Towards the utilization of crowdsourcing in traffic condition reporting

The use of traffic information in map applications designed for stand-alone navigation devices as well as in mobile devices has become a common trend. This information is often governed by the various service providers with little or non-existent feedback from the users. Using a wide user base it is possible to collect information on traffic conditions faster and more efficiently. Additionally, many of the events faced on the road can be challenging to detect by automatic means, but are easily noticed by the road users - animals on the road and broken or missing road signs are only a few examples. To better facilitate the utilization of information gathered from road users, simple and easy-to-use software solutions are required. This paper presents a prototype mobile application, which the road users can take advantage of for both following the on-going traffic conditions while driving and for collectively reporting traffic events other users might be interested in. The high-level architecture, application and data utilized in the reports are presented in addition to the preliminary findings of the on-going research. This paper will also discuss the challenges identified while developing the application.