Traffic Service Developer's Guide
The Traffic Service provides real time traffic information related to incidents, markets and flow.
Traffic Incidents
The Traffic Incidents request returns a structured list of traffic incidents for a specified bounding box in JSON or XML formats, e.g., road construction, traffic collisions.
The following example demonstrates a simple request to get incidents given a bounding box. The JavaScript code which sends the request and displays the result can be viewed here.
Sample URL for incidents on the current map:
Sample URL for flow image of traffic on the current map:
Incidents URL Parameters
The following table describes the request parameters that may be included to make an incident request
| Request Parameter | Description | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| inFormat |
Specifies the format of the request. If this parameter is not supplied, the input format is assumed to be JSON-formatted text. The JSON-formatted input text must be supplied as either the "json" parameter of an HTTP GET, or as the BODY of an HTTP POST.
If this parameter is "xml", the XML-formatted input text must be supplied as either the "xml" parameter of an HTTP GET, or as the BODY of an HTTP POST.
Must be one of the following, if supplied:
"json" if not supplied
|
No |
| callback | A JavaScript function name. The JSON-formatted response will be wrapped in a call to the supplied callback function name to provide JSONP functionality. This functionality might be needed to do cross-site scripting. See the Wikipedia.org entry for JSON for more details. | No |
| filters | A list of incident types to return.
Possible values are:
Default: incidents,construction
|
No |
| boundingBox | The area in which to search for incidents. | Yes |
| outFormat | Specifies the format of the response.
Must be one of the following, if supplied:
"json" if not supplied
|
No |
Incidents response
| Sample JSON Response | Sample XML Response |
|---|---|
{incidents: [
{impacting: false,
eventCode: 0,
iconURL: "http://...",
lat: 38.743999,
shortDesc: "Exit ramp closed on I 95...",
type: 1,
severity: 0,
fullDesc: "In NEWINGTON exit ramp closed on I-95 ...",
startTime: "2010-02-21T00:14:07",
lng: -77.188004,
id: "368598263",
endTime: "2010-02-27T05:04:19"
},
...
],
info: {
statuscode: 0,
copyright: {
},
messages: []
},
mqURL : "http://www.mapquest.com/...."
}
|
<IncidentsResponse>
<Incidents>
<Incident>
<id>368598263</id>
<type>1</type>
<severity>0</severity>
<eventCode>0</eventCode>
<lat>38.743999</lat>
<lng>-77.188004</lng>
<startTime>2010-02-21T00:14:07.000-05:00</startTime>
<endTime>2010-02-27T05:04:19.000-05:00</endTime>
<shortDesc>ramp closed on I 95 ...</shortDesc>
<fullDesc>.......</fullDesc>
<iconURL>http://...</iconURL>
</Incident>
.....
</Incidents>
<info>
<statusCode>0</statusCode>
<messages />
<copyright>
<imageUrl>http://...</imageUrl>
<imageAltText>...</imageAltText>
<text>...</text>
</copyright>
</info>
<mqURL>http://www.mapquest.com...</mqURL>
</IncidentsResponse>
|
mqURL contains a link back to mapquest.com
that would show all the incidents on a mapquest map.
Traffic Markets
The Traffic Markets Request returns a structured list of regions, or "markets", for which MapQuest provides Traffic data. The list is available in JSON or XML formats.
This function takes no parameters other than a valid key.
Sample Markets request
| Sample JSON Response | Sample XML Response |
|---|---|
{markets: [
{state: "OH",
lng: -81.519202,
lat: 41.081401,
iconURL: "http://...",
city: "Akron / Canton"
zoom: 7,
mqURL: "http://www.mapquest.com...",
boundingBox: {
ul: {
lng: -82.110762
lat: 41.359286
},
lr: {
lng: -80.926346
lat: 40.803517
}
}
},
...
],
info: {
copyright: {
},
statuscode: 0,
messages: []
}
}
|
<MarketsResponse>
<markets>
<market>
<city>Akron / Canton</city>
<state>OH</state>
<lng>-81.519202</lng>
<lat>41.081401</lat>
<iconURL>http://...</iconURL>
<zoom>7</zoom>
<mqURL>http://www.mapquest.com...</mqURL>
<boundingBox>
<ul>
<latLng>
<lat>41.359286</lat>
<lng>-82.110762</lng>
</latLng>
</ul>
<lr>
<latLng>
<lat>40.803517</lat>
<lng>-80.926346</lng>
</latLng>
</lr>
</boundingBox>
</market>
...
</markets>
<info>
<statusCode>
0
</statusCode>
<messages/>
</info>
<copyright>
...
</copyright>
</MarketsResponse>
|
mqURL contains a link back to viewing that specific market
on mapquest.com
Flow Image
The Flow Request returns an image of the current traffic for a particular area.
The following table describes the request parameters that may be included in a Flow request
| Request Parameter | Description | Required? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| inFormat | Specifies the format of the request. | No | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| mapState | A valid mapState for this image.
This parameter must contain the following information:
mapLat and mapLng represent the latitude
and longitude of the center of the map.
Note: As of January 2010, the scale factor / zoom of this mapState
must be one of the values in the following table.
|
Yes |
Sample Flow Image request
The following sample returns a 400x400 pixel image centered on Arlington, VA, with a scale of 154950 (zoom level of 8 on a MapQuest map.)
