Twitter As Traffic Guide
March 20th, 2008 | by Brad King |I just received a Tweet from Jon Berndt, who tells me that St. Louis is using Twitter to update people about traffic issues.
This is the perfect example of how the platform can be used to distribute up-to-the-minute news without going directly through the newspaper, yet still connected to the paper. There is really nothing worse than driving home, only to run into severe traffic, particularly if you know the detour and non-highway routes to your destination.
Using this mobile platform — and engaging not only with reporters but with people who are on the street — is the exact perfect way to take data and turn it into useful information without necessarily having a story attached with it.
And…it even appears as if the news department creates a map with the data. I’m not sure if it’s a real-time, dynamic map (that would be the goal), but it’s a good start.
