Help Best App for Avoiding Traffic?

[dorlow]

So, I know the big two... Waze and Google Maps. I am so sick of sitting in traffic jams. Today, I turned on Waze and it drove me right into a huge traffic jam that was backed up for over an hour. Waze showed it free and clear. I then pulled up Google and it showed it yellow but not red for the route and it didnt offer any alternative routes.

This traffic jam today wasn't a road that no one uses. I was on I65 just south of Nashville heading north. It is a major highway. It was backed up for over an hour.

There has to be a better app that doesn't just drive you into traffic jams it knows about or not even know about a huge traffic jam on major highways.

 

[chanchan05]

Well where do you live? There has to be a source of data about the traffic jam for any app to report it in the first place. Does your city have monitoring for traffics 24/7 that anybody can access? If not then there's really no option. There is no single app that can do what you need perfectly. Plus Waze is crowd sourced. So if there aren't many Wazers where you are, it's less likely you'll get timely updates.

 

[AZgl1500]

It does not matter what app or service you are trying to use.

All of them are out of date.....

WAZE being a social app is most likely the most reliable, but only in a highly metropolitan area where there are a lot of tech savvy folks using WAZE.

My son uses it to drive from Atlanta, GA up to Dayton, OH every week and then back home on Friday....
it has saved him time by him seeing that a traffic mixup is on the road 50 miles in front of him.
he gets off the freeway and uses a side road.

in a metro area and residential streets?
I think WAZE is doomed for that.

too much happening too fast, and folks not updating the server fast enough, or accurately enough.
and, there is a delay between the time someone posts and when it actually shows up on your screen.

ie, I was with my son up in Dayton, OH and we were trying to get across town. We had just passed an off-ramp and saw up ahead that traffic was stopped, the on ramp was stacked with traffic going nowhere. in about 5 minutes or so, WAZE pops up a warning about a wreck on the Loop in front of us that wreck was 1/4 mile our side of the next opportunity to get off.

there were 3 or 4 WAZE reports clustered on that wreck location. we could see them just sitting there... and then we noticed that they were indeed moving, albeit very slowly....

the only thing we could do, was just wait it out....
by the time the off-ramp was close enough for us to use it, traffic had started moving about 15 mph and we just stayed on route....

It takes time for the servers to grab your data, and then send it out....
in our case, and it sounds like your case.

we both were in the "wrong place, at the wrong time".

 

[dorlow]

I live about 30 minutes south of Nashville. I drive I65 which is a huge interstate. There should be a ton of waze users on ththe highway all the time.

 

[The_Chief]

Hi neighbor! I live in Manchester and use Waze exclusively. It is great for traffic and hazards. Highly recommended!

 

[chanchan05]

There is a big difference between should, and is. It could have been you lucked out and came to a traffic a time when there weren't much wazers around. Or it could have been a server issue where the data wasn't processed in time. Or your connection wasn't the best that time.

But all in all point still stands. There isn't any app that can accurately report traffic on the dot. That would need an infrastructure level that only those with government level funding can achieve, I think.

 

[AZgl1500]

and it would require that anyone, and everyone, who got caught up in a traffic mess, immediately stopped driving and starting WAZEing/Texting/ etc....

if you are caught up in a traffic jungle, start stop, herky jerky, you best keep your eyes on the road, not down in your lap looking at WAZE

 

[tube517]

Waze is fairly accurate w/traffic jams in my area. I always take the alternate route if Waze shows traffic jams.

And I briefly look at Waze before even starting my car. I never use it while driving.

 

[AZgl1500]

But all in all point still stands. There isn't any app that can accurately report traffic on the dot. That would need an infrastructure level that only those with government level funding can achieve, I think.

An infrastructure that has Nanny Bots in the sky looking down at us to see if the girls have their tops snugged up , and to monitor traffic jams, in Real Time..... ain't going to happen

 

[SiempreTuna]

I find that here in the UK, Google Maps is actually really good at showing traffic - I often have it routing just for traffic info - but the jam has to really bad before it will re-route. To add insult to injury, spotting the hold ups far enough ahead so you re-route yourself is hard as scrolling or flicking to the route view isn't too great at showing hold ups.

 

[svim]

So, I know the big two... Waze and Google Maps. I am so sick of sitting in traffic jams. Today, I turned on Waze and it drove me right into a huge traffic jam that was backed up for over an hour. Waze showed it free and clear. I then pulled up Google and it showed it yellow but not red for the route and it didnt offer any alternative routes.

This traffic jam today wasn't a road that no one uses. I was on I65 just south of Nashville heading north. It is a major highway. It was backed up for over an hour.

From the what you've described, it sounds like the Waze app on your phone for whatever reason wasn't updating itself. The next time this happens try going into your Settings >> Application manager, selecting Waze, and tap the 'Force stop' button, then tap the 'Clear cache' button. Then restart the Waze app. (probably want to do this when you're not actually driving.)