Now there is a social good that Google is offering to me. I think its great. Certainly the price seems lower than the alternative methods of providing this (roadside radar infrastructure coast to coast / in-road induction loops measuring traffic speed) Google gets a ton of good will from people like me.
Predict traffic before it happens
A little while back, Google Maps for desktop started sharing historic average traffic information. You can access this by clicking on traffic, and then click on "change". (no, sorry it doesn't do what it says, it doesn't actually "change" the traffic). Then play with the controls to see what traffic will probably be like.
Below you can see the variation in traffic approaching the Port Mann Bridge in Surrey BC that occurs at the same time on a Monday, and on a Friday.
I'm not sure if they are doing it yet, but the potential for this technology becomes apparent as you consider routing people through an urban center with a known departure time, known historic traffic on alternate routes, at different points of time throughout that journey. So if someone were driving from Vancouver BC to Portland Oregon, perhaps with a 7 am departure they'd get routed via the I-405, but if they left at 8am perhaps they'd get routed via the I-5 instead because an hour later, they'd save 10 minutes on the I-5 vs the 405. In the right hands, this technology has potential uses in focusing infrastructure improvements as well. I mean really, getting that old rubber hose stretched across the road for a week and then going and collecting the counter at the end of the week only to get a total axle count? Come on. Traffic speed in 15 minute increments whenever there was enough traffic to count? Fantastic.
Avoiding Congestion with Google Maps Mobile Traffic Information
Avoiding Congestion with Google Maps Mobile Traffic Information
Google Mobile Traffic has saved us from a couple really bad traffic Jams. One case in Langley essentially had the freeway backed up for 6 miles, but because of the heads up Google Maps Mobile provided, we saw the yellow heading into the solid red that stretched down the freeway. We got off and detoured through some rural routes until we could return to the freeway 8 miles later. It was interesting to note that as we detoured around the congestion, we could see the congestion starting to shrink in size, and we could also see that it was moving Eastward down the freeway. So by the time we got back to the freeway, the front of that congestion was just starting to hit that entrance. With 4 people in our carpool (which is saving us $1000s per year) if we can avoid sitting in traffic for an hour (like the example above) that is saving us 4 hours that we'd rather spend at home with our families. Thanks Google! If you need a carpool to test out fancy Android GPS Navigation prototypes we're your carpool, call me baby, we'll hook you up with some tech savvy feedback and real-world testing.
Using Google Maps Mobile safely while commuting
Generally we frown on the drive using Google Mobile applications unless it is during a red light. Passengers can of course use Google Mobile safely throughout the journey. We have a bit of a ritual, when we leave for work, and leave work at the end of the day, we load up a google maps mobile view of our entire route, and assess the colour. All Green, All Green with some Yellow, or Red somewhere on our route. If its anything but red, we stick to the plan following our normal (highly optimized) routes. It it's red, we turn on the 24 hour traffic radio station to get a "second opinion".
Accuracy?
For the cost ($0.00) its really quite good. Much better than the lack of realtime traffic we've had before. We understand that Google requires a certain number of drivers to be travelling with GPS down a road, before they will publish the traffic speed. (which explains the spots on the commute that are missing traffic.) Sometimes we have seen Google drawing the traffic on the map right behind us as we drive. We don't trust it 100% because of a few things we've observed. Sometimes we see Red on the map, but when we get there things seem slow but not bad enough for "red"... Other times it has been very accurate, as we drive in to the "yellow" from the "green" we see the traffic slow and become congested...
Since the data for the real-time traffic comes from GPS in mobile phones that are running Google location service "latitude"... You can improve the quality of traffic information, by enabling latitude. Google knows where your phone is, and so do the friends you share your location with. (I share with only 5 people) I really don't mind Google seeing my route back and forth to work. I turn Latitude off sometimes, and turn it back on in traffic.
Feature Request:
Google, it would be great if we could have Latitude turn off and on either based on Location (always turn off when I drive home, always turn on when I get on the Freeway) or based on time. Share location between 7AM and 5PM.
We have observed a strange behaviour on google maps mobile traffic. Sometimes one zoom level of the map with traffic will show a road as green, while a different zoom level of the same section of map with traffic shows as yellow. Presumably the act of zooming in and out on the map doesn't actually speed up or slow down traffic. (If it does, we've accidentally invented something much more powerful here). So there is apparently some lag issue there. Is it a bug? or are we just hitting different copies of the data on different servers as the different zoom levels are updated on a slightly different schedule? Sometimes its actually wrong, (really wrong). But generally Google Mobile Maps Traffic gives a reasonable overview of traffic conditions.
Also interesting, I've noticed on the desktop version of Google maps, that I can see more or less traffic detail depending on which browser I use. See below;
Google Mobile does offer a bit of online help to explain traffic here;
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=61455
Traffic color descriptions
If available in your area, real-time traffic conditions will be displayed over the highway as color coded lines. Each color represents how fast the traffic is moving:
- Green: more than 50 miles per hour
- Yellow: 25 - 50 miles per hour
- Red: less than 25 miles per hour
- Gray: no data currently available
I wonder if these legend numbers are truly accurate. Often there are smaller roads that are flowing smoothly, represented in green which have posted speed limits of 60KM/h or 37MPH (as you can see from the above legend, that should be Yellow because it is below 50MPH. So my point is that Google maps is putting reasonable colours on the maps, but the reality doesn't reflect these numbers in the legend. I suspect that Google is using algorithms to ignore / accommodate traffic lights of normal duration (1 min?), and also that with the historic average speed data they are gathering, that we will see the "green" / "yellow" / "red" coding for the traffic reflect how the traffic deviates from the norm as well as matching an absolute speed. (of course absolute speeds in a legend are simpler to explain).
Availability of real-time traffic
Real-time traffic data is available in major cities in the United States, France, Britain, Australia, and Canada, with new cities and new countries frequently added. To see if real-time traffic is available in your area, simple focus the map on your area of interest and look for the "Traffic" button in the upper-right corner of your screen. Note that traffic conditions are shown based on data availability -- if we don't have enough data to calculate accurate traffic speeds for a road, then we won't show traffic conditions for that road. This is the reason why you may see more real-time traffic results at certain times of the day.
Google Maps has recently updated its traffic flow representations to show not only the regular Red-Yellow-Green format, but a Red/Black hashing that shows super slow traffic at <10 MPH.
Can I get that on my GPS? Red goes up to 25MPH, and there is a huge difference between essentially stop and go at under 10 MPH and putting along at 25 MPH when you need to get home. One, I might try to plow through if it's short; the other I would avoid like the plague.
(from http://www.gpslodge.com/archives/019842.php)
Prediction: Google is going to be able to effectively identify where roads are, and how they connect. Google is going to be able to see which roads only flow in one direction, which lanes are alternating "counterflow" lanes which switch direction during rush hour. They aren't going to have to wait for Tele-Atlas or others to "update" their maps, or "correct" their errors. The GPS in your phone is going to map the roads, and don't worry about the people walking with a cell... generally people don't walk or hike at 50km/h etc so with some intelligently designed algorithms, Google will know before the planners release the updates.) If you've ever noticed problems with Google maps such as the $800,000,000 "Golden Ears Bridge" missing in the Lower mainland of BC, and tried to report them, you will have been sent to the map providers website to submit an "issue" and well supposedly something happens after that...
Feature request:
Google for the desktop edition, please give me a "refresh" button. If I'm watching traffic, but I'm not moving the map, from a normal browser I'd hit F5, but when I try that with maps.google.com I end up looking at a map of North America. Effectively I get to start all over which is irritating. Hitting "back" at that point doesn't help because I was already in the correct location in the browser history. Ajax is getting there...
Other features noted
One nice feature I've noticed is that google maps mobile seems to have an intelligent "timeout" on map data. This means that 8 hours after your morning commute, you'll likely have to tell Google Maps on your Blackberry to "show traffic". I don't mind because if I didn't want traffic I'd be waiting for that to load, and I'd rather "ask" for a feature to run on my phone, than have that feature just assume it should present itself (like a certain operating system developed near Seattle does).
In Google Maps for desktop you can't save a link to a map with traffic data. If you turn off the traffic information, then Google will happily provide you with a link. (the link button is at the top right of the map. try it). I'm wondering if this is to help Google control who could re-sell that data via approved API access or whether there is just complexity to the Ajax magic being pulled off. My bet is it's to assure appropriate control.
So all in all, the Traffic Information service provided by Google through Google Maps is phenomenal. Well worth the price of admission. Very usable and something that is effectively mapping the developed world automatically. Very smart guys... Very smart... Thanks Google.
Cheers,
Greg.
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