The Traffic Jam Forecast

"'Our data pool on traffic flow is our most valuable treasure,' Scherz says. 'And that treasure grows every day.' Already, he can predict most highway traffic jams days in advance as long as the congestion is not caused by accidents, which bring about 20 percent of Hesse's traffic jams. Indeed, the state authorities feel the predictions are so reliable -- with a margin of error of only 10 or 15 minutes -- that Scherz's traffic forecasts will soon hit the radio waves. From September onwards, drivers will know of traffic jams a day before they happen."

"Seeing the traffic future is made possible by thousands of counters on German highways, which are most often just wires placed directly in the asphalt that send real-time info to a central collection point on how many cars are travelling in which direction and the speed at which they are moving. And since the vast majority of drivers behave pretty much the same, further calculations are simple. The more results gathered and analyzed, says Duisburg-based traffic expert Michael Schreckenberg, the more precise the prognoses end up being."