Maps Traffic Re-direct

[cojocu]

Hello. I've been using Apple Maps a lot and I'm about 90% satisfied. It almost always gets me to where I'm going without any fuss or difficulty (though sometimes it seems like it picks your route based on distance, not estimated travel time, etc.).

The one thing I've been wondering is whether Maps actually uses traffic information to determine its routes. They touted the ability to automatically redirect around traffic as a feature when maps was originally introduced in ios6, but I've NEVER seen it do that.

Furthermore, it doesn't seem to use traffic information when it is providing me with route options when I first engage it.

So, I guess my simple question is: has maps ever redirected around traffic for anyone?

 

[richwoodrocket]

No, it cant do that yet. Would be nice though

 

[cojocu]

No, it cant do that yet. Would be nice though

Oh my gosh! I feel so foolish! I've spent this whole time wondering Maps won't (****ing) direct around traffic.

Did Apple ever publicly say that feature no longer existed and I just missed it? It was definitely in their keynote for ios6.

 

[skywavesli]

I don't know about it re-directing around traffic automatically when in the middle of navigation. But I have seen my phone provide an alternative route to the usual one when it was first engage (this was when there was a closure/major accident on the freeway).

 

[kaiseryeahhh]

Google maps redirect in-route.

 

[njsapple2012]

Looks like it's a feature that's been removed in iOS7 as it isn't mentioned at all on their website; I'm not surprised, though, as I never saw it in iOS6... and it's a pain it's never cropped up. Why? I visited a mate near Sheffield once... there'd been a bad accident on the M1 northbound and was sat on the J28 slip road for an HOUR.

 

[campyguy]

Google maps redirect in-route.

I'm not sure I get your point. I understand the redirect bit. What I don't understand is how GMaps is any better in regard to traffic. Both Apple and Google use Sigalert in NA. Right now, there's an accident shown on both apps reflecting I-5 SB is closed on the Interstate Bridge between Portland and Vancouver - 5 miles after the closure! The closure is actually 5 miles north and two of my friends are stuck in the jam - one has an iPhone and the other a Galaxy S4. Both apps reflect an error - that there isn't a closure - and neither app would have helped them. IMO Sigalert blows chunks. I checked - Apple and Google show "green", no problems!

I got to the meeting place on time because I use a 3rd party app (INRIX) and check available DOT traffic cameras. INRIX shows the closure in black and called out the closure, so I took an alternate route. I'm enjoying a beer and writing this while my friends are stewing in traffic.

I learned my lesson with a TomTom GO 910 and their lousy add-on traffic, got routed right into a wall of brake lights. Bookmark a site that has traffic cams and a few pubs, and be prepared!

 

[richwoodrocket]

Maps Traffic Re-direct

No mapping system is perfect. Apple nor google can ever reach perfection, so be prepared to be stuck in traffic every once in a while.

 

[Deguello]

I'm not sure I get your point. I understand the redirect bit. What I don't understand is how GMaps is any better in regard to traffic.

It's better because it redirects in-route. Better != perfect.

If both get inaccurate traffic data, both will fail. If both get accurate traffic data, one will reroute and one won't. The one that does, as long as it does it reasonably competently, is better, all other things being equal.

 

[davehutch]

Here is the latest screenshot from Apple's website:

 

[whsbuss]

Here is the latest screenshot from Apple's website:

But I think someone mentioned that Apple maps only suggests alternatives at the start of the route, not during the drive.

 

[campyguy]

It's better because it redirects in-route. Better != perfect.

If both get inaccurate traffic data, both will fail. If both get accurate traffic data, one will reroute and one won't. The one that does, as long as it does it reasonably competently, is better, all other things being equal.

I'll give you that, but it's only a theory. I'd taken screen shots of the incident I alluded to yesterday. I've used INRIX and DOT cams because AMaps and GMaps have let my friends and I down far too often - I travel between Portland and Seattle/Olympic Peninsula regularly. Yesterday, I saw a closure and routed myself around it. GMaps "ran" two friends and AMaps "ran" another into a wall of brake lights as we were converging on Portland - both showed the "incident" 5 miles south of where the incident actually was. The complication also was that a "closure" was - incorrectly - shown on the Interstate Bridge, and GMaps should have then routed my friend down the I-205 corridor or down US 30 - the only two ways past the erroneous "closure" on the I-5 Bridge. I have learned to check before the I-5/I-205 split, and that served me well just last week for a 6-mile back up on I-5 S that my friends were also run into (I used INRIX and the DOT cams shown on the WSDOT app, which is also on Android).

Rerouting is great, but the source data and how it's displayed is flawed. Google switched from its own data to Sigalert in v. 2, and has supplemented it with Waze since. There's nothing like 2-10 people reporting an accident via the Waze app and having them ALL show up in the same area on Waze and GMaps, and both the desktop and mobile versions across platforms are all incorrect.

Both GMaps and AMaps show incidents from the Puget Sound area daily on the I-5 Bridge between Portland OR and Vancouver WA. I've had clients routed 20 miles out of their way because an accident in Tacoma also shows up on the I-5 Bridge. I've alerted both Google and Apple through my dev accounts and neither gives a rat's a$$. I've had clients bail on me because "there's an accident on the bridge..." or I've had to pack up and go to them.

I'm glad it works for you. GMaps absolutely doesn't work as intended, pretty much daily for a bunch of us. I've attached a few pics I took with my LTE iPad just for jollies so I could get my friends to take a look at the INRIX app. Keep in mind while you're looking at them that the "accident" on I-5 S is actually 5 miles north of where AMaps and GMaps show it. Come up to Portland, you'll find out for yourself - we've got lots of pubs while you're waiting for the phantom accident to get cleared up!

 

[cynics]

My GMaps and AMaps show different traffic. I just picked a friend up from a train station and was messing with it.

And yes traffic is on.

I encounter this daily. AMaps never report traffic on rt 40 in my area. Just larger highways. And even then the traffic pops up way later then it does in GMaps and it doesn't clear up until way later then it does on GMaps and in real life. Only reason I use it is for it's integration, it list my business in the wrong location and doesn't have my neighborhood that is now 11 years old lol.

 

[whsbuss]

Yep see the same thing here. And its no different on the Mac.

 

[whsbuss]

Here's a shot of traffic in Phila,PA - first is google maps, second apple maps (on my Mac). Something is definitely not right.

 

[C DM]

Here's a shot of traffic in Phila,PA - first is google maps, second apple maps (on my Mac). Something is definitely not right.

I don't think Apple Maps displays traffic just like that, it shows some parts when zoomed in and takes traffic into account when routing (at least initially), but I don't believe the app was designed to just display it all when just looking around basically.

 

[whsbuss]

I don't think Apple Maps displays traffic just like that, it shows some parts when zoomed in and takes traffic into account when routing (at least initially), but I don't believe the app was designed to just display it all when just looking around basically.

Well here's a route going right thru the mess in Philly. No indication of any traffic issues.

 

[C DM]

Well here's a route going right thru the mess in Philly. No indication of any traffic issues.

Does the time estimate account for the traffic? what does Google Maps show for that route?

 

[whsbuss]

Does the time estimate account for the traffic? what does Google Maps show for that route?

Here you go

 

[hxlover904]

so GMaps takes you right thru the mess, too?

in my experiences, apple's maps usually shows traffic when it's bad or congested. But often, not when it's flowing well. i.e., no green...

 

[whsbuss]

so GMaps takes you right thru the mess, too?

in my experiences, apple's maps usually shows traffic when it's bad or congested. But often, not when it's flowing well. i.e., no green...

Well it did but for those maps I posted you don't see any red on Apple's map

 

[C DM]

Well it did but for those maps I posted you don't see any red on Apple's map

Perhaps there's something going on with Apple's traffic data: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1729433/

 

[whsbuss]

Perhaps there's something going on with Apple's traffic data: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1729433/

Wow thanks! I knew something was a miss.

 

[campyguy]

Perhaps there's something going on with Apple's traffic data: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1729433/

No, not with Apple or Google or Sigalert. AMaps and GMaps were working here in PDX - not completely correctly, as accidents in Seattle, Tacoma, Marysville (and here in Portland!) were showing up here in PDX, but it was working, sort of. It must have been something else. I was helping family from out of town navigating the morass of idiots from The 'Couv on the Interstate about the time ya'll were posting - lots of red lines on AMaps/GMaps and I could see the s***ty traffic data, including multiple Waze accident reports for one accident on the I-5 Bridge.

And, I did take a few screen shots on my iPad Air to submit with an Apple Bug Report...

 

[imlynxy]

I use Waze, I tried both both gmaps and amaps in Boston, Waze is the best. I drive thru Boston 1-2 times a day. It gives me +- 1-2 min accuracy in arriving time. Also the only app., shows cops on the way. I don't drive fast, but it is a benefit.