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New Living Atlas Content: Real-Time Provincial Road Traveller Information

Enter contentive feature services displaying road conditions, traffic incidents and construction projects are now available in the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World Canada Edition.

With construction season in full swing, and winter just around the corner you might be thinking there is no escaping the unexpected traffic delays, but what if I told you there could be a solution? That is where Esri Canada’s Provincial Road Traveller Information Live Feature Services come in. With increased infrastructure projects across the country and unprecedented weather conditions every season, the need for up-to-date travel information has never been more important. Using data provided by the province’s 511 service, these live feature services are updated every 15 minutes.  

Currently the following provincial road traveller information live feature services are available, other provinces are coming soon.   

Each feature service consists of a variety of layers depending on what data that province’s 511 service collects.   

The event points layer provides point data on road events such as accidents & incidents, road closures, construction and general information. Each feature includes details on the event type, when it was last updated, and the direction of travel it is impacting. For planned events, such as road closures and roadwork a start date and planned end date are provided along with a recurrence schedule.   

 Event points legendEvent points pop up

For certain provinces an events lines layer is available, this layer corresponds to the events points layer and provides line data showing what road segment is affected by the event. This could be what road segment is currently experiencing road work or what section of the road is closed due to an accident.

Event lines pop up showing information on the roadwork being done on Queen Elizabeth II Hwy

A traffic camera layer is available for certain provinces providing details on its location and the latest photo taken so you can see in near real time what the traffic conditions are in the area.

Alberta cameras layer pop up for Hwy 216 showing photo of traffic conditions

The road conditions layer is essential as winter is fast approaching, it provides details on the conditions of the road, whether it is bare and dry, wet, or snow covered and what the visibility is of the road in the current weather conditions.   

Alberta road conditions layer pop up for Hwy 1 outside Banff, Alberta

We hope you can leverage these new Provincial Road Traveller Information Live Feature Services, and we look forward to seeing how your organization incorporates them into your workflows. Any feedback you have on the new live feature services would be greatly appreciated, please feel free to leave a comment on the item’s ArcGIS Online page or email our Living Atlas Curator (livingatlascurator@esri.ca).

About the Author

Malena McCrossan is the Living Atlas Curator at Esri Canada. With a passion for building community and finding innovative solutions to real-world problems using GIS, Malena is dedicated to curating insightful and reliable content. After discovering GIS during her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, she obtained a postgraduate diploma in GIS from Fleming College. In her spare time, you can find Malena enjoying the outdoors or planning her next travel adventure.

Profile Photo of Malena McCrossan-Moses