Gridlock Guy: Tracking traffic in a truck has several advantages over a helicopter

The way I navigate traffic has changed in the past year. After 20 years of reporting on Atlanta’s traffic, the majority of which involved a helicopter, I took a nine-month break to do retirement radio and podcasting at financial marketing firm Impact Partnership.

That time at Impact was a needed reset. The culture in the media department was fantastic, the products were top-notch, and bankers’ hours were so refreshing, compared to the 24-hour, retail-like demand of live media.

But 11Alive came calling and a single day of training and traffic-gathering in its Midtown newsroom with traffic anchor Rachel Cox-Rosen reignited that drive in me that the urgency of news beckons. Game on.

11Alive has deployed the rebranded and upgraded Weather and Traffic Impact Tracker. This SUV is equipped with multiple external cameras, full digital broadcasting capabilities, and steady Wi-Fi (something any reporter would say is the biggest feature).

Robust internet access and power banks allow me to bring my portable Traffic Center (commonly referred to as a “laptop”) on the road to scour our online sources, watch cameras, and listen to police scanners. This allows our team a second set of eyes to find the latest traffic jams on Atlanta’s streets.

The Traffic Impact Tracker, as it is called when I am riding shotgun, sends its broadcast-ready signal back to WXIA via a 5G cellular signal, so the sound and picture quality are comparable to any other reporter in the field. In fact, most infield reports these days are fed over this signal and not the microwave or satellite truck of not-so-distant years past.

Photographer Stephen Boissy drives us — and he knows so many great places to pull over and get a view. He also can jump out and shoot video of problems and even have me safely do stand-up reports outside of the truck.

Technology has made remote reporting so much more cost-efficient and so much less cumbersome than before.

Riding in a traffic helicopter was slick and convenient. The time traveling to and from incidents was infinitesimal compared to what driving to one is. Helicopter reporters can spot new incidents and help their teams show the impact of an incident or the intensity of the delays.

There is no replacing the airborne advantage, as we called it for many years.

But technology has closed the gap between the ground and the sky. Google Maps and similar apps use an algorithm to measure the density of and speed of cell signals to very accurately pinpoint delays. Gmaps, as us reporters often abbreviate it, essentially function like a weather radar for meteorologists. When red pops up, we report on our traffic “thunderstorm” and try to find the cause of unusual slow spots.

GDOT and other local municipalities have exponentially increased the amount of cameras along metro Atlanta roads since my career began in 2004. These cameras and maps essentially functioned as a “helicopter” in the hours that the traffic bird did not fly.

Helicopters are amazing. The vantage points, the excitement, the sound, and the expediency are untouched. But the connectivity of our 11Alive Traffic Impact Tracker truck allows me to feel more plugged in to all of the traffic incidents and delays we have at once and allows me to help make calls and check traffic cameras in a way that I could not in the air.

And I get to really feel the pain of the delays in which many of you sit.

So far, 11Alive is the only outlet that is deploying a reporter into Atlanta traffic every morning. And I am honored to work at a place and to have the tools to do so. So, tune in to hear about the worst spots on the Atlanta roads before your commute.

Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com.