Comments on: Sydney Traffic

By: Mel

Mel — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:32:22 +0000

Hi Adam,
Thanks for such a quick response! I understand that tweets are limited to 140 characters. However, if you use a hashtag, then your tweets can be displayed on a map --- which makes your tweets ALOT more visual/effective. For example, traffic applications (e.g. in link below) would be able to find your tweets, analyse them and then work out where to pin them on a map.

In other words, all of your tweets would be able to be placed on a map -- and users would not have to sort through long lists of tweets to find a traffic jam that "might" be blocking their path home. All of the tweets on Syd North, etc would be combined on a map -- making it easier for commuters to work out where traffic obstacles are. Plus, users who don't know how to use Twitter would be able to get use out of your Tweets... and they would only have to worry about using the application.

I mean, this Tweet is very detailed and is only 118 chars! --- "Mays Hill: M4 Mtrwy at Coleman St; Hazard: Spillage, Oil; Lanes: Eastbnd; oil spill continues from N4 Notorway Sth onto Woodville Rd". As you can tell, I'm big on intuitive hashtags! :)

If you want to chat you can also contact me on my email address! :)

By: Adam Kent

Adam Kent — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:36:22 +0000

@Mel, sure, I have considered adding hash tags, but since tweets are limited to 140 characters I think it's better to fit more of the alert message in there rather than fill up precious space with boilerplate hashtags. If I've misunderstood what you mean though please feel free to expand on your idea more.

By: Mel

Mel — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:49:51 +0000

Have you thought about including hashtags in each of your Sydney traffic pages - i.e. #sydtraffic. This allows a lot of applications out there to use your Tweets more intuitively. If you are interested in adding this to your code please let me know.

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:47:37 +0000

Are you able to incorporate information from non RTA sources? Would be interested in knowing how to send you any urgent updates on major roadworks happening now on Hills M2 motorway. Would appreciate a response via the email address provided. Twitter address is HillsM2Roadwork

By: Bus and car meet on George and Liverpool | Leefe rates the world...

Bus and car meet on George and Liverpool | Leefe rates the world... — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:07:51 +0000

[...] Can’t seem to find any mention of the incident on the RTA Sydney traffic reports. Which, I find, have been usefuly turned into twitter feeds: [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:19:42 +0000

Also a heads up on http://snarl.com.au. Launching this week. Starting in Sydney and moving all around the country.

By: Adam Kent

Adam Kent — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:49:48 +0000

Belatedly @scatsboy, thanks for the feedback. When the data format changed in June 2008 that made life a lot easier. To be honest, the screenscraping solution is working pretty well right now, so I'm disinclined to change what's working, as long as the RTA is happy with the bandwidth overhead! I try to be quite polite with the polling though, only every 5 mins in peak hours and every 20 minutes other times.

By: Adam Kent

Adam Kent — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:46:16 +0000

@abe: I have not asked the RTA for explicit permission, no, but I think scatsboy above in comment #6 is somehow affiliated with the RTA so I'm taking that as implicit tolerance. Also there are a few other sites that seem to use the same data, check out http://prangz.com and http://www.traffichawk.com.au

By: abe

abe — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:03:06 +0000

Great idea!

Did you guys have to ask permission from the RTA to reproduce their content..?

By: Adam Kent

Adam Kent — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:08:22 +0000

Hi Phil. I agree, the number of daily incidents is quite remarkable. You might be interested in checking out the separate "area" feeds:

http://twitter.com/sydtraffic_city
http://twitter.com/sydtraffic_nth
http://twitter.com/sydtraffic_sw
http://twitter.com/sydtraffic_nw