12/8/2011 Traffic Cams, part 1 (too much NCIS?)

Maybe I’ve been watching too much NCIS, but when I was looking at the Maryland Department of Transportation website for Coordinated Highways Action Response Team (their Interactive Mapping page)
link to Interactive Mapping page

I was fascinated to see a link to Live Traffic Cameras (what is the traffic – out there/rightnow!)

Ouch – what a boring list, and totally unhelpful for someone not familiar with the area. It says “To view cameras from a map interface please use Interactive Mapping.”

So I went back to the Interactive Mapping page, and clicked the Video/Camera tab:

Living in the Boston area, I have a natural desire to look at, but not be involved in, traffic. Zoom-in on the area north of Washington, DC, and select the Video Camera at I-495 & River Rd (MD 190)

Up pops a web-window with a live feed:

And, yes, that is a url
http://www.chart.state.md.us/video/video.asp?feed=c600bd2b00070075004d823633235daa
Click on it, and you get your own live-link to "I-495 - RIVER N"!
If you work off the Interactive Map, the single pop-up window gets replaced for each camera you click on. But if you grab each url, you can have multiple windows open!
I-495 W OF MD-97
I-495 AT BRADLEY BLVD
MD-185 - MD-410 N

At the Northeast Arc Users Group Conference in Saratoga Springs, NY a few weeks ago, I saw a presentation populating the info boxes on Google Maps with pictures and urls. Which means that I should be able to have these video feeds just appear on the maps! Sounds like a great project for tomorrow’s blog.