Want to see traffic on the Baltimore Beltway near Wilkens Avenue before you leave the house? Now you can, on your personal computer.
The Maryland State Highway Administration has launched a new Internet Web page that features real-time videos of selected locations in the Baltimore and Washington areas.
More city and state transportation agencies are venturing onto the World Wide Web, but the Maryland site is apparently one of only two nationally that offer live video footage, according to state and federal highway spokesmen.
"They're looking at the Internet as a convenient way to distribute information," said Tom Jacobs, a transportation management engineer with the Federal Highway Administration.
At the Maryland Web site, travelers will be able to see a few of the same images on their home and work computers as state highway technicians do at their 24-hour, high-tech command post near Glen Burnie.
Besides live videos, the Web site offers a map of traffic speeds at various locations, especially on Interstates 95, 495 (the Capital Beltway) and 695 (the Baltimore Beltway).
Commuters would be able to see, for example, whether traffic is crawling on the outer loop of the Beltway near Interstate 83.
Transportation officials hope drivers will use such information in picking routes to work or home.
"The technology allows commuters to be better informed and make better choices on their commuting patterns," said Maryland Transportation Secretary David L. Winstead.
The site, found at http: //www.chart.state.md.us, features video of four locations, two in metropolitan Baltimore and two near Washington.
The four locations are chosen from 32 video cameras that dot major interstates -- I-95, 495 and 695. The camera locations featured on the Web site are changed during the day to show traffic "hot spots" at the moment.
Within the next year, the state plans to offer 16 camera locations for viewing, as well as more information on construction delays, lane closures and traffic accidents, said State Highway Administration spokesman David Buck.
A second feature on the Web site is a color-coded map of traffic speeds along major routes in the Baltimore-Washington corridor.
Segments of the interstates appear in green, yellow and red. Green means traffic is sailing along at 55 mph or more, yellow signifies speeds of 30 to 54 mph, and red signals anything from 29 mph to a complete standstill.
The map is updated every five minutes, said Richard Dye, systems administrator for Chesapeake Highway Advisories Routing Traffic (CHART), the highway department's traffic management system. The information is gathered from about 100 speed detectors throughout the region.
The state went online with the site in January but did not publicize it until late last week because it was still "tweaking" it, Dye said.
To view live traffic videos, computer users will need to have either Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or better, or Netscape Navigator 3.02 or better browser. A 28,800 baud modem or better is required.
The quality of the video depends on your computer and modem speed.
About 2 percent of the 5,200 people who logged onto the site during a three-day period last week did not have the computer capability to view the video, Dye said.
L About 500 people can see video footage at one time, he said.
Even with planned enhancements in the next year, it seems unlikely that Maryland's Web site will put radio and television traffic reporters out of business.
Traffic conditions change frequently, and an informed traveler would still want to listen to radio reports once on the road, officials said.
Jacobs, of the FHA, said he believes the average commuter is more likely to turn on television or radio traffic reports before leaving for work in the morning than to sign onto the Internet.
"Right now, it's really kind of a niche thing," he said of Internet travel information. "Where most people will check it is probably at work, if they have access to the Internet."
Montgomery County gets thousands of hits a day on its 3-year-old traffic Web site, a technician there said Friday.
The site, http: //www.dpwt.com, offers traffic and accident information, alternative routes and still-camera photos of numerous road locations in the county, said Greg Windham, a traffic management technician at the Montgomery County Transportation Management Center.
L The state's new Web site cost $40,000 to develop, Buck said.
On the Internet
Area traffic information can be found at this address: www.chart.state.md.us
Pub Date: 4/13/98
