It may be useful, but is it safe?

BeatTheTraffic.com booth outside the Pacific Centre, Vancouver, BC

Sign at BeatTheTraffic.com booth at the Pacific Centre, Vancouver, BC

BeatTheTraffic.com is a website and smartphone app that offers real-time road traffic information for drivers.

Now that sounds like a good idea. Even if you are listening to an all traffic station, such as Vancouver AM730 (http://www.am730.ca/), there will always be incidents that are either not reported or are reported too late for you to take another route. Real-time traffic reporting, linked to GPS on a smartphone, offers a personalized traffic conditions report that would enable motorists to pick the best route regardless of the day's conditions.

And what problem do I have with this application? In addition to traffic information obtained from local and provincial/state government sources such as traffic cams, the application also relies on crowdsourcing. Users can upload their own traffic reports and photographs of accidents, roadwork, and delays.

Using a mobile device while driving is generally illegal, in addition to being dangerous. Does this application encourage drivers to break that law? Well not explicitly, but how many drivers will pull over in stalled traffic to upload a picture of the cause of the problem?

The irony would be complete if a BeatTheTraffic user caused an accident that then slowed down all of the other BeatTheTraffic users. I'm sure it is only a matter of time.