Traffic reporting is the distribution of information about road conditions such as traffic congestion, detours, and traffic accidents, generally as part of a radio or television broadcast program. The reports help commuters anticipate and avoid traffic problems. Many reports mention alternate travel routes to avoid the traffic problems. In addition to periodic reports, live traffic status information became more common in in the early 21st century with traffic congestion maps available by personal computer, mobile devices, and GPS units. In many places, there are all-traffic radio stations broadcasting traffic news 24 hours a day.
At radio stations where news radio programming is the primary content, roadway conditions are tracked by monitoring police radio frequencies. Some radio stations also have agreements with states' highway patrol that permit a direct connection with a law enforcement computer. This enables real-time information gathering of the latest accident reports to states' highway patrol divisions. However, more and more, state departments of transportation have agreements with various technology providers to deliver automated traffic tracking data which is resold and redistributed.
Most large metropolitan areas in the United States have traffic reporters in the air and also depend on advisories from listeners using cell phones and other mobile communications devices.
Many medium and large metropolitan areas have helicopters to overfly accident scenes and other areas of high traffic volume. This helps each radio or TV station to provide up-to-the-minute, live reports or traffic conditions. Stations in larger markets may have their own helicopter, or share resources with a local television station to help spread the costs. In many markets, a local or regional traffic reporting service may have contracts with several radio and television stations. This helps stations avoid the expense of purchasing or leasing their own helicopter, hiring a pilot, and setting a maintenance schedule.
In many large cities, state transportation departments and other agencies have installed series of traffic cameras along the Interstate highway system and other roads to monitor traffic conditions. Systems of this type can be easily seen along the I-95 corridor in the eastern section of the United States.
Television stations in Miami, Florida have agreements with the Florida Department of Transportation to enable use of video images generated by this FDOT camera system. These images are shown during morning and afternoon traffic reports, on several local stations, and FDOT is cited by reporters as proving “these images courtesy of the Florida Department of Transportation”.
Broadcast reports on traffic conditions, usually heard on radio, became popular in large U.S. cities in the 1970s and quickly spread to other areas as population centers grew. As smaller urban areas became absorbed into larger metropolitan areas, particularly in the United States, the freeways became cluttered during the morning and afternoon rush.
Beginning in the late 1970s, and on into the 1980s and 1990s, competition between radio and television stations led many program and news directors to add traffic reports to their schedules, though many smaller stations could not afford a full-time traffic reporter or aircraft. This led to the expansion of traffic reporting companies, including Shadow Broadcast Services, Metro Networks, Trafficlink, SmartRoute Systems, Traffic Patrol Broadcasting, and other regional traffic reporting agencies.
SmartRoute Systems was established in 1988 as an alternate traffic reporting service. They have been funded by government grants to provide traffic reports for local Departments of Transportation (DOT), but have also provided traffic reporting services for radio and television stations.
In 1998 Westwood One purchased Shadow Broadcast Services.
In 1997 and 1998 Metro Networks began buying many smaller traffic reporting agencies, as reported in their own financial statements to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. In 1999 Metro Networks acquired a firm called Copter Acquisition Company, from Westwood One. Westwood One then purchased Metro Networks, and Shadow Broadcast Services and Metro Networks were merged together after that.
In 2000 Westwood One purchased SmartRoute Systems, and merged it with together with Metro Networks/Shadow Broadcast Services.
In 2004 Clear Channel Communications began producing on-air traffic reports for most of its own radio stations; it was done under the trademark of “Total Traffic Network.” This was Clear Channel's response to Westwood One's acquisitions of Shadow Broadcast Services, Metro Networks, and SmartRoute Systems. Clear Channel had been receiving traffic reporting services from those companies up until then, and instead decided to do those services for its own radio stations. However, due to downsizing since 2004, Clear Channel has since changed its primary focus from on-air traffic reports to producing traffic information and data for use in in-car navigational devices; it still produces on-air traffic reports for most of its radio stations.
Traffic.com, also known as Navteq Traffic, Traffic Pulse and Mobility Technologies, is a United States nationwide provider of traffic information via a number of media, including the Internet, cell phones, radio, satellite radio and television.
In 2006 Reliant Broadcasting began operating independently from the larger traffic reporting services. Currently Reliant Broadcasting produces traffic reports for radio stations on both the east and west coasts of the United States.