To begin, enter the addresses of the point you will be leaving from and
the place you are going to. You can select to see either a map with the
traffic situation right now (select "Traffic Right Now"), or get a
traffic forecast for your trip. To get a forecast, select the day of the
week and the planned departure or arrival time for your trip.
Click "Go!" to see your driving route mapped out.
The system will display a map of your route, with typical highway speeds
highlighted, as follows: green if the cars are mostly moving at 50 miles
per
hour or faster, yellow if the traffic is flowing between 20 and 50 miles
per hour,
red if it's slower than 19 miles per hour.
Move the slider at the bottom of the screen to point to your desired
arrival time; you can also
select a different day of the week by clicking on a weekday in the list
to the right of the map. The map will automatically display the typical
speeds
for when you will be on the road.
Look at the My Trip section on the right side of your screen. This section
will show the estimated travel time for your fastest route -- the one
that
is highlighted on the map -- plus suggest alternative routes with
travel times close to the best suggested route. Click on the route
description to see detailed directions for this route.
Click on Adjust trip to change your point of departure and/or your
destination. The map will reload with your new selected route.
Click on Save Trip to save your current trip. If you are a registered
user, the trip will be saved automatically. Otherwise, you will be
prompted to first create an account with Road Sage.
How Road Sage Works: As many experienced drivers know, traffic jams tend to reappear in the same places and at the same times. On the other hand, traffic can be as unpredictable as weather. Our system collects speed data from Caltrans detectors installed within the pavement of Bay Area freeways; we average it out over long periods of time to see where the most frequent bottlenecks are, and where the more spurious slowdowns are likely to happen. Based on these numbers, we estimate freeway speeds and route travel times for every day and every hour of the week. In this way, we provide our users with a tool that allows them to anticipate traffic bottlenecks and to make their travel plans in accordance with the predicted road conditions.