You know that your travel time between home and work is influenced by many factors, and that a lot of them are beyond your control - including accidents, bad weather, road construction, and the number of people who decided to take this road, right now. From experience, you probably know which times are the most congested along your route, and you've adjusted your schedule to try to travel at other times. You routinely listen to traffic reports on the radio to try to find out if there are accidents in front of you. Maybe you even check a DOT or other local website to learn about planned road construction projects along your route. And, you probably have one or more "alternate" routes that you can take if things "look bad" when you get on the road. Despite all of your efforts, you still get frustrated when you're late for work, late for dinner, or late picking up your kids at practice because "traffic was really bad today." So, what else can you do? Now, you can find out how fast traffic is moving along your travel route before you leave, and you can get updates while you're in your car.

• SpeedAlerts™: Personalized traffic speed reports sent to your cell phone, PDA, or e-mailbox (Northern Virginia & Maryland).
• RatRaceUSA™: Personalized travel time reports sent to your cell phone, PDA, or e-mailbox (Northern Virginia).


• Real-time Congestion Map (Free!): A user-friendly map that shows how fast traffic is moving in real-time.

SpeedAlerts™ tells you when traffic tie-ups occur along your commuting route. You can receive customized email and text message alerts when speeds along your commute fall below a threshold that you select. The service allows you to:

• Monitor as many road segments as you want to


• Define time periods when you want to receive alerts


• Set the speed threshold to receive an alert


• Receive alerts at your home and / or business email


• Receive alerts on your cell phone or email-enabled PDA


• Receive unlimited alerts for a low monthly subscription fee


• Receive a discount for quarterly or annual subscriptions

A SpeedAlert™ traffic report,
sent by SMS Text Messaging to a subscriber's cell phone

For further details on SpeedAlerts™, click here.

RatRaceUSA™ is a subscription-based service that allows you to receive real-time updates on travel times along routes that you choose. Using your PDA, web browser, or WAP-enabled cell phone, you can find out how long it's currently taking for drivers to travel your route. In addition to the travel time, you can also find out how the current travel time relates to the average travel time over the last 30 days.

RatRaceUSA™ offers:

• Real-time travel times updated every minute.


• Point-to-Point travel times along routes that you choose.


• Comparison of current travel time to previous 30-day average.


• Ability to select up to 4 customized routes.


• On-demand access to travel times via WAP-enabled wireless devices or over the Internet.


• Ability to receive reports at scheduled times via e-mail or SMS Text Messaging to your cell phone.


• Coverage of major highways across Northern Virginia.


• Unlimited usage for one low monthly fee.


• A free one-week trial, so you can "try before you buy"

A RatRaceUSA traffic report,
sent by SMS Text Messaging to a subscriber's cell phone

To download a brochure on RatRaceUSA™, click here. For more information, to subscribe, or to sign up for their free trial, please visit their website.

WTOP Radio Traffic Reports and Real-time Congestion Map: WTOP, the premier traffic and news radio station in the Washington DC market, hosts a real-time congestion map showing current traffic conditions on Northern Virginia freeways. Road segments are color-coded to reflect current reported speeds. The map is provided to the public, for personal use, free of charge as a service of WTOP and Trichord. Listen to WTOP on 1500 AM, 107.7 FM, and 820 AM.

To view the Real-time Congestion Map, visit WTOPNews.com and click on Traffic.

The Real-time Congestion Map
on WTOPnews.com