All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Smart highways are still years away. But smarter highways just got a boost with the announced rollout of a satellite system that will disseminate real-time traffic data along a highly congested 2,500 mile corridor of I-95, stretching from Maine to Florida. It's the largest project of its kind.
The company contracted for the project, Inrix, will beam real-time data to transportation departments on traffic speeds, including accident reports and other data. Government agencies can then offer this information to commuters via the Internet, mobile alerts and road signs. State highway departments can also deliver this information to vendors of navigation services and products such as TomTom, Garmin and Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s Total Traffic Network.
Traffic congestion in major U.S. cities costs $78 billion in lost hours and wasted gasoline, according to a study last year by the Texas
Transportation Institute.
Source: Wall Street Journal
