I think what wesley is describing is the "traffic ripple effect" Tom Cruise mentioned in MI3 (at the party when the movie has started :-) The gist of the theory being that the behavior of a traffic cop at the Nyayo roundabout on Msa rd will have a ripple effect all the way to the westlands roundabout. How true that is, I don't really know.

Thinking out of the box here, do we really need to see video or pictures of traffic jam? I am thinking, what a motorist needs to know more is "how fast is traffic moving", this implies speed of vehicles past a given check point. This then invalidates the need for cameras AND the KShs. 40k per month.

If this be true, the question becomes; how can we measure the speed at which vehicles are moving past the nyayo stadium roundabout? A low figure indicates heavy jam etc. Can we stick a GPRS/GSM capable motion detector under the fly over? Would it work?

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:59 PM, jude mwenda <judemwenda@gmail.com> wrote:
Exactly Wesley, i stummbled upon this some time back http://www.njstateatlas.com/traffic/

Challenge is providing geo-information to Mobile phone users... considering the fact that majority of people in Kenya do not have phones with GPS functionality. A question that was raised at wherecampafrica was how do you provide geo info to people with such phones, considering their location. Phares talked about cell tower triangulation.. This is dependent on mobile phone companies, is there a way other than this. Any ideas?



2009/4/7 Christopher Kiagiri <ck@google.com>


I live in South C and as long as I leave home after 8:15 a.m. I usually get to the office in Westlands within 45 minutes.

However, if you have to get to work by 8:00 a.m. then you'd better be on the road before 6:30 a.m. as Wesley says.  :)




On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 2:37 AM, wesley kiriinya <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
This reminds me of something I said back in Uni during lunch time with two of my friends (yes, it important for you to know the setting 8~)). Once one hears there is traffic on Uhuru Highway what else would you like to know? I believe Uhuru highway is the bottle neck of Nairobi.
 
Take a case: South C:
Vehicles in Mombasa Rd can't join Uhuru highway fast enough so a long jam till Zain results. Motorists detour through South C and thus there is jam between South C and West where all Mombasa Rd and South C ppl are trying to escape. They finally meet Langata Rd and guess where Langata Rd. goes ...
 
By the way it is faster to walk from South C to CBD than to take a vehicle. Walking will take about 40 minutes max while driving will take about 1 hour, unless one leaves at about 6.30am.
 
o_O?

 


--- On Tue, 4/7/09, Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa traffic
To: "Skunkworks forum" <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 12:04 PM


i'm thinking more in the lines of doing a traffic density google maps mashup. Problem is that the best source of such data would be telcos - assuming that majority of guys stuck in jam have phones. 

But honestly I would pay to get a near realtime map of where traffic is in nairobi on my phone so that i can choose the best route to go.



On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 11:58 AM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com> wrote:
I was involved in scoping for such a project, problem is budjet. You need a 1mbps link between cameras, and service providers charge 40,000 KES monthly per 1mb link, local loop. They have an advertising deal with the Radio Stations, hence they are not charged. Further to this, the CCN was not of too much use getting approval from, along with suspicious building managers. That's where  I left the situation at, as of Nov 2008, don't know if progress has been made though....




On 4/7/09, wesley kiriinya <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
I believe we can develop somthing like this. Problem is funding. If we had an organized transport/Nairobi development/... ministry or whoever is in charge then funding will not  be an issue. After all such a project benefits everyone.
 
With the city wired up with fibre optic, the live cameras would give good video feed.
 
O_O

 


--- On Tue, 4/7/09, Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com>
Subject: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa traffic
To: "Skunkworks forum" <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 10:12 AM


What would it take to come up with this?

http://www.btis.in

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Josiah Mugambi
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SK Classifeds... Visit stockskenya.co.ke for more info.

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