How We Can Help Each Other To Dodge The Jams
Having done more trekking around the country than usual this year so far, I have been impressed by how much more effective the traffic functions in Google Maps have become.
They have helped me to confidently dodge some serious jams using free flowing alternative routes.
There was a time when the red, amber and green lines, which show the state of the traffic on a stretch of road, only covered motorways, major highways and key routes through urban areas.
Now, they can be found showing the state of play on many rural roads as well as well-worn “rat runs” and back streets around town.
This is the result of Google’s purchase of Waze which gave it the software needed to add crowdsourced data to its monitoring of congestion.
It now mixes information from tracking smartphones (except iPhones) on the move with that supplied from roadside monitoring devices, to give a more comprehensive picture.
When drivers spill out from major route congestion on to the back roads, the tracking of their GPS enabled phones shows where they are and how fast they are going.
So, when I dived off the M27 to avoid several miles of slow crawl through its junction with the M3 earlier this month, my phone would have made its contribution.
Zipping along at 60mph for much of the chosen workaround, it would have helped Google Maps show that those roads were still running clear.
It is a great way for drivers to help each other.
There will be those, though, who do not want their phones to be tracked in this way. For them, there are options to turn off Location Reporting.
