Starting today, you can now get "traffic adjusted" driving direction from Live.Com.  This is cool stuff and is available for 72 cities in the US.

The reason I am excited about this is not just the ability to get directions that account for traffic conditions, but the fact that is is a real and tangible result of some of the work that is going on in Microsoft R&D.  I dogged the R&D guys in my last blog post for doing the automatic background music thing and wanting to see something that had some real value.  Well, those boys (and girls) listened and responded.  I never realized I had so much pull! ;-)

This CNET article provides a lot of the details around the project, which is called Clearflow.  A few highlights of the article:

- Clearflow is free

- Uses local traffic congestion information to provide the fastest possible route.  From the article, "The new service will on occasion plan routes that might not be intuitive to a driver. For example, in some cases Clearflow will compute that a trip will be faster if a driver stays on a crowded highway, rather than taking a detour, because side streets are even more backed up by cars that have fled the original traffic jam."

- The project has been in development and started in 2003.  It initially focused on developing algorithms for Seattle only, using data provided by the local traffic system and from Microsoft volunteers that recorded GPS data during their commutes.  As a result, "...they were able to build a model for predicting traffic based on four years of data and 16,500 discrete trips covering over 125,000 miles. The system effectively created individual "personalities" for over 819,000 road segments in the Seattle region."  The researches then adapted those results to be used in other cities.

Some very cool stuff to be sure.  I just ran a test of it and the result was pretty blah since the origin and destination (home to local Microsoft office) didn't hit any areas of congestion, but there was extra detail on the route map showing construction zones, clogged side streets, etc.  I can see how it would be very useful if you were trying to get around during peak traffic times.  The one downside of course is that you have to have access to Live.com to plan your route prior to leaving.  No word yet on if the feature will be incorporated into the Live Search Mobile app I have running on my Blackjack II Windows Mobile Phone.  That would be VERY, VERY useful if I could pull up my Live Search Mobile app while on the road (paying complete attention to the road while doing so, of course) and get a real-time route based on the current traffic conditions.  Fingers crossed that is coming some time soon.