County's Traffic Troubles Go Online

Site Alerts Drivers to Incidents Quickly

By Kameel Stanley

Thursday, August 14, 2008

For the past month, Bill Peters has been able to see farther down the road than other drivers.

When traffic backed up along his 45-minute daily commute between Leesburg and Charles Town, W.Va., it took only a glance at his BlackBerry for him to figure out why. And even before he left his house, he knew what trouble spots to expect.

Peters, a computer programmer for Loudoun County, had the edge on other motorists because he was testing an online tool being developed by the Loudoun Sheriff's Office and the county's Department of Information Technology.

"It's not like it solved my traffic problem, but it eases the frustration of sitting in traffic and not knowing why," Peters said.

This week, Peters's advantage disappeared as the Web site went public, allowing all drivers to see — in real time — the traffic incidents being handled by Loudoun law enforcement officers.

The aim is to give people timely information about conditions that could affect their daily commute, said Loudoun sheriff's spokesman Kraig Troxell.

"This is going to be everything from fender-benders to major accidents to weather-related incidents," Troxell said.

Drivers can see the listing of incidents by going to www.loudoun.gov/traffic. The information also can be accessed with HTML-capable mobile devices at www.loudoun.gov/mobiletraffic.

The data is extracted from the county's 911 dispatch system and refreshes automatically. The site shows incidents handled by the Sheriff's Office and police in Middleburg and Purcellville.

Peters and fellow county programmer Lava Salih have been developing the project for four months.

Officials are working out some kinks. For example, traffic incidents handled by the Leesburg Police Department aren't listed yet because its computer system doesn't match up with the others. And incidents handled by the Virginia State Police will show up only in cases in which state troopers were dispatched through the Sheriff's Office.

Developers of the site considered including a mapping function but determined it would make the launch too complicated.

"We decided against mapping because Loudoun is growing so quickly," Troxell said.

Troxell said he came up with the idea for the project several months ago when he saw similar Web sites run by law enforcement agencies in Columbus, Ohio, and Baton Rouge, La.

Because of the large number of people who travel Loudoun roadways daily, Troxell said, he thought such a site would be worth starting here.

In addition to traffic accidents, the Loudoun site will list such problems as signal malfunctions, road closures caused by severe weather and objects in the road that interfere with traffic flow.

Washington area drivers have several resources for real-time information on traffic conditions, including news media reports and online images from traffic cameras. But Troxell said that to his knowledge, no other government in the area is offering a Web site like Loudoun's.

"It's just going to help you plan your route a little better," Troxell said. "It's going to give you a heads-up."

Because the Web site was designed in-house, the only cost to the county was from the hours put in by staff members, officials said.

John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said one of the benefits of the Loudoun site is that it has the potential to reduce rubbernecking. Drivers who know early on about an incident might avoid that route or, if they pass the accident scene, might be less likely to slow down to take a look, he said.

"Many times when there are traffic accidents, people will stop and turn their heads to see what's happening," he said. "It's a major factor when you have accidents. This act exacerbates delays."

Tagged: Loudoun Sheriff's Office, technology, traffic, transportation

Your Thoughts...

Are you happy that the school year is over?