About the app

The app tells drivers when travel times will be longer than normal for that time of the day, for example when crashes or roadworks cause delays.

The app also gives regular updates about how long it will take to get from one location to another at specific locations on key routes, such as the Southern Outlet or the East Tamar Highway.

The app also provides a map displaying delays to travel times to assist with trip planning.

The app is designed for people that are familiar with the road network and the usual traffic conditions.

The app won’t give drivers alerts about normal, or recurring congestion that happens every day, for example during morning or afternoon peak travel times.

Alerts and Travel Time information will not be available in areas not covered by Bluetooth detectors.

TrafficTAS provides alerts about traffic conditions by using Bluetooth detectors along the road to see how long it’s taking vehicles to travel from one point to another.

Bluetooth detectors are set up on key roads around major population centres.

Each detector identifies your smart phone or other Bluetooth device, and when the signal was received.

The system uses Bluetooth and your phone's location based services to determine the vehicle’s location, direction of travel and how long it takes to travel between detectors. The app uses this information to give users regular travel time updates on busy roads.

No personally identifiable information is collected or stored by the app.

Some of the Bluetooth detectors are also capable of broadcasting alerts. These devices are known as “beacons”.

When the system detects that cars are taking longer than usual to travel in a certain direction, the app will broadcast an audio message from a beacon, with information about the location, the cause of the delay (if it’s known) and how long delays will be. The delay is also displayed on the app’s map view.

The TrafficTAS app is a “set and forget” app which runs in the background on your phone and gives you audio alerts about unusual traffic delays.

TrafficTAS uses real time data from the traffic network to update quickly when traffic conditions change. This can be very useful if there is a crash or any unusual delay on the road ahead of you.

TrafficTAS also learns which routes you travel frequently, and provides earlier warning of incidents on your regular trips.

The label on the map screen might show something like "+4min" next to each coloured line. This means that the delay is 4 minutes longer than normal for this time and day.

No identifiable information is collected and stored by the Department of State Growth without specific permission.

The only data that is collected from the public is a MAC address, which is a unique identifier for each smart device.

These addresses are stored temporarily and “anonymised” – given a new random number - to produce the statistics that are needed to make the app work.

The identifier for the device is only kept for the user’s current trip, and because it is “anonymised” it can’t be used to identify anyone personally. The anonymised identifier will be deleted after one hour of inactivity, or after 24 hours if the device is detected at least once an hour over that time.

Currently there is only a TrafficTAS phone app available.

It can be downloaded from the Google Play or the Apple app Store.

The app will only broadcast alerts within our Bluetooth coverage area.

At the moment, the app covers Greater Hobart, Greater Launceston, and the Midland Highway.

We will be expanding the Bluetooth network over time to include other major population centres, such as Burnie and Devonport.