Real-time traffic condition measurement using network transmission data

A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executed on one or more computers, performs the steps of:

• Step One:
• identifying a first location, at time one, of a plurality of automobiles using triangulation to locate a cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles, wherein the triangulation is initiated based at least in part on non-location data that is transmitted from the cell phone over a network that is utilized by the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles;
• identifying a second location, at a time two, subsequent to time one, for each of the plurality of automobiles using triangulation to locate the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles, wherein the triangulation is initiated based at least in part on non-location data that is transmitted from the cell phone over the network that is utilized by the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles;
• calculating a vehicle speed for each of the plurality of automobiles using the first location at time one and the second location at time two;
• using the calculated vehicle speed for each of the plurality of automobiles to create a traffic condition measure for a route in proximity to the first and second locations;
• Step Two:
• iteratively performing Step One, in real-time, at a time interval to calculate a real-time traffic condition measure;
• receiving a user request from a user's cell phone for traffic condition information associated with the route;
• and
• presenting the real-time traffic condition measure to a display of the user's cell phone.

A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executed on one or more computers, performs the steps of:

• Step One:
• identifying a first location, at time one, of a plurality of automobiles using triangulation to locate a cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles, wherein the triangulation is initiated based at least in part on non-location data that is transmitted from the cell phone over a network that is utilized by the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles;
• identifying a second location, at a time two, subsequent to time one, for each of the plurality of automobiles using triangulation to locate the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles, wherein the triangulation is initiated based at least in part on non-location data that is transmitted from the cell phone over the network that is utilized by the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles;
• calculating a vehicle speed for each of the plurality of automobiles using the first location at time one and the second location at time two;
• using the calculated vehicle speed for each of the plurality of automobiles to create a traffic condition measure for a route in proximity to the first and second locations;
• Step Two:
• iteratively performing Step One, in real-time, at a time interval to calculate a real-time traffic condition measure;
• receiving a user request from a user's cell phone for traffic condition information associated with the route;
• and
• presenting the real-time traffic condition measure to a display of the user's cell phone, wherein the presented real-time traffic condition measure is selected from a plurality of real-time traffic conditions measures based at least in part on the presented real-time traffic condition measure containing traffic data relating to a geographic area in proximity to a cell phone tower from which the user's request was received.