Ha! But what happens when we all find this service, and it tells us all to take the Hart bridge because the Buckman is full? Then the Hart is magically SLAMMED at lunch hour.

Two things you'd need to make this work.
1) real time knowledge of the traffic pattern and infrastructure to manage that
2) a system that knew how many people were using it that would direct people around the city in a balanced way taking into account immediately available data.

Just getting the data on traffic patterns would be a super costly job. You'd have to advertise a huge amount to make your money back ever.

This idea Hovers us, mate.

The time stuck in traffic may varry from day to day due to changes in weather and accidents and construction and so on, so it may never really be accurate.
And would people pay for this service?

Well, as far as I can guess you are going to need a good number of people using your system before the data that they enter covers enough of the city for it to be useful to other people. You would also need these people to write down or somehow record these times at various checkpoints (such as every turn) along their route so as to actually pinpoint where the delays are occuring, so they need to take very good notes as they are driving. I do not know if there is any other way to do it.

By the way, I think this is a very good idea that many people (myself included) have had as they are sitting stuck in traffic wondering if only there were a way to know whether alternate route B would in fact be faster.

Why would people take the time to put the information in the system?

Does TrafficMaster (and similiar commerical providers) already do this?
Just that Google, mapquest and other FREE online mapping/journey providers don't hook into them (cost extra money). Maybe some of them do via an extra service charge?

More of an 'option' for some of the wireless mobile providers who are now offering drive-by-directions over your cell. As u're requesting this while on the move it would make more sense 2 offer real-time updates as well (xtra fee)

Also some of following sites "seem" 2 do what u propose

Also checkout
http://www.trafficland.com/services.php
http://www.silicon.c...4665,39119096,00.htm
http://www.trafficgauge.com/
http://toronto.ibegin.com/traffic/
http://www.timalmond.com/fetch-m4/
http://www.speedinfo.com/pages/index.htm

I was talking to a cabbie recently about how they plan their routes. He said they tried crazy-detailed mapping and routing software for a while, but it was ineffective because it couldn't compete with ingrained cabbie knowledge of the city (yes... some experience I've had in cabs would seem to contradict this, but I suppose you only remember the crazy-bad cabbies).

I'd agree with motiggidy that there is a chicken-and-egg problem here.

Possibly some data could be collected with GPS enabled cell phones. For example...
http://www.openmoko.com/

Driving around with that on (and plugged into car for power as GPS should drain battery quickly) would help build up data. But you'd need a LOT of adopters before any significant amount of data could be collected. I think only a telco is in a position to scrape enough quantities of phone movement data to make anything meaningful out of it.

cool idea but very difficult to do. complex with real time considerations.

this is never going to work man... sorry traffic changed to quickly

too difficult for a good idea (wishful thinking)...hope this would happen in my lifetime

It's difficult, but nevertheless possible. I think I would want a deal with a partner telco or motoring organization before committing too much time to it. I have spent many hours developing cool software with no market.

Great idea, being done a hundred ways right now - none terribly effective.

One huge issue is privacy of the people being tracked.... otherwise you could just sniff GPS data out of their cellphones like the NSA does....

My local radio station invites people to call in and report jams they're stuck in and broadcasts the results every 15 minutes during rush hour. People call in because they hear their reports being read out and know that they make a difference, and because they themselves use the reports day after day.

That seems to be a much more sensible way of doing this because the worst jams are those caused by accidents, roadworks etc that aren't predictable. Any system that can't give automatic real-time updates is inherently at a disadvantage in such a situation.