Your commute Via SMS

Did you know that you can accurately predict your commute in real time using a text service which South Dublin County Council provide?

Previously we blogged about the use which the traffic management section within South Dublin County Council make of real time traffic information from a network of cameras located throughout the county road network.  In addition the traffic section use advanced automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) as vehicles travel along many of the county’s roads.  Vehicle number plates once logged are fed into a database which gives accurate journey times.  This information is used by our dedicated traffic management staff to make improvements in commuter journeys and assist the control systems to ease congestion on the road network.

The council has gone a stage further and now literally sitting at your breakfast table, you can text the traffic centre the name of a road and the direction you will be travelling.  The Council’s traffic systems will respond by texting your mobile phone with a traffic update - journey times for segments of route along the requested road.  This clever and innovative use of traffic information occurs in near real time (allowing for calculations to take place - matching of vehicle journey times, etc.).  The results which get returned to you are accurate within a couple of minutes of the present traffic situation.

Why not give it a go?

For convenience, the number to text is a short code number - 51678.  This is a standard rate text number so will cost no more than €0.15c from any operator (operator charges vary). For example if you propose to travel along the lucan bypass into the city, you would text N4 East to 51678.

Below is a complete list of the roads and the commands.

N4 Lucan Bypass

“N4 East” towards Dublin
or “N4 West” away from Dublin

N7 Naas Road

“N7 East” towards Dublin
or “N7 West” away from Dublin

N81 Tallaght Bypass

“N81 East” towards Dublin
or “N81 West” away from Dublin

Belgard Road (R113)

“BEL South” towards the N81
“BEL North” towards the N7

Fonthill Road (R113)

“FONT South” towards the N81
“FONT North” towards the N7

Outer Ring Road (R136)

“ORR South” towards the N81
“ORR North” towards the N4

Finally and perhaps most importantly - Never text or operate your mobile phone while driving.  It is irresponsible, puts other road users lives at risk, and frankly is against the law.