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Jakarta Post

Avoid the jams with real-time websites

Until recently, motorists relied on the radio to get the latest information about traffic conditions within and around the city

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Thu, October 13, 2011

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Avoid the jams with real-time websites

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ntil recently, motorists relied on the radio to get the latest information about traffic conditions within and around the city.

But with better internet connections, and a majority of people having access to mobile devices, websites have now become the most reliable source of information for those who get lost in Jakarta’s traffic.

Websites like macetlagi.com, infolalulintas.com and lewatmana.com are attracting thousands of visitors everyday; people who want to get updates on which parts of Jakarta have become impassable.

Some websites are using sophisticated technology to give the most accurate picture of the roads at any given moment.

Wiwi Yahya, executive director of Neo Fusion Indonesia, which owns and operates macetlagi.com, said the website provided a service that could integrate information on traffic with location-based points of interest.

“We provide traffic information in real-time pictures; snapshots as well as traffic maps with color codes and points of interest, such as restaurants and ATMs,” Wiwi told The Jakarta Post.

And following the trend of building applications for smartphones, Neo Fusion is now building an app for a variety of devices.

“Now users can download our app for the BlackBerry smartphone,” Wiwi said, adding that the company’s software engineers are building apps for the iPhone, and Android- and Windows-based smartphones.

Using a location-based system, the app will follow in the footsteps of successful services like Foursquare and Facebook Place.

“Users can get all the information they need and it’s all about ‘where I am and where I want to be’,” he added.

Soon after signing up, users can get a 15-second video on the latest traffic conditions monitored by the company’s 60 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

The app has turned out to be a big hit. Upon its release in 2008, Neo Fusion’s servers crashed due to the high volume of download requests. “The app has currently been downloaded by 600,000 users and more than 50 percent of them use it on a daily basis,” Wiwi said.

No slouch for a company which spends zilch on marketing, “This proves that people need this kind of service,” he said.

In late October, Neo Fusion expects to release the second version of its application, called Yoyo, which will be available for BlackBerry smartphones, iPhones, Android-based, and Java, smartphones.

Traffic information site lewatmana.com, or m.lewatmana.com for its mobile version, has installed 75 CCTV cameras to monitor traffic in the city.

“The cameras are concentrated in South Jakarta and business districts like Jl. Gatot Subroto and Jl. Sudirman,” said lewatmana.com founder Hendry Soelistyo.

The website receives an average of 2.2 million hits per day.

“The website’s traffic peaks between 4 and 5 p.m. while the peak time for our mobile version occurs between 7 and 8 p.m. In the morning, it peaks from 6 to 7 a.m.,” Hendry said.

To expand its reach, the website has agreed to provide its contents to news portal detik.com, cellular company Telkomsel, the National Traffic Management Center, and Gen FM radio station.

“With so many people using this service, it is obvious that the government has a lot of work to do, like building infrastructure. Our part is just helping users navigate the traffic problems,” Hendry said.

Other services provide user-based content.

One of the user-based websites is infolalulintas.com, which has been successful in harnessing the potential of Twitter. Through the Twitter account @infoll, users can exchange information on traffic conditions.

“We have at least 120,000 followers on Twitter,” said Jonathan Nasution, who cofounded the website in 2008 with friend Bellamy Budiman.

In the early days, users only needed to mention @infoll in their Twitter feeds before they were automatically retweeted by the service.

“But as more people began to follow us, we realized that we needed a filter. So we hired a third person, Roy, who is responsible for that,” he told the Post.

To make an effective use of Twitter, @infoll has developed its own code to refer to the severity of traffic: “0” for smooth sailing; “!” for mild traffic situation; “!!” for congested; and “!!!” for heavy congestion. For users wanting traffic information in specific locations, they need only type “?” and the area they want to know about.

So, the next time you see “@infoll jkt-blokm-sudirman:!!!” in your timeline, it means you should
avoid traveling from Blok M to Sudirman. (swd)

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