OT: Traffic report apps

Does anyone have recommendations for a traffic app? I need one for my iPad and one for my Android (Samsung) phone. I'm just feeling my way into using this 'ere Smartphone for things like assisting navigation...

Cheers chaps John

Reply to
Another John
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Well google maps have the traffic option you can set, it gives a red long on conjested road orange/yellow or less congested and green for OK.

Reply to
whisky-dave

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The RAC one is free to use and has, to my knowledge, the most up to date traffic incidents (not to say there are not other apps that source from the same data stream).

Reply to
Tim Watts

Highways agency website

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also has live feeds from all motorway cameras.

Reply to
Jethro_uk

I use an app called Waze. it is free to download and vorks very well. It gathers traffic and other info from various sources including the users themselves. While using the app you can tell it if you are in traffic, if there is a hazard in the road or of there is a speed trap / police car etc.

I now prefer to use this app over the built in sat nav in my car because the traffic info and ETA is much more accurate.

Hope this helps

Rich

Reply to
richpwrr

I agree that Google Maps Traffic overlay option is the best for finding congestion, even on relatively minor roads. It seems to be real-time (but I've never discovered how to refresh it manually).

For actual way finding, i.e. a SatNav equivalent, I find MapFactor Navigator the best of the free ones. It's not quite as good as a real TomTom, but at free it can't be beaten on value for money. Even if you are not navigating, it has pretty good street maps of this country, much better than those of Messrs Google, in my opinion.

Reply to
Clive Page

(Thanks for all replies so far!)

Thanks Jethro, but that's the very site that prompted me to ask this question here: I found trafficengland very difficult to use on my iPad, the interface was arcane not to say a little archaic, it only seems to deal with roadworks (fair enough!), and it seemed very slow. I looked for an App on their site (with the thought that it might work better), but couldn't see that they do one.

Cheers John

Reply to
Another John

I find Navmii

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an excellent navigator which includes traffic info (if you are on line) and adjusts routing to avoid traffic, if offline its just an excellent navigator app.

Its own search engine leaves a little to be desired but it does give the option to use google search if you have a data connection.

Reply to
Chris B

Having got my first smart phone a few weeks ago I just typed Googled the address of where I wanted to go and Google maps did the rest. It showed the traffic and gave anouncments of a faster route becoming available!

Reply to
ARW

I've just done a recent test comparing google maps on an iphone with the standard 'GPS Navigation' that comes standard on a Nokia Lumia in a long run into the city center, comparing the predicted arrival times. There was a consistent difference of 15 mins in the arrive time with google maps getting it right and the Nokia didn?t. Google maps also said that there would be an 11 min delay due to congestion and it appears to have decided that about an hour in advance of getting to the destination and that appeared to be the reason for the later arrival time. It also said that it was still the fastest route anyway much closer in to the city center. The Nokia never said anything about congestion.

That was with an 07:25 arrival time on a monday morning. It would be interesting to repeat that later when the congestion is much worse but its unlikely I will be testing it again because I do that trip very rarely indeed and don?t normally have a passenger with another device and am very unlikely to ever get a Win based smartphone even for a comparison myself given the much worse set of apps available for them.

Reply to
Ranger

Wonder if it's the same feed as the AA app?

When trying to decide weather to come home last Saturday night or stay out of Cumbria I found that google maps with traffic info on (red, orange, green roads) gave a good overall indication of the not good to travel through areas and as it changes over time indicates improving or deteriorating conditions.

The BBC Travel site is reasonable to use and gives fairly accurate (location) of incidents but I get the feeling it's a bit slow on updating.

The AA app can be bit vague on the exact location of an incident, ie it'll say the A66 is closed at Scotch Corner and Bowes (15 miles apart) for an incident at Greta Bridge, that can be bypassed on local roads. Local roads not suitable for 44 tonners though...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I use an app called Waze which is based on Google Maps. It works using real time traffic info reported by people in the area and other Google users, it will announce everything from accidents ahead, police/speed traps, speed cameras, road closures etc. You can even get it to automatically text ETA & location updates to people who might be interested in where you are ;)

Dazza

Reply to
gremlin_95

You do not need a Windows phone. Nokia mapping/satnav (branded as Here) is available for Android and IOS.

Some interesting changes to ownership...

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I like it. Used to find Waze quite good but its quality depends on numbers of users - and there just don't seem to be enough in the UK. Also I got sick of the kids entertainment aspects. I like simplicity not treasure trails.

Reply to
polygonum

You sure that's the one he was using ?

He couldn?t find any obvious branding on it and should have said it was branded as Here if it was.

According to him it was just called 'GPS Navigation' on the Lumia.

I've always been keen on google maps, mainly because of the street view which can be very handy at times. And now it has much better traffic info it gets from tracking the mobile phones moving from the base stations, clearly a much better source of traffic info than from user reports and cameras.

Reply to
Ranger

My daughter uses that and finds it very useful -she travels a lot for work.

Reply to
S Viemeister

No - but the Here branding isn't that old. So it seems feasible rather than definite.

Reply to
polygonum

A problem I found with Waze is when you are in areas without mobile data. Whilst it seemed to download and store the actual route, and possibly a small area around it, significant rerouting in an area without a signal was crap. This was the single most important reason for me wanting to switch to a product that downloads whole country maps.

You are reliant on the Waze servers to do most of the work. Which is fine if they are working well. At busy times, I found they couldn't always cope adequately even with decent signal.

Reply to
polygonum

His Lumia is only a couple of years old, and I'm pretty sure that he keeps it updated because he did mention that something else had disappeared and I asked him if he let the 21 month old midget play with it at all. He doesn?t usually and we discussed how likely it would be the the midget could have deleted that.

Looks like we are talking about a different app because I got him to check what it was calling itself so I could state that accurately when I had decided to report that difference in performance in usenet etc.

Reply to
Ranger

I tried Waze, but I just found it rather annoying to use, and didn't really add enough useful info for me. (others mileage may vary of course)

But Waze was bought by Google in 2013, so I assume that the info from Waze users is one of the data sources that it uses for the traffic info on Googlemaps

Reply to
Chris French

Google bought Waze a few years ago. Google Maps and Waze use the same data, which is mainly that reported back automatically by other users of the map. The manually reported Waze events are reported on Google Maps too if traffic data is enabled.

I find Google Maps better than anything else I've tried. The only negative point is they don't always show closed roads. Been caught several times recently at night with the M3 looking very good, only to find that's because it's closed for roadworks and that isn't always shown.

Ocardo have the most accurate traffic routing application in the country, but as far as I know, they don't sell it separately from the logistics service they sell to other delivery companies.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

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