Half of America's traffic cameras aren't live video
Of 53,740 public traffic cameras across the US, 25,931 stream actual video — about 48%. The other half publish a still image that refreshes every few minutes.
"Live traffic camera" means two very different things depending on which state you are in. Some DOTs run video streams you can watch move. Others publish a photograph every few minutes — useful, but not live in any real sense.
12 states stream video on effectively every camera they publish: Texas, Virginia, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas. At the other end, Illinois, Washington, Utah, Oregon publish almost nothing but stills.
Live video coverage by state
| State | Cameras | With video | % video |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 2,306 | 2,306 | 100% |
| Virginia | 1,662 | 1,662 | 100% |
| Missouri | 871 | 871 | 100% |
| South Carolina | 796 | 796 | 100% |
| Tennessee | 669 | 669 | 100% |
| Arkansas | 555 | 555 | 100% |
| Maryland | 552 | 552 | 100% |
| Oklahoma | 466 | 466 | 100% |
| Wisconsin | 460 | 460 | 100% |
| Delaware | 364 | 364 | 100% |
| Louisiana | 336 | 336 | 100% |
| Indiana | 748 | 747 | 100% |
| Nevada | 661 | 637 | 96% |
| Florida | 4,992 | 4,761 | 95% |
| Pennsylvania | 1,562 | 1,446 | 93% |
| Massachusetts | 310 | 286 | 92% |
| North Carolina | 1,215 | 1,108 | 91% |
| Hawaii | 361 | 328 | 91% |
| Colorado | 984 | 804 | 82% |
| Iowa | 866 | 703 | 81% |
| Minnesota | 1,538 | 1,229 | 80% |
| Mississippi | 458 | 326 | 71% |
| California | 3,605 | 2,308 | 64% |
| New York | 3,899 | 1,761 | 45% |
| Kansas | 495 | 200 | 40% |
| Georgia | 6,154 | 250 | 4% |
| Illinois | 3,749 | 0 | 0% |
| Washington | 2,361 | 0 | 0% |
| Utah | 2,086 | 0 | 0% |
| Oregon | 1,177 | 0 | 0% |
| Ohio | 1,158 | 0 | 0% |
| North Dakota | 814 | 0 | 0% |
| Michigan | 806 | 0 | 0% |
| South Dakota | 727 | 0 | 0% |
| Idaho | 647 | 0 | 0% |
| Arizona | 644 | 0 | 0% |
| Alabama | 634 | 0 | 0% |
| Montana | 423 | 0 | 0% |
| Connecticut | 347 | 0 | 0% |
| Nebraska | 340 | 0 | 0% |
| Kentucky | 250 | 0 | 0% |
| New Mexico | 185 | 0 | 0% |
| New Hampshire | 180 | 0 | 0% |
| Alaska | 148 | 0 | 0% |
How we measured
A camera counts as video when the state publishes a playable stream for it (an HLS manifest), and as a still when all it offers is an image URL. We read this straight from each DOT's own feed — we are not guessing from the picture.
States with fewer than 100 cameras are left out of the table to avoid percentages built on a handful of devices.
On Roadze you can tell them apart
Every camera is labelled: red "Live" for real video, amber "Snapshot" for a refreshing photo. Open a still camera and Roadze loops the last few frames, so you can see movement instead of a frozen picture.