The app company, Connected Signals, has had about 900 downloads of its EnLighten app from Android and iPhone users in the city area, CEO Matt Ginsberg said this week.
"The activity was fast and furious over the weekend," Ginsburg said Tuesday. The city announced the app's availability on April 23, resulting in a flash of media coverage.
Connected cell phones chime a few seconds before a red traffic light changes to refocus drivers on driving. The app operates through a link with the city's digitally controlled traffic signal system.
The foray into digital driving, buttressed by growing experimentation with automatic driving systems, drew attention to the city, too. "The news is spreading," said city traffic engineer Rafat Raie. He said he had calls from Southern California cities and colleagues interested in the app.
Walnut Creek's traffic-signal alert was a top story on the Intelligent Transportation Society of America website, he said.
"This is a new way of communicating with the infrastructure," Raie said. "The path forward is exciting; it's equivalent to having a brand-new operating system."
The spread of the idea will lead people to write new apps to improve traffic safety, he said.
Ginsberg, who lives in Eugene, Ore., where his company is headquartered, was excited, too, in a brief interview before his daily staff meeting.
The company lists a growing number of cities using the signal app: Christchurch, New Zealand; Portland and Eugene, Ore.; Garland, Texas; Salt Lake City, Provo, and Ogden, Utah; Greater Las Vegas, and, in California, Arcadia and Walnut Creek. And it is planned to start in Palo Alto this summer.
One initial reaction to the idea of a cell phone alert is that it will distract drivers, but Ginsberg said keeping the alert audio only had been an aim.
"We really don't want people looking at the phone to see what is going on," he said. "Most of the audio cues are when you're stationary."
A new feature, he said, is that when you're driving, "you'll get a noise telling you that you're going to make or miss the next light."
Most people, he said, tend to speed up to get through a changing light. But knowing you won't make it will be safer and you'll be less likely to get cranky after speeding up but still having to stop quickly on red. "You don't have to do that. It saves gas and stress."
"One of the nicest things," he said, "is the audio cue." Instead of impatiently watching the light for its change, he's noticed a different experience at stoplights.
"I look at my wife when I talk to her. We have a real conversation. It's not this bizarre looking at the light and looking at her.
"The chime alert makes driving more pleasant," he said.
And it portends a future of driving that seems to be a growing reality: Cars that safely drive themselves. Experimental automatic driving systems are being tested in Concord and in Silicon Valley.
Ginsberg, one of two founders of the company, has a classic startup founding tale.
The company was not getting much traction until one day in his car, he happened to tune in a radio call-in program with Eugene's mayor.
He called in about his traffic app, the mayor was interested, Eugene joined up and that led to other cities joining.
"No city wants to be first and none wants to be last," he said. "By and large cities are coming to us at this point."
Contact Andrew McGall at amcgall@bayareanewsgroup.com, or 925-945-4703. Follow him at twitter.com/AndrewMcGall.
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