Maps - Traffic works well

[bp1000]

Like most i've been very critical on ios6 maps, rightly so, it's riddled with issues.

Traffic monitoring it seems isn't one of them. Today on the way home, mayhem, gridlock everywhere. The motorway or highway for our American friends was closed due to an accident. Unfortunately i wasn't using turn by turn as it would have been interesting to see where it routed me.

Traffic problems were much more accurately reported than google traffic live. The queuing start and finish points were displayed roughly in the right places on Apple traffic where as google was out by around nearly a mile. Even checking 15 mins later Google hadn't adjust their traffic overlay on the road i was on.

I was quite impressed and providing you have the full address turn by turn is pretty decent too. I know it has it's issues as well as the inexcusable use of bad data or lack of data on the maps side but i think it's a decent product for turn by turn and traffic.

Lets hope they fix their mapping data, survey and business data and they there is no doubting it will be a great mapping product. Google will probably never give us turn by turn, so at least this gives us hope in the product.

 

[omyard]

I didn't know about the traffic reporting until the other day when I was stuck in traffic. I opened it just hoping to see where the red line ended and was pleasantly surprised to see a little red exclamation mark and a traffic accident report.

Not sure how this compared to the local news traffic reports on their websites or WSDOT, but normally they're either slow with reporting the information or aren't very clear. So I was happy to have an accurate traffic report within a minute.

 

[Parise]

Like most i've been very critical on ios6 maps, rightly so, it's riddled with issues.

Traffic monitoring it seems isn't one of them. Today on the way home, mayhem, gridlock everywhere. The motorway or highway for our American friends was closed due to an accident. Unfortunately i wasn't using turn by turn as it would have been interesting to see where it routed me.

Traffic problems were much more accurately reported than google traffic live. The queuing start and finish points were displayed roughly in the right places on Apple traffic where as google was out by around nearly a mile. Even checking 15 mins later Google hadn't adjust their traffic overlay on the road i was on.

I was quite impressed and providing you have the full address turn by turn is pretty decent too. I know it has it's issues as well as the inexcusable use of bad data or lack of data on the maps side but i think it's a decent product for turn by turn and traffic.

Lets hope they fix their mapping data, survey and business data and they there is no doubting it will be a great mapping product. Google will probably never give us turn by turn, so at least this gives us hope in the product.

I dont know man, I think the traffic sucks. Well it sucks here in Central Florida, anyway.

 

[Parise]

Especially when you compare the two.

 

[Blipp]

Especially when you compare the two.

I've lived in and around Metro Detroit my entire life and rarely needed Maps to figure out where I was going but would use it almost daily to check traffic. The new Maps seems to do fine with dead-stop traffic and I like that it gives you indicators showing the reason for the slowdown but so far it only seems to signal the most severe holdups. I miss how the old Maps app I could easily scan my entire rout and get a good idea of the traffic patterns with the red/yellow/green coloring. Limiting it to only the red has been disappointing.

Does anyone know if this is based on where Apple is now sourcing their live traffic data from rather than a design choice?

 

[Parise]

I've lived in and around Metro Detroit my entire life and rarely needed Maps to figure out where I was going but would use it almost daily to check traffic. The new Maps seems to do fine with dead-stop traffic and I like that it gives you indicators showing the reason for the slowdown but so far it only seems to signal the most severe holdups. I miss how the old Maps app I could easily scan my entire rout and get a good idea of the traffic patterns with the red/yellow/green coloring. Limiting it to only the red has been disappointing.

Does anyone know if this is based on where Apple is now sourcing their live traffic data from rather than a design choice?

100% agree. When I'm trying to look at the traffic I could care less about the aesthetics of the map. I want a quick overview of whats good and what isn't. And no its not based on that. If you look very closely at some spots, you'll see a yellow dotted line to indicate a slow down. The sad part is, the yellow they used for the dotted line is almost EXACTLY the same shade as the yellow roads.

 

[Kukulcan]

Why don't you guys just let Maps guide you instead of looking at colors or dotted lines? I start Maps every morning and back from work, even though I know the routes perfectly.

I have to cross a river with bridges 11km in one and 12km in the other direction and I trust Maps to figure out speeds of movement on both routes - with no complaints yet.

Before Apple maps I checked Google maps at work before departing, but I don't need to any longer.

 

[Kukulcan]

I know it sounds like Apple viral marketing, but Maps saved my ass again. It took me the longer route and I drove along 10km of standing cars in the other direction.

 

[zel44]

agreed I took a long journey across london and then up north Friday of last week and had my iphone running at the same time as my trusty tomtom.

There are no doubt issues with maps but traffic management is not one of them it helped me out greatly to bypass areas.

Two major grips with the navigation is that if there are 2 turns that need to happen quite quickly - yeah it sucks at that so you have to keep an eye on the map as it doesn't warn you quick enough verbally.

Second being the directions take up far to much of the screen since you have to rely more on looking at the maps at the moment.

Other than that they both got me from door to door in the same way with some slightly less annoying features than my tomtom in particular when there is a bend in the road my tomtom will say "continue right" or something. What's the point if that's all you can do? It should only warn you if you have to leave that specific road, not just a continuation.

 

[Kukulcan]

Second being the directions take up far to much of the screen since you have to rely more on looking at the maps at the moment.

I think there is an option for that? (Edit: no)

Other than that they both got me from door to door in the same way with some slightly less annoying features than my tomtom in particular when there is a bend in the road my tomtom will say "continue right" or something. What's the point if that's all you can do? It should only warn you if you have to leave that specific road, not just a continuation.

yeah, typical Satnav stupidity, I had one that said "keep right" when it wanted me to take an exit and "turn right" when it just wanted me to take the right lane.

 

[Blipp]

Seems like the people who are loving Maps' traffic notifications are outside of the US and those who dislike it are in the US based on our minuscule sample size. Perhaps it does have something to do with who is providing Apple with the traffic data from country to country.

 

[Farplaner]

My problem with the iOS 6 maps traffic is that for some reason, for local roads you have to zoom way in to see the traffic, unlike Google maps where you can have a pretty good view of the general traffic condition of a specific area.

 

[Brazuca]

My problem with the iOS 6 maps traffic is that for some reason, for local roads you have to zoom way in to see the traffic, unlike Google maps where you can have a pretty good view of the general traffic condition of a specific area.

This is my only gripe also. It should show more at each zoom level.

 

[Kukulcan]

Seems like the people who are loving Maps' traffic notifications are outside of the US and those who dislike it are in the US based on our minuscule sample size. Perhaps it does have something to do with who is providing Apple with the traffic data from country to country.

No, sound more like UK is totally *********, germany is perfectly fine and the US is divided between those who care for TBT and those that care for POIs (and public transportation).

 

[redman042]

Sounds like the best way to use Maps is to always plot a route first. Then it tends to highlight traffic on secondary roads even when zoomed farther out. At least that's what I see.