A message from our CEO, Neal Campbell
I can still remember the summer vacations that we took as kids. My folks would always shun the big cities and congestion and look for the “blue highways” that would allow them to avoid the traffic, frustrations and delays. My mom would always want my dad to get off the main roads and avoid the sitting, the heat and forever increasing voices from the back seat. It is pretty difficult to play “count the cars” when you are completely engulfed in a slow moving parking lot.
Do you really know of any other day to day issue that impacts our lives so dramatically? Traffic congestion makes us late for work, wastes hours of time, causes frustration, anger and in some cases rage. And it all adds up to a tremendous toll on our economy. The Texas Transportation Institute estimates that the 85 largest metropolitan areas experienced 3.7 billion vehicle-hours of delay per year, resulting in 2.3 billion gallons in wasted fuel and a congestion cost of $63 billion. Yes, billions of gallons of fuel and billions of dollars - Unimaginable.
Instead, imagine a world where we can take control of this issue. Where we can route around delays, arrive on time, not miss our kid’s soccer game, not be exhausted when we reach our destination. Wouldn’t that be incredible? Think about the larger issues like transportation and logistics, homeland defense, navigation and the environment. We can provide technology that can save on fuel consumption, give back hours a day to our lives and accurately predict when a shipment is going to arrive. I spent most of my career in the wireless space. We were always trying to find the “killer application.” Was it voice, messaging, music, pictures? What would truly drive device adoption and differentiation? I truly believe that traffic is one of these “killer applications”.
Considering the view from the backseat of my folks’ car, I find it remarkable that I would now be running a company that is solving this problem in novel and unique ways. TrafficCast has the “magic sauce.” We figured it out. TrafficCast has always focused on “driving the science behind traffic” and can deliver “actionable” traffic content. Not just colored dots on a map, but real data that can be used for intelligent travel decision making. We provide software and systems that can be integrated into personal navigation devices, mobile devices, logistic systems, automobiles and other connected services. With our capabilities, we can always deliver the most up-to-date, accurate and meaningful traffic information for both real-time and predictive applications.
Fasten your seat belts - the best is yet to come.
Neal Campbell, CEO - TrafficCast