Shorten The Commute Via Cell Phone?

The "I'm stuck in traffic" calls begin when road reports pass more quickly than mile markers.

But some think those same calls could someday get you home sooner.

Michael Pack runs the University of Maryland's center for advanced transportation technology, where everything focuses on getting the traffic we all deal with every day moving better.

One idea has an awfully familiar ring.

"If you track a phone for several seconds or minutes, you can figure out how fast traffic is flowing."

Philip Tarnoff is evaluating an experimental Baltimore program that tracks the number of cell phones turned on in traveling vehicles. Those signals become data that shows traffic managers slowdowns up and down every road, not just in the view of those traffic cameras.

Cell phone monitoring is mostly untested, but advocates think it may be one more way to give your commute home a better connection.

Click "Play video" to see Emily's report.