Live Traffic Cameras
What traffic cameras show
Traffic cameras show motorways, junctions, bridges and city streets as they are right now. They are the quickest way to see whether a road is moving before setting off, and what the weather is doing to it.
Most of these cameras belong to road authorities, city services or local businesses that point a camera at the street outside. Some refresh a still image every few seconds or minutes rather than streaming video, so a picture that seems frozen may simply be waiting for its next update. Queues tend to build up at the same points every day: on-ramps, roundabouts, toll plazas and bridge approaches.
Rush hours follow local time, so a camera on another continent may show empty roads while traffic at home is at its peak. In winter the picture tells more than a forecast: snow on the carriageway, spray from wet asphalt, fog over a pass. At night the view turns into streams of headlights, and number plates are rarely readable — the cameras are set up to watch the flow of traffic, not individual drivers.
