Interesting “study” being conducted for GPS enabled phones by UC Berkeley, Nokia, and NAVTEQ. Called the Mobile Millennium Traffic Pilot, it gathers real time information from GPS enabled telephones for traffic congestion updates.

Unlike other solutions, it gathers more than just the major roads as it supports minor roads too, which can be major congestion points in urban areas. Participation is open to anyone with a GPS-enabled mobile phone who lives in the Northern California area. The pilot program is scheduled to run for four to six months with up to 10,000 participants.

I’ve downloaded this to my Blackberry Curve. It also works with the Pearl and a number of Nokias like the E71, E61i, N96 and N95.

On my Curve, it comes up on the applications menu. The only problem is that it is slow in the first implementation producing some latency with the menu. Green lines are obvious on roads that are clear and or moving at the limit with yellow and red lines for the bigger problems. A yield sign shows up where there is some identifiable problem and when you mouse over it, you get a pop up explanation.

If you are in the SF Bay Area or traveling through, go to traffic.berkeley.edu for information on the download.