If you live in New York, USA, you can take selfies using the Department of Transportation's network of traffic cameras!
The site TrafficCamPhotobooth.com was created by Brooklyn resident Morry Kolman and provides access to more than 900 of the city's traffic cameras, which the Department of Transportation broadcasts in (near) real time on its own website.
Users must enter the Traffic Cam Photobooth website with their mobile phone (not a laptop or desktop), provide their location data to automatically access the nearest traffic camera.
Alternatively, if they don't want to make their mark, they can choose a camera from those on the site map.
This opens a detailed map of New York and surrounding areas, marked with red location pins for traffic cameras. The track of pins indicates many photo spots or points of interest throughout the city. See below for a map of all the Department of Transportation cameras available that people can use to take an unusual selfie.
People can then use the traffic camera by posing for three seconds in front of it after clicking “Take My Photo!” the webpage will display the latest image from it. The snapshot may take a few seconds (around 3 seconds since the cameras take one photo every two seconds) and it will also take some time to get to your mobile.
A 2024 study by Comparitech found that New York City has a total of nearly 71.000 surveillance cameras, the most of any city in the United States, but still far behind many Asian cities in cameras per capita.
The creator has some basic tips for those who want to take a very unusual selfie using his new website. Most importantly, avoid standing in the middle of the road and look both ways before crossing. Beyond that, Kolman recommends wearing bright clothing or posing with a large group to make an impression on the wide-angle view of the traffic camera.
The site was the result of Kolman taking an art class that had students think about how to take pictures without actively pressing the camera shutter. Coleman has received requests to expand the project to other cities and is currently considering Atlanta and Salt Lake City as possible candidates.
Kolman uses GitHub as the repository for the project of and related data, and anyone is free to build on his work to create something similar elsewhere.
We we used LTBrowser to simulate the existence of a mobile phone and take the first two pictures, although it may work from your mobile too..
