Navigating O.C.’s Web of Traffic

The day is coming when a computer screen on your vehicle will tell you whether the route you want to take is already clogged with traffic.

But until that technology is here, the Orange County Transportation Authority believes it has the next-best thing: computer maps of the county’s traffic patterns to help you plan a route if you’re about to head out in your car.

It’s called TravelTip. The $5-million, computerized, countywide, traveler-information system, unveiled by transportation officials Monday, is a barrage of local traffic data that’s updated every 30 seconds at https://www.traveltip.net. Use is free.

But you can get a less-detailed version by telephone: (949) 451-1847. Online information is also available at kiosks at bus centers in Santa Ana, Fullerton and Irvine.

“It’s one of the most--if not the most--comprehensive travel-information systems in the U.S.,” said Dean Delgado, OCTA’s principal transportation analyst.

A more independent opinion comes from Gloria Stoppenhagen, technology manager for the Federal Highway Administration, which provided most of the funding.

“This is breakthrough technology,” she said. “It will be used for a model for other information systems developing across the country.”

Not that it’s a perfect system. It takes a lot of mouse-clicking and zooming to find everything you want. John Cox, president of the private Travel Advisory News Network, suggested it will be four or five years before information such as that offered by TravelTip becomes mainstream.

“To make it easy for the user, you want it right now,” he said.

San Diego has a similar computer-information system; so does the Bay Area. Transportation officials say Los Angeles and Ventura counties are in the process of putting in systems that will interact with Orange County’s TravelTip.

Here’s how TravelTip works: Once you call up the system online and decide between Spanish and English, you push the “traffic” icon. It will show a map of all of Orange County, but you can zoom in on freeway and surface-street intersections. Red lines indicate congestion, green lines that traffic is flowing freely.

Icons indicate accidents or how long a delay you might expect. The site also will give information about planned lane closures, including how many lanes will be closed for how many hours.

Not all of TravelTip is operational. The Web site shows places for finding whether a traveler’s bus, train or plane is on schedule--but these functions aren’t working yet.

The site pulls its data automatically from the California Highway Patrol, Caltrans, and most of the cities of Orange County, as well as from the Sheriff’s Department.

Officials urge that motorists continue to monitor traffic by official radio reports, or stations that carry periodic reports from traffic reporters.

TravelTip is more sophisticated than some county systems, Cox said, because of its zoom capability, and because it includes detail on so many surface streets.

Cox warned there could be too much technology in future years. His group is worried about safety, and he cautioned about motorists trying to read a computerized map while driving. Audio will be essential, he said.

Also on hand at Monday’s unveiling was Ken Nelson, director of the Caltrans district that covers Orange County. Caltrans was also a participant developing the TravelTip system.

“The more we can improve our technology, that’s better than just constructing more highways,” he said. “The advantage TravelTip has over other systems: . . . It’s fast.”