“The afternoon shift is actually harder because in the morning everyone is heading to the same place. Her days are split into two shifts, 5 to 8:30 a.m. When the microphone is off and she’s just watching the cameras, she’s rooting for commuters to get where they want to go. She’ll let the Freeway Service Patrol know if there are stalls, and she’s clearly relieved to hear there are no serious injuries in an accident. More than just report current conditions, Tucker has become an advocate for commuters, helping them navigate alternate routes and keep calm. “When it was $4.50 a gallon, there were fewer people on the road.” Now at 5:30 it’s backed up to North-South (now called Kualakai Parkway) in Kapolei,” she says.Īlong with more cars, more construction and the recent weird weather, she thinks lower gas prices have led to commuter problems. “At 5:30 it used to be backed up from Kunia on a regular basis. Over the years, Tucker has seen rush-hour conditions change dramatically. When traffic is stuck, she’s working even faster. During a live traffic report, she’s describing exactly what’s happening that moment on dozens of live cameras. It’s like she’s landing airplanes at JFK - she has to be aware of so many things and react so quickly. She tweets, posts to Facebook and checks various traffic sites while watching the live traffic cameras. She reports live alternately to KINE and KRTR every five minutes, to KCCN and Hawaii News Now on their own schedules, and also records reports for Power 104.3 and Pinoy Power Filipino radio station. She has most of the camera numbers memorized. She can punch in numbers on a keypad and call up any of the more than 300 traffic cameras on the island. There are also two small monitors on her desk, one tuned to Hawaii News Now and the other, a closer view of the traffic cameras. Sometimes she is using both at the same time, one to call the Fire Department and the other to check with police. Tucker has her cellphone on the desk in front of her and a landline to the right. When she’s sick, she still comes to work, though she rarely gets sick. When she’s on vacation, the disc jockeys at the various Summit Media stations for which she reports cover as best they can from the studio. Several stations used to have reporters there during rush hour, but now it’s just her and the guys from the city Department of Transportation Services. Tucker is the last reporter left at the City and County of Honolulu Traffic Management Center. I look for patterns and anomalies,” she explains. The camera moves, and sure enough, she spots a stall, though it’s nearly impossible to see the black truck in the dark. “I’m looking at the H1-H2 merge, and the traffic is strange. The amount of visual information is overwhelming, but Tucker senses something. Twenty screens display live feeds from traffic cameras all over the island. The wall in front of her looks like mission control in a movie. After 12 years of reporting on Oahu’s traffic, Danielle Tucker can read the roads the way a wayfinder can read the seas.
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