How accurate is traffic??

[lordhamster]

I also observed the improvement and then utter collapse and then return to decency.

However, the traffic service dropped a real bomb on me last week: As I was driving home from work, suddenly it popped up a traffic alert for an accident, but with 0 Min. delay. I had one opportunity to get off of the freeway before reaching the spot identified, but since it said 0 Min. and has been fairly accurate lately, I took it at its word.

At pretty much precisely the spot indicated on the display, traffic came to a crawl. There was a 2-mile backup. But that's not the worst part - the worst part is that TomTom showed a black "REALLY SLOW TRAFFIC" line on the road that was pretty much dead on to where the traffic jam started and ended! They KNEW the distance of the delay and the average speed, yet for some reason they just declined to calculate the delay time?

It's pretty goofy. I'm glad I'm not paying for it, and if they don't show some consistent results by the time they roll it out for real, I certainly won't pay for it.

Same problem here, i keep seeing 0 delays even though the delay is correctly displayed on the map. I think this problem is affecting auto-reroute... (Cleveland, OH)

 

[Skizza]

The problem I'm having is that for me it doesn't show congestion when the freeway is backed up simply due to traffic. It seems as though they only show backup if there is an incident causing the traffic jam. As we all know, alot of times there is just traffic for no specific reason other than too many people on the road.

 

[offthegrid]

Is there a guide to the different color schemes they use to indicate traffic conditions? I've only seen red stripes over a white road so far.

 

[jzerocsk]

Same problem here, i keep seeing 0 delays even though the delay is correctly displayed on the map. I think this problem is affecting auto-reroute... (Cleveland, OH)

Indeed, it does affect rerouting. My understanding is that when you auto-reroute or simply tell it to minimize traffic delays, the device checks the projected ETA on the current route v. the ETA on the alternative routes and if the current route is still faster you will not be rerouted.

You can work around this by going into the Traffic feature. If you go to the details of a specific incident and tell it to avoid that incident it will re-route you regardless of the stated delay.

Aside from this one incident it's been OK...I guess we'll see how things go.

 

[jzerocsk]

Is there a guide to the different color schemes they use to indicate traffic conditions? I've only seen red stripes over a white road so far.

I have no idea how to actually find this on the TomTom site, but the this manual (PDF) contains descriptions of the road colors and icons that the traffic service can show.

There was another accident listed for me today. Same thing as before - delay listed as 0 minutes, but it had put a black overlay on the affected part of the route. It seems like other incidents are working OK just not accidents.

 

[digital-flex]

I have no idea how to actually find this on the TomTom site, but the this manual (PDF) contains descriptions of the road colors and icons that the traffic service can show.

Thank you for posting that. I have been actually looking for a document with all the traffic icons for awhile now.

 

[The_Original_Modifier]

Canadian traffic?

Does Traffic work in Canada yet?


Thanks Mod

 

[offthegrid]

I really like the fact that the traffic can update automatically via the net and can reroute based on time but the traffic info does not seem to be accurate or maybe its out of date.

www.wls.live.com gives (in providence and boston from personal experience)
a much more accurate picture of what is going on traffic wise but of course that info does not integrate with TomTom.