About Traffic Predict

Traffic Predict shows how fast freeways in California, Seattle, Portland, Denver, the Twin Cities, Baltimore, the Washington, DC area, Delaware and Massachusetts are moving right now, how they're likely to move over the next few hours, and how they moved at any time in the past. For New York City it shows typical traffic for every hour of the week (live speeds there aren't available yet).

Where the data comes from

Caltrans has more than 10,000 detector stations embedded in freeway lanes across California, and MnDOT has nearly 2,000 on the Twin Cities freeways. In Delaware, DelDOT's Bluetooth readers time about 660 stretches of highway and main street statewide. Every 5 minutes Traffic Predict downloads the latest readings (for California from Caltrans' Performance Measurement System) and colors each stretch of freeway by its average speed. Incidents come from the California Highway Patrol.

More states are on the way as their transportation departments' free data feeds are added.

Reading the map

• Colors show speed: green is over 60 mph, blue 45–60, yellow 30–44, orange 15–29, and red is under 15 mph. Gray means that sensor didn't report.
• Each direction has its own line. Zoom in and the two sides of the freeway separate, just like the real lanes: northbound on the east side, southbound on the west.
• Tap or hover any stretch to see its speed and what's normal there at this time.

Now & ahead

Drag the slider to see predicted traffic up to four hours from now. The forecast starts from what the sensors report right now and blends toward what usually happens at that time of the week. A slowdown that's out of the ordinary is assumed to clear up gradually over about an hour.

Switch to Compared to usual to spot trouble: instead of raw speed, each stretch is colored by how its speed compares with a normal day at the same time.

Replay

Pick any day and hour and press play to watch the actual traffic, in 5-minute steps, the way it happened. Use Week ◀ ▶ to compare the same hour on other weeks.

Typical

Pick a day of the week and an hour to see what traffic normally looks like then, averaged over every week Traffic Predict has recorded. Planning Friday's drive? Check Friday, 5 pm.

The history behind forecasts and typical traffic grows every week, so they keep getting more accurate.

Incidents

Crashes, closures and hazards from the California Highway Patrol (and state agencies elsewhere) appear on the map as they are reported, and a slow stretch shows its likely cause when there is an incident ahead of it.

History

Traffic Predict first went online in 2006, built by its founder as an independent site for checking freeway traffic before heading out. Early versions drew the freeways of Los Angeles, San Diego and the Bay Area as map images colored by speed from Caltrans' road sensors.

In 2026 the site was rebuilt from the ground up: an interactive map, a forecast for the next few hours, replays of any past hour, typical traffic for every day and time, and years of recorded history, now reaching beyond California.

Contact and feedback

Questions, ideas, a freeway we should add, or something that looks wrong on the map? We read every message: support [at] trafficpredict [dot] com.

Credits

Traffic data: Caltrans PeMS and the California Highway Patrol; MnDOT (Twin Cities freeways); WSDOT (Washington, reported as congestion levels); Maryland CHART (speeds and incidents); CDOT COtrip (Colorado travel times and incidents); NYC DOT via NYC Open Data (New York City typical speeds); DelDOT (Delaware travel times); ODOT TripCheck (Oregon freeway speeds); MassDOT GoTime (Massachusetts travel times); VDOT via SmarterRoads (Virginia freeway speeds and incidents); Iowa DOT (Iowa freeway speeds, CC BY 4.0); Austin-Travis County incidents from the City of Austin, Texas - data.austintexas.gov; work zones from state and city transportation departments' WZDx feeds. Address search and routing in the traffic estimator powered by Geoapify (OpenStreetMap data); place names and populations from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Delaware's Transportation Management Center data provided by permission of the Delaware Department of Transportation. Oregon data is provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation "as is", without warranty of any kind; ODOT does not guarantee its availability, accuracy or completeness and is not liable for any actions taken based on it. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, tiles by OpenFreeMap, map rendering by MapLibre.

Traffic Predict is an independent site and is not affiliated with Caltrans, the CHP or any other transportation agency. Speeds and forecasts are estimates. Never check the map while driving.