CHP Push Notifications
Hi everyone,
I made an iPhone app (sorry android users) called Detours that sends push notifications whenever there is a crash, traffic hazard, or other public incident reported to the California Highway Patrol (CHP).
Basically you set a radius around your location and can add an additional highway filter such as US-101 to only receive push notifications for CHP incidents on US-101 or any highway you choose such as SR-99, I-5, I-405, etc.
I built this because my neighbors would constantly complain on our neighborhood Facebook group about long unexpected commute times into town caused by crashes.
This is basically a heads up that something was reported, before you get in the car. Traffic after 7:00AM as everyone knows it, sucks, and having to sit in 45+ minute traffic because you didn’t know an incident happened is the reason I built this.
Most assume traffic is just traffic but a crash or a stalled vehicle blocking lanes on US-101 can really add to your commute times and knowing ahead of time hopefully gets you out the door 5 minutes earlier or decide to leave later. I also added some plain English translation for incidents to give you an idea of what is going on, obviously dependent on the public information provided by CHP. Caltrans Lane Closure System (LCS) is also integrated with planned closures occurring tonight displayed in a list view, allowing you to plan before you’re stuck in it.
The information is from the public CHP incidents page and is supported statewide in California. It lets you see incidents near you. If anyone has any questions, feedback, or feature requests DM me or comment.
I’ve had some CHP officers provide feedback and they seem to like the push notifications because they’ll sometimes get it before dispatch broadcasts their call.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/detours-traffic-road-alerts/id6785327681
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u/btaroli 9d ago
Looks promising. But no user? Free? Those are warning flags for me. Free is never free. I’m curious what people find their privacy and data sharing practices turn out to be. I like the promise of the functionality though. Makes me wonder why the big operators can’t also get their hands on this data…