The Jewish holidays are next month. Every year at this time I start thinking about where we will go and what I will wear. We used to belong to a specific Synagogue, but we haven’t done that in a long time. We like the idea of visiting new temples every year because it gives us the diversity of seeing what others are doing and donating appropriately. We usually end up staying on the Island of Manhattan because the traffic is so horrendous leaving it. Our family and friends who live outside of the borough can never really comprehend the additional hours it takes us to get to their home or house of worship when they invite us to join them.

One holiday we spent almost two hours on the west side highway going from 34th Street to the George Washington Bridge. Another year when we went to Long Island it took us almost an hour to get through the Midtown tunnel. Many family members or pals have suggested that we take public transportation or start out earlier. We will consider that a few years from now, but at the moment we say “come to us” or “we will observe with others right here.”

I was recently relating the Jewish Holiday scenario to a friend. He immediately told me about an app that becomes your own personal traffic reporter. It is called “Beat The Traffic” which provides you with a service that lets you know “real time” traffic conditions. You get to create your own personalized routes and see traffic speeds, incidents, cameras, even weather along the exact routes you plan to drive. It will also alert you of a change in traffic conditions while you’re on the road.

I was very surprised to learn that this app already has over a million users and is in three countries. There are 22,245 traffic cameras for you to check. I love looking at the Lincoln and Midtown tunnels. I also just checked on the roads in Miami today where hurricane Isaac is mildly passing over now. Ever so grateful that all is well there even though our flight was cancelled this morning.

We will hopefully be in Miami on Tuesday. And we will be in Manhattan during the Jewish holidays no matter how well this app works. What is that saying for moments like this? Oh yeah, “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks.”

Be sure to check out the website. Click here. Remember, get used to the mobile app. You most likely will be accessing info from the road.