New gadgets help commuters outsmart traffic

Mike Lucki never leaves home without it. Usually riding in the passenger seat as he drives to work or sitting in the center console is Mr. Lucki's TrafficGauge, a 3-by-5 inch LCD rendering of Los Angeles' freeways.

Bars the size of ants blink on and off as they march up and down digital stretches of freeway to represent traffic.

"I'd feel lost without it," says Lucki, a CPA from Orange County, who uses the device to navigate his 40-mile commute to Los Angeles. "It's basically a huge time-saver and I would not step in my car without one."

With commute times likely to increase in major cities, several new traffic-monitoring devices are attempting to put more drivers in the fast lane. While commuters may think these devices will solve their traffic woes, it ultimately depends on geographic location and how much they are willing to spend.

"What we've seen is continuing growth in traffic, and a lot more people want to be armed with information as they travel," says Shawn Turner, an associate research engineer at the Texas Transportation Institute in Bryan, Texas. "How a person gets the traffic information is like buying a camera: Some want the $80 point-and-shoot, while others like the more expensive digital SLR [cameras]."

TrafficGauge is the former, retailing for about $80 with a monthly subscription fee that ranges between $5 and $7. The device provides a fixed-screen image of a traffic map that is updated about every four minutes with information from state-run monitoring systems. Its power source: two AA batteries that last approximately two months.

Lucki looks at where the traffic is lining up on the device, indicated by blinking and stationary bars, and finds alternate routes that appear free and clear of slow-moving cars. TrafficGauge data is delivered to commuters via a wireless network that receives information from traffic monitoring systems on freeways.

Lucki estimates he saves about 30 hours a year using TrafficGauge. That's about a one-third of the time Americans spend commuting to work on an annual basis, according to the US Census Bureau.

But commuting times vary depending on the city, and that can ultimately determine whether someone subscribes to a traffic- monitoring service. For example, the average commute in Los Angeles is 29 minutes, compared with 17.3 minutes in Omaha, Neb.

At the same time, TrafficGauge only works in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. That means New Yorkers, who on average commute 38.3 minutes to work each day, may have to look to another product.

So far, a handful of companies have developed more sophisticated devices that rely on satellites and FM frequencies. Among the three biggest players are Magellan, TomTom, and Garmin.

Powered by a cigarette lighter adapter, these devices come equipped with GPS and enough memory to remember a favorite dining location or vacation spot.

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