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Value Added Resellers - Terms of Use

There are a number of caveats that we need to place on the use of this site and the data. The terms of use can be summarized in three simple principles: 1) there is no warranty on data accuracy - you take it as is, 2) data feeds will go down from time to time possibly without advanced warning, 3) if you have questions, please send e-mail. In any case, access to this site is free and is subject to the few, simple terms below.
  1. FTP and Web Accounts
    1. A unique FTP account is assigned per user and/or organization.
    2. The FTP account is different from the Web account. The web account can be applied for online. The FTP account can only be requested via personal e-mail. The user IDs for the two accounts will be different.
    3. Please do not share either your FTP account or your Web account with anybody.
    4. If we think that people are using the same user ID and password then we reserve the right to delete the offending account without warning.
    5. The FTP account can only be used for accessing the real-time data. The Web account is used for access pages that discuss the status of the project.
  2. Well-behaved FTP Clients
    1. We expect that in order to automate the downloading of data via ftp, people will write simple ftp client programs.
    2. In order to be fair to all of the other users, we require your client programs to be well-behaved.
    3. Examples of misbehaving include, but are not limited to: keeping FTP connections open for more than one data transfer, downloading information too slowly, having more than one connection open at a time, having connections open from multiple machines at the same time, downloading the same timestamp multiple times.
    4. We specifically prohibit linking directly into our files from web pages. In addition, our web server won't serve these files.
    5. If we determine that your FTP client is misbehaving, we will cut off your access immediately.
  3. Data Availability
    1. While we'll make every effort to keep the amount of change low, we reserve the right to move the location of the FTP server when the load becomes to high.
    2. We try to keep this FTP site up and running continuously. There will be times when problems arise in either the database, the real-time feed of data, or the machine that will cause it to crash. Any of these things might take place without warning and they might persist for an indeterminant amount of time.
    3. Caltrans is not paying for this to be a 24x7 site. Sometimes the data will go down.
    4. You should understand exactly how the FTP files are generated. It has implications on what you will see on the FTP site.
    5. During any time period when the data is down, the user must agree that they will not call anybody at Caltrans to complain about the problem. The only recourse is to send e-mail.
  4. Data Warranty
    1. The data which Caltrans provides to us is usually 30-second data which includes flow and occupancy at each loop detector. This is refered to as the raw data.
    2. You should feel free to use the raw data any way you please. Caltrans provides this data as is. There is no claim that this data is accurate, valid, or good. The only claim is that it came from the freeways.
    3. For the 5-minute aggregates, these are things which we are calculating. They include the flow, occupancy and speed.
    4. Caltrans provides no warranty about the validity of the speed calculations. We are calculating them according to experimental algorithms which we believe are quite good.
    5. If you are going to use the speed in any calculations you should understand exactly where it comes from. You should understand the limitations involved with calculating speed from single trap loop detectors.
  5. Required Citation
    1. In order to use the data on your FTP site, you will have to cite us as its source. Please place a link on your web site saying where you got your data with a link to our main web site.
  6. Contacting the Administrators
    1. If you need to contact the administrators, please do so via e-mail. There is no phone number for you to call.
  7. Account Profile
    1. You must keep the contact information in your account profile current. We periodically send out announcements about system outages and upgrades using the e-mail address specified in your account profile. We also need to have a point of contact in order to address any technical issues that may arise such as a misbehaving FTP client.