A system and method that continuously extracts traffic load and speed on roads within the coverage area of a cellular network. The data is extracted directly from the higher level of communications in a cellular network without using any external sensors. The cellular data used by the system includes cell handover sequences as the major input. The method consists of a learn phase in which a vehicle with a location device (say GPS system) travels across the covered routes and collects the cellular data and location data in parallel. In the continuous data collection stage the cellular data is processed and correlated to the data collected in the learn phase to yield the route and exact location of the vehicle on it. Each such two locations yield the travel distance and time, and thus the driving speed in this route section. This procedure is performed continuously across the covered area to yield the traffic load and speed.