Traffic API

POST Traffic Incidents

The Traffic Incidents request returns a structured list of traffic incidents for a specified bounding box in JSON or XML formats, e.g., road construction, traffic collisions.

Resource URL

https://www.mapquestapi.com/traffic/v2/incidents

Resource Information

Response Formats	JSON, XML
Authentication	Yes (Requires Key)
Rate Limited	Yes

Request Parameters

Request Parameter	Description	Required
key	The API Key, which is needed to make requests to MapQuest services.	yes
inFormat	Specifies the format of the request. If this parameter is not supplied, the input format is assumed to be JSON-formatted text. json xml Example: XML formatted request inFormat=xml	no, defaults to json
outFormat	Specifies the format of the response. Must be one of the following, if supplied: json xml Example: XML response outFormat=xml	no, defaults to json
callback	A JavaScript function name. The JSON-formatted response will be wrapped in a call to the supplied callback function name to provide JSONP functionality. This functionality might be needed to do cross-site scripting. See the Wikipedia.org entry for JSON for more details. Example: Callback callback=incidentsResult	no

Body Parameters

Request Parameter	Description	Required
boundingBox	The area in which to search for incidents. Example: boundingBox=39.95,-105.25,39.52,-104.71	yes
filters	A list of incident types to return. Possible values are: incidents construction event congestion Example: filters=incidents,congestion	no, defaults to incidents,construction

Response Object

lat	Latitude of the incident.
lng	Longitude of the incident.
type	Incident type. Values are: 1 = Construction 2 = Event 3 = Congestion/Flow 4 = Incident/accident
severity	The incident severity. Values range from 0-4 with 4 indicating the highest severity.
eventCode	The incident event code. These are standard Alert-C event codes.
impacting	Indicates if the incident is impacting traffic.
startTime	The start time (ISO 8601 Combined Date and Time format) of the incident.
endTime	The end time (ISO 8601 Combined Date and Time format) of the incident.
shortDesc	A short description of the incident.
fullDesc	A full description of the incident.
iconURL	URL for an icon to use for displaying the incident.
distance	Optional (0 if not sent from traffic provider). The length of the road extent (in miles) affected by the incident.
delayFromTypical	Optional (0 if not sent from traffic provider). The delay (minutes) from typical conditions. This is the increase in travel time across the road extent affected by the incident relative to the travel time under average conditions for the given day of the week and time.
delayFromFreeFlow	Optional (0 if not sent from traffic provider). The delay (minutes) from typical conditions. This is the increase in travel time across the road extent affected by the incident relative to the travel time under free-flowing conditions.
tmcs	Optional. List of Traffic Message Channel ids located at the incident.

Example Request

POST https://www.mapquestapi.com/traffic/v2/incidents?key=KEY&inFormat=json&outFormat=json

Example Request Body

JSON

{
  "boundingBox": {
    "ul": {
      "lat": 39.950960,
      "lng": -105.259451
    },
    "lr": {
      "lat": 39.528562,
      "lng": -104.710135
    }
  },
  "filters": [
    "construction",
    "incidents"
  ]
}

XML

<traffic>
    <boundingBox>
        <ul>
            <latLng>
                <lat>39.950960</lat>
                <lng>-105.259451</lng>
            </latLng>
        </ul>
        <lr>
            <latLng>
                <lat>39.528562</lat>
                <lng>-104.710135</lng>
            </latLng>
        </lr>
    </boundingBox>
    <filters>
        <filter>construction,incidents</filter>
    </filters>
</traffic>

Example Response

JSON

{
  "incidents": [
    {
      "fullDesc": "One lane closed due to maintenance work on California Street Eastbound between 18th Street and 19th Street.",
      "lng": -104.9886,
      "severity": 2,
      "shortDesc": "California Street E/B : Lane closed between 18th Street and 19th Street ",
      "endTime": "2013-08-02T01:59:00",
      "type": 1,
      "id": "330627538",
      "startTime": "2013-02-04T19:00:00",
      "impacting": true,
      "tmcs": [],
      "eventCode": 0,
      "iconURL": "https://api.mqcdn.com/mqtraffic/const_mod.png",
      "lat": 39.7481
    }
  ],
  "mqURL": "https://www.mapquest.com/maps?traffic=1&latitude=39.73976&longitude=-104.9848",
  "info": {
    "copyright": {
      "text": "2023 MapQuest, Inc.",
      "imageUrl": "https://api.mqcdn.com/res/mqlogo.gif",
      "imageAltText": "2023 MapQuest, Inc."
    },
    "statuscode": 0,
    "messages": []
  }
}

XML

<IncidentsResponse>
    <Incidents>
        <Incident>
            <id>5376488</id>
            <type>4</type>
            <severity>2</severity>
            <eventCode>401</eventCode>
            <lat>39.7505</lat>
            <lng>-105.216789</lng>
            <startTime>2016-12-04T07:30:00</startTime>
            <endTime>2016-12-05T00:31:00</endTime>
            <shortDesc>
                Washington Ave: road closed from 10th St to 18th St
            </shortDesc>
            <fullDesc>
                Road closed on Washington Ave both ways from 10th St to 18th St. Golden Candle Light Walk.
            </fullDesc>
            <delayFromTypical>0.0</delayFromTypical>
            <delayFromFreeFlow>0.18000000715255737</delayFromFreeFlow>
            <distance>1.2</distance>
            <iconURL>https://api.mqcdn.com/mqtraffic/incid_mod.png</iconURL>
        </Incident>
    </Incidents>
    <info>
        <statusCode>0</statusCode>
        <messages/>
        <copyright>
            <imageUrl>https://api.mqcdn.com/res/mqlogo.gif</imageUrl>
            <imageAltText>© 2023 MapQuest, Inc.</imageAltText>
            <text>© 2023 MapQuest, Inc.</text>
        </copyright>
    </info>
</IncidentsResponse>