As a long time Atlantan, I’m used to the bad traffic and worse commutes and I’m also quite familiar with our fascination with weather. Be it rain or (god forbid) sleet or snow, we take our severe weather seriously, what with all the Doppler radar and meteorologists and “weather centers” on local TV. I’m looking right at you, Glenn Burns.
Today’s commute (oddly quiet down 75 from Smyrna to Midtown) got me to thinking about a little chocolate & peanut butter mashup of our car quagmire and our love of obscenely obsessive coverage: Traffic Forecasts!
It seems to me that we’re on the verge of 2010, we ought to have the technology. What’s stopping us.
Exhibits A & B:
- Predicting Highway Crashes
- Google Maps Predicts Traffic Conditions
It’s a story from MIT. C’mon fellas. Make it happen.
Teh Googles will save us! Too bad their maps on my iPhone are never right for more than 3 minutes. Same goes for you Georgia Navigator.
Where does that leave us?
If you’re like me, you absolutely love the Summer (when the kiddies are out of school), major holidays and any time you can take a back road.
Of course, if I lived in town I’d have different patterns and behaviors to love and hate, but the highways are my current touchpoints.
Still, I’d love to see Mark Arum or Captain Herb standing in front of the green screen doing the chroma key dance and talking about historical patterns, the tie-ins to the weather (cross promotion opportunities!) and construction.
It seems like a slam dunk. They can produce that kind of TV/Radio now, they know about all the events and they’ve got the weathermen on that angle. Plus, shouldn’t some kid at Georgia Tech be working on this for a senior thesis?
Anyhow, rant over. Enjoy your commute tonight.
Happy Monday!