A traffic congestion map is a graphical, realtime or near-realtime representation of traffic flow for some particular area. Data is typically collected via loop sensors embedded in the roadways, then processed by computer at a central facility and distributed as a map view to users.
Many web sites, news channels or mobile apps show these maps as a tool of traffic reporting to help commuters avoid congested areas. Sometimes they are displayed directly to motorists using electronic signs, such as those on the 2nd Ring Road in Beijing. Frequently these show conditions on highways, but local streets can also be shown.
Famous quotes containing the words traffic, congestion and/or map:
“Poems stirred
into paper coffee-cups, eaten
with petals on rye in the
sun—the cold shadows in back,
and the traffic grinding the
borders of spring ...”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“In Western Europe people perish from the congestion and stifling closeness, but with us it is from the spaciousness.... The expanses are so great that the little man hasn’t the resources to orient himself.... This is what I think about Russian suicides.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)