The next time you’re thinking about taking off on a quick trip to Gilroy, and all points north that involve traveling along Highway 25, you might want to go online for a quick peek at Central Ag Supply’s website for a real-time view of traffic conditions.
Click on the link up in the right-hand corner and you’ll see what owner Jim Gillio has posted: a free traffic cam that will help you decide if heading out on Highway 25 is your best option for heading north.
While traffic cams are common in places like Los Angeles or San Francisco, they’re pretty rare in San Benito County. Gillio, whose business abuts Highway 25 near Hudner Lane about a mile north of Highway 156, had the camera put up above his business on Aug. 3.
“It’s just to allow people to monitor the traffic flow on Highway 25 as they’re headed out for work, or when they’re coming home, or out on the weekend,” he said.
The camera shows the road in front of his business at 4364 Highway 25, in real time. Because of limited bandwidth, it does, however, tend to slow down somewhat as more people come online to monitor it.
Gillio said there was no thought that the California Highway Patrol might want to be made aware of the camera in case of an accident, so there was no reason to have it record traffic. He said it would have been more expensive to do so. Even so, however, he said he’s heard from locals.
“So far, all the comments on Facebook have been pretty positive,” he said. “Hopefully, people will use it as a resource and make it easier for them. If they see traffic backed up they can take an alternate route.”
As altruistic as his motives are, he is a businessman, so when he designed the page he made it obvious he was looking for advertisers who would like to be sponsors for the camera.
“It’s just to help cover the cost of the service,” he said. “We’re out in a rural area and we needed a rural ISP (Internet Service Provider), which is different than in town, and it’s quite a bit more expensive to have enough bandwidth to make the camera actually work.”
The camera had only been live a day or so when he landed his first sponsor, Blue Line Capital Group. He said if anyone wants to buy a prime spot on the site to give him a call.
Gillio said the nice thing about the traffic cam is that it can be seen anywhere in the world on a computer or tablet, as well as a majority of mobile devices. He said he doesn’t have the ability to develop an app, so anyone wanting to see traffic conditions can just go online to his URL, www.centralagsupply.net/hwy-25-traffic-camera.html.
Gillio said he has lived around Hollister most of his life and that he opened the business in February. Despite its name, he said he does not just cater to agriculture, but sells personal protection equipment, such as hair nets, safety glasses, hard hats, and vests, for just about any type of business. He also has janitorial supplies and tools, from knives to shovels.
“We offer free delivery anywhere in the area,” he said.
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