SARASOTA & MANATEE- A grant from Florida Department of Transportation eases some stress from the daily commute to work on the Suncoast.


It’s a new era for traffic management on the Suncoast.


“They are going to know what’s ahead of them,” said Fabio Capillo, Manager of the Manatee County Traffic Design Division.


Manatee County’s Traffic Design Division introduces two new ways to view traffic before your morning commute.


He said, “The ability to have a live video feed of those traffic cameras that are deployed in the field, the goal is for them to understand the roadway condition.”


More than 200 cameras have been installed; allowing free access to more than 470 intersections across Sarasota and Manatee Counties through their website: SmartTrafficInfo.Org


Capillo said,”Pull up the website, check the live video stream, which is real time, and I have a clear understanding of how the roadway is performing right now. If it is congested, do I want to make the trip now? or do I want to schedule for later?”


The Sarasota–Manatee Regional Traffic Management Center or (RTMC) in Bradenton is open Monday through Friday.


“We have staff on site, who are able to catch it first, then we’ll monitor the condition,” he said.


The center has engineers on staff to perform incident management.


“..on the fly, they are able to make temporary signal changes in response to congestion,” he said.


The center also launched a Twitter page , @941_Traffic working with Florida Highway Patrol to provide live updates on adverse road conditions.


Capillo said,”We come here, we are putting 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. We are proud to be able to help many of our neighbors, our friends, our visitors. Finally, they are able to see what we see.”


Camera feeds are available on your mobile device and desktop 24/7.