Do you know of a website that archives freeway traffic data by date and hour (for California)?
Sigalert and google maps both have real-time traffic data but I am interested in what happened when I wasn't looking. It is nice if I am going to leave this instant, but if I need to plan to leave within the next three hours, those sites can't help. It doesn't make sense for them to show all that data minute by minute and not save it somewhere.
In one sense, I know it is saved somewhere because I found a site a year ago that did this but didn't save the link. It showed a series of traffic maps for any hour of any day for the past (two?) years. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to coach any search engine to show me anything other than traffic news since then. OCTA has spreadsheets about peak hours, but no maps.
If you know of a site/database that does this, I would be grateful.
August 23rd, 2010 - 09:22
Yes, Caltrans has operated the Freeway Performance Measurement System (PeMS) through Cal-Berkeley for many years. From the link below, it looks like you can register and get access to the data. The data is collected for traffic engineers, so it may not be the easiest to work with.
Good luck and safe travels!