The Herald profiles Seattle-based TrafficGauge. The founding partners, 30-year-old Ryan Peterson and Eric Meyer, 46, hope their little device has a big future in Seattle and elsewhere.
If enough people make driving decisions based on the device’s information, it could improve traffic. Stan Suchan, spokesman for the transportation department, says about 1 million people commute in the Puget Sound region every weekday morning. The Washington State Department of Transportation supplys its traffic data at no charge to the company, as it also has done for the media and Web sites. TrafficGauge charges a $5-a-month subscription fee to transmit the data to users of its device.
The average user of the TrafficGauge device reports saving nearly 5 hours a month in traffic by making better commuting decisions with the device, the company claims.
The compact device, which sells for $50, has a 2-inch screen showing conditions on I-5, I-405, Highway 520 and I-90. The map covers the area from the junction of I-5 and I-405 in Lynnwood south to Tukwila. Congested areas are indicated by solid black lines or, in the case of heavy traffic, flashing lines.
Other symbols show the direction express lanes on I-5 and I-90 are flowing and whether there’s a Mariners, Seahawks or Sonics home game, which can disrupt traffic patterns.
The traffic data comes from the transportation department’s network of sensors implanted in the freeways. It is updated as frequently as every four minutes. The TrafficGauge, which runs on two AA batteries, displays it constantly, and a button lights up the display for easier viewing in a dark car.
Peterson and Meyer won’t comment much on how TrafficGauge transmits the information to the thousands of its devices in the Puget Sound area. The extent of their explanation is that it involves “radio waves.”
As a privately held company, TrafficGauge hasn’t released sales figures beyond saying it’s sold “thousands.” Meyer said the device was the top seller in The Bon-Macy’s men’s department during the holiday season, and other stores have reported respectable sales.
“Things are good,” Peterson said.
Peterson invented the TrafficGauge after inspiration struck while he was stuck in a long commute in 1999. At the time, the electrical engineer was working for Guidant Corp., a medical device company in Redmond. Before leaving work for his home in Edmonds, Peterson would check the DOT’s Web site, to see where traffic was flowing smoothly.
“Every evening, I tried the WSDOT Web site to plan my commute home. I was pretty sure it saved me 20 minutes on the way home,” Peterson said.
Looking for a way to make the Web site’s traffic information accessible in a portable form, Peterson spent several months researching the concept and then built a device for about $1,000.
After friends encouraged him to follow through with his inspiration, and as traffic got worse in the Puget Sound area, Peterson found he might have a viable business. He began assembling a team. Which is when Meyer came in. The former sales and marketing manager for Sonicare liked Peterson’s device. So did investors, who gave the startup money at a time when they passed over many others.
“Our fund-raising effort took two weeks from start to finish,” said Peterson. After incorporating TrafficGauge in May 2002, the company worked on launching its consumer model. TrafficGauge finally launched its product in June.
As far as Peterson and Meyer can tell, theirs is the only product of its kind. And their pending patent will help keep out competitors, they said. The only other device they’ve seen is a long-used one in England that’s significantly larger and more expensive.
Oregon’s TripCheck website and their new 511 telephone service has gotten record use during the holidays. TripCheck features Roadway Incident Maps, showing you where roadway incidents have occurred and an estimate of the delays involved as well as 120 Road Cams around the state to help locate trouble spots and keep an eye on traffic conditions. By clicking on a variety of icons, displayed as snowflakes, cameras, weather stations and general information, potential travelers can get a good idea of what to expect.
Portland State University’s ITS Lab also gets a fiber optic camera feed from ODOT, and plans to use video processing techniques to determine vehicle speed and status.
FM radio subcarriers can deliver road conditions to millions, all the time, everywhere. Clear Channel uses Ibiquity’s “HD Radio” which can also broadcast data. A business model utilizing a $99 hand-held traffic monitor (and messaging system), perhaps using Microsoft’s Spot technology, might use University or DOT generated real-time map coding.
Ibiquity, a private company partially owned by such media heavyweights as ABC, Clear Channel Communications and Viacom has the patent for the FCC-approved HD Radio which will be used by ordinary FM (and AM) broadcast stations. It is free. The digital signal is compressed and multiplexed onto a local FM station’s subcarrier. Digital radios can decode it as well as play regular analog FM radio broadcasts. Microsoft’s new “Spot” watches and devices may use HD Radio for things like weather and traffic reports.
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