The www.hiway17.com website was started on August 30, 1996. It was originally started as a webcam designed to provide information on traffic conditions on Highway 17. The first camera was installed in a specially built shed located in a backyard on Mary Alice Way at a turn called Satellite Curve. It was called this because at the time a very large satellite dish was installed at that location and it was visible from 17. The family that owned the home at that time allowed the shed to be built to house the original camera and computer set up. The first camera was a Sony video cam that took still photos every five minutes, uploaded them to a server and displayed them for commuters. By checking these photos, you could get a good idea of traffic density.

The original shed was built by Toro Dresden. Toro also located the site for the camera and negotiated with the owners of the property for its placement overlooking 17. Cassie Maas provided the computer equipment, the Sony camera, the phone line and the technical know how to get it all set up and running. Toro did the day to day management of the site to make sure it stayed up.

The site won an award from CalTrans as they were using it to view traffic conditions at the central monitoring station in Oakland. The Mercury News ran an article about the site as well and the article featured Toro as well as his partner. Although Cassie Maas owned the domain name and equipment, she was not mentioned in the article. http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=494846

After some time, Cassie Maas took over control of the site and although she was living in San Carlos, she turned it into a community portal.

Hiway 17 is a community portal for the Highway 17 corridor, from Santa Cruz to Los Gatos.  They carry classifieds, news and discussion forums.

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