple counter shows the number of pedestrians in total waiting at intersections.