Hate Traffic? Try This Download

Here at the PC World offices in San Francisco, we're fortunate to overlook the Bay Bridge. If we're headed home and wonder if the bridge is backed up, we can just look out the window. But what about congestion on all the other bridges and highways in the Bay Area or in other congested metropoli? A new, free download from Traffic Gauge provides a birds'-eye look.

When you click the little T logo in your system tray, a map of the area you choose pops up showing a very basic schematic of the major thoroughfares. A solid line indicates medium traffic, a blinking line shows heavy traffic. If you really want to stress about the traffic, you can set the map to pop up as a screensaver whenever you're idle.



The company follows traffic in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles/Orange Count, Minneapolis, Orange County and the Inland Empire of California, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Salt Lake City and Seattle.

The application has a couple of small ads for other companies, and of course the download itself is a big ad for Traffic Gauge's main business, selling a handheld device that has real-time traffic maps you can bring with you. But hey, if you're on the road a lot, this could help you dodge some gridlock.