Prague launches new traffic website

Due to a large amount of road construction, traffic in Prague is often unpredictable and it is hard to plan a journey.

Information on traffic constraints in the capital, including live camera shots, will be available at the new city-run website www.dopravapraha.cz.

This new website has an interactive map showing the current state of traffic on Prague's roads. “People will find everything in the map that they may need before their journey. All roadblocks and traffic constraints are shown in detail. You can look at current traffic cameras on the map and see the current traffic density on particular monitored roads. Everything is in one place,” Prague Deputy Mayor Petr Dolínek (ČSSD), responsible for transportation, said on the City Hall website.

The city some time ago launched a project to allow people to make suggestions about improving Prague. There have been more than 13,700 comments in the year a half since the launch of the project, with almost one-third of them devoted to the state of Prague's roads and streets.

“We cover a total of 2,327 kilometers of traffic, roughly 60 percent of all roads in Prague. Ordinary maintenance or reconstruction concerns a considerable part of them, so we have prepared a new website for better clarity in cooperation with the Prague City Hall. This is, in practice, an extension of the project, through which people daily send us requests for places to be repaired,” Petr Smolka, CEO of the city’s Technical Roadways Administration (TSK) said.

People will have a detailed overview of what is happening around their place of residence and what repairs are planned.

A new icon will appear on the site when a smartphone app is approved for Android and iOS.

“We are preparing a communication strategy. Prague must provide people with better and more timely information on closures. The strategy is to explain changes in roads, to mark closures on the spot in city streets, and also describe in detail the information in campaigns ahead of the closures,” Dolínek said.

“For large closures, there are a number of measures, ranging from leaflets, social media advertisements, posters in urban areas and informational staff in the streets. Our goal will be to make people aware of complications on the roads well in advance,” Dolínek said.

“The communication changes will also cover the marking closures at the locations. Markings should warn the driver in advance of a traffic complication, and whether he or she will be delayed for a long time at a closure or if it is worthwhile to take a detour,” he added.

The extent of traffic complications will be expressed in colors. Green indicates minimal traffic problems, red warns of closure with major impacts on traffic, with a delay of up to 30 minutes or more. It would be optimal for this vision to be put into life during the winter break and for the city to be informed from the beginning of the construction year 2019 as far as possible.