Better than the radio

A new era in traffic reporting is dawning, the New York Times reports. Private firms are trying to improve on radio traffic reports with more detail, updated road conditions fed through cellphones, BlackBerrys and GPS devices:

In the latest incarnation of traffic reporting, information gleaned from strategically placed cameras, road-top sensors, electronic tollbooths and eyewitnesses is edited in Mission Control-style command rooms and sent using personalized text or voice messages to subscribers’ cellphones or BlackBerrys, often at no charge. These advances are part of an effort by private traffic services to bring some science and precision to what, at least until the last few years, was an art form typically practiced by a reporter in a helicopter or an announcer glued to a terminal in a windowless cubicle. While radio stations continue to send traffic copters into the air — including at least three serving New York City alone — their “eye in the sky” observations are now only one of the streams of data at travelers’ disposal.