Experimental Traffic Map

One of the main goals of Woophoo is to provide traffic maps. The task is quite simple: visualize current traffic situation on a map, to enable proper routing decisions. 

We use anonimised measurements provided by Woophoo users as input information - this can be directly used for visualization, or, if we do not have up-to-date information of a given area, we can try inferring, predicting current situation based on historical data of the given area. A lots of algorithms can be used both for prediction and for visualization, including data mining and knowledge discovery algorithms. However, we have to present a scalable method, that can provide fast answers for lots of concurrent users asking for maps of different areas.

Our new, experimental traffic map service produces something like the next figure, which is the current traffic map of Budapest.

The map is available both on client side and on the web site, however, Woophoo users currently provide data mostly only for Hungary. Color codes refer to the average car speed of the area, the strength of coloring relates to the accuracy of the prediction. The speed is relative, red indicates deceleration against the average speed of a given user on a given route. I personally prefer this kind of speed values, because it blures driving skill differences. Accuracy basicly depends on the user activity of Budapest; if we have more accurate data, then we can infer the current situation more precisely. 

Keep in mind, that as a prototype service, we keep on developing both prediction and visualization - new visualization techniques, better prediction algorithms are expected. And, of course, to have proper maps, keep on using Woophoo - if more and more use Woophoo, traffic maps become more and more accurate.