About LA Atlas
A live map of what is happening in Los Angeles and San Francisco, built entirely from public feeds: traffic incidents, helicopters, fires, quakes, closures, permits, 311 requests, games and more.
How it works
A single server polls each source on its own schedule, from every 30 seconds for helicopters to every six hours for police reports, and publishes one snapshot per city. The map reads that snapshot about once a minute. Readers never reach the sources directly, so more readers never means more load on them.
What you see is only as good as the source. Some feeds lag: building permits by about two days, LAPD incidents by about two weeks, San Francisco's city data overnight. Each feed says so in its description on the map. Locations can be approximate, and some places are geocoded from a written address. Times are shown in Pacific time.
Helicopters and police aircraft
The helicopter layer shows aircraft that broadcast their own position over ADS-B, the same public signal every flight-tracking site shows. Many law-enforcement and medical flights do not broadcast, so an empty sky on the map does not mean an empty sky outside. Operators are named from the FAA aircraft registry, by where each helicopter is registered; one we cannot place is shown as "Helicopter".
When a helicopter flies in tight circles, the map looks for a reported incident beneath it, such as a fire, a CHP call or a storm report. That match is a guess from distance and timing; it is not information from the operator. When nothing in the feeds lines up, the map says so.
Sources
Every record links back to its source. LA Atlas is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of these organisations, and their names and marks belong to them.
| Source | Used for |
|---|---|
| California Highway Patrol | Live traffic incidents (both cities) |
| Caltrans | Freeway closures (LCS), freeway cameras and message signs (CWWP2). Camera images © Caltrans. |
| adsb.lol | Helicopter positions, from its community network of ADS-B receivers. Contains information from adsb.lol, made available under the Open Database License. |
| FAA Aircraft Registry | Who operates each helicopter, from its registration. Public domain. |
| ALERTCalifornia, UC San Diego | Wildfire camera images. Images © ALERTCalifornia. |
| CAL FIRE | Active wildfires |
| Los Angeles Fire Department | LAFD incident alerts |
| U.S. Geological Survey | Earthquakes and “Did You Feel It?” counts |
| National Weather Service | Weather alerts and local storm reports (via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet) |
| Federal Aviation Administration | Airport delays and closures |
| City of Los Angeles open data | MyLA311 requests, building permits, new buildings and demolitions, special event permits, LAPD incidents |
| DataSF, City and County of San Francisco | SF 311 requests, building permits, Fire & EMS calls, police incidents |
| LA County Public Health | Beach advisories and closures |
| BART | Service advisories |
| Metro Bike Share, Bay Wheels | Bike share stations (GBFS) |
| ESPN | Game schedules and live scores at local venues. Unofficial; not affiliated with ESPN or any league. |
| The Space Devs, Launch Library 2 | Rocket launches from Vandenberg |
| U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder | Placing permits that have an address but no coordinates |
| Esri | Web base map tiles (Esri, DeLorme, NAVTEQ) |
| Leaflet | The web map library (BSD-2-Clause) |
Publish one of these feeds and want it credited differently, rate-limited, or left out? Email us at the address below and we will change it.
Privacy
There are no accounts, no cookies and no analytics scripts. “Near me” reads your device's location in your browser or app and filters the map there; the map does not send it to us. On the web, your choices (city, lens, feeds, and a “near me” point rounded to about 10 metres) are kept in the page's address so a link can be shared. A link you share, or a page you reload, carries them with it. Our host keeps standard request logs (IP address, time, address requested) for security and to keep the service running.
Terms
LA Atlas is provided as is, without warranty of any kind. Data may be late, incomplete or wrong, and may disappear when a source changes. Do not rely on it for safety, legal, financial or navigation decisions. Each source's own terms apply to its data and images.
Contact
Questions, corrections and requests from data publishers: [email protected].