Once there they can see live images from six cameras:

• Woodinville-Duvall Road at Avondale Road
• Woodinville-Duvall Road at West Snoqualmie Valley Road - facing south
• Woodinville-Duvall Road at West Snoqualmie Valley Road - facing east
• Petrovitsky Road at 140th Ave. SE
• Petrovitsky Road/Carr Road at State Route 515 (Benson Road)
• SE 208th Street at State Route 515 (Benson Road)

Three more cameras are set for hookup in the near future:

• 100th Avenue NE at Juanita-Woodinville Way
• 100th Avenue N.E. at N.E. 132nd Street
• Petrovitsky Road at 116^th Ave. SE

The camera intersections were chosen for their high traffic volumes and congestion during the morning and afternoon commutes, and their significance as major arterial corridors. Four are also the sites for upcoming road improvements, so that when work gets underway motorists can check in advance for any construction-related backups:

• The Woodinville-Duvall Road at Avondale is an intersection of two major arterials that handles 30,000 vehicles a day going from Duvall and South Snohomish County to Renton, Bellevue, Redmond and parts of Seattle. The two-lane intersection will be widened next spring to allow additional turn lanes, through lanes, sidewalks and bike lanes.

• Petrovitsky Road at 140^th Ave. SE is the intersection of two major arterials on the Soos Creek Plateau and handles 45,000 vehicles per day. It is scheduled in 2005 for dual left-turn lanes and a right turn from Petrovitsky to both legs of 140^th and from 140^th to Petrovitsky.

• Petrovitsky Road/Carr Road at SR 515 (Benson Road) is being studied for widening improvements to address traffic from existing and future development on the North Soos Creek Plateau.

• SE 208th Street at 105^th Place SE just west of State Route 515 (Benson Road) will get new left lanes at 105^th Place SE and improvements to lower the grade of the road to improve visibility. Design is set for this year with construction in 2003.

Without having costly fiber-optic cables already in place to these suburban locations, King County’s new traffic cams are among the first in the region to use phone lines to carry signals back to the county’s web servers.

The new cameras, manufactured by SecureEye of Seattle and part of the emerging field known as Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), are tools for traffic and incident management and for real-time traveler information. The images will be monitored by Metro Transit for routing and scheduling decisions, and also by a new King County Traffic Control Center, scheduled for completion late this year on the second floor of the King Street Center building at Second and Jackson. Engineers and technicians will be able to monitor real-time traffic conditions and can intervene quickly to deal with emerging problems. They will be able to adjust signal timings, dispatch police, firefighters and ambulances when needed, and advise motorists through emerging technologies. Such high-tech traffic management will mean shorter delays in travel time and safer roadways.

Citizens and commercial truckers will be able to see traffic conditions before leaving, giving them a chance to avoid congested areas and plan alternate routes.

The primary use of the traffic cameras is for traffic management and advance traveler information, not law enforcement or surveillance. King County engineers may occasionally record video feeds for traffic studies, but as a matter of policy no regular recordings will be made nor any tapes maintained. The cameras are not able to read license plates nor do they have speed sensors.

To access the traffic cameras, users need only a dial-up Internet connection or better, and either of the industry standard web browsers, Internet Explorer 4.x or Netscape 4.x. The camera images refresh automatically, depending on the user's connection speed.