A monitoring center receives the live video in real-time, and serves as a dispatcher if there is a traffic collision, some other disruptive incident or safety issue.
Traffic cameras are only for observation and continuously take lower-resolution video, often in full motion, though they may be remotely controlled to focus on an incident in the distance or at an orientation normally outside its field of view, such as a frontage road.
Many transmit in analog television formats, though many are being converted to high definition or 4K resolution video as equipment is replaced.
They may show either streaming video or still imagery which refreshes at a set interval, helping travelers determine whether an alternate route should be taken.
Some cable TV systems provide these pictures full-time on a governmental access channel, and some broadcast stations set aside a full digital subchannel solely for traffic information and camera imagery, such as WMVT-DT3 in Milwaukee and WFMZ-DT2 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.