Traffic camera

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A traffic camera is a video camera which observes traffic on a road. Typically, these are put along major roads such as highways, freeways, motorways, autoroutes and expressways, as well as arterial roads, and are connected with optical fibers buried alongside or even under the road. A monitoring center receives the live video in real time, and serves as a dispatch if there is an automobile accident or some other disruptive incident or safety issue. Internet users can often view individual frames posted to a website every few minutes, and can then determine whether an alternate route should be taken.

Traffic cameras are a major part of most intelligent transportation systems. They are especially valuable in tunnels, where safety equipment can be activated remotely based upon information provided by the cameras and other sensors. On surface roads, they are typically mounted on high poles or masts, sometimes along with street lights. On arterial roads, they are often mounted on traffic light poles at intersections, where problems are most likely to occur.

Traffic cameras are distinct from road safety cameras, which are put in specific places to enforce rules of the road. Those cameras take still photos in a much higher picture resolution upon a trigger, whereas traffic cameras are simply for observation and constantly take lower-resolution full-motion video.