This python script fetches traffic data (distance, duration in traffic) from several highways in the city using Google Maps Distance Matrix API.
Installation
- Install Python 3.6 with Anaconda.
- Anaconda will automatically install several packages along with python.
- You can see the packages installed running "conda list"
Setup
You can create different environments with Conda in order to work with different python versions or install different packages. To run this script we'll first create a new environment. You can see the environments currently created running "conda info --envs"
- Create a new environment called "env_name" and install the packages pandas and numpy.
- Run "conda create --name env_name pandas numpy"
Make sure you are working on the newly created environment for the next two steps. Run "conda info --envs" and look for the asterisk beside the enviroment name.
-
Install the Google Maps package.
- Run "conda install -c conda-forge googlemaps"
-
Create an sqlite3 database with two tables in it, "routes" and "traffic".
- SQlite is one of the packages previously installed with Anaconda.
- Run "python tables.py".
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Create a seperate file to store Google's API key.
- File name: "config.py"
- Variable name: "api_key"
- Don't forget to hide the file.
Production
- Create the cron job that runs "traffic.py" every 10 minutes.
- Run "crontab -e"
- Insert the following cronjob: */10 * * * * cd /Users/user/projects_directory/ && /Users/user/anaconda3/envs/env_name/bin/python traffic.py
- To make sure the cron job was created you can run "crontab -l".