Speaking of Maps and Traffic...
... this morning, the perpetually-useful Lifehacker blog brings word that Google Maps now provides estimates of traffic delays with its driving directions.
For example, when I look up the route from my home to Dulles Airport, Google Maps informs me that the drive should take "about 36 mins" or "up to 45 mins in traffic." It says the schlep up to BWI clocks in at about 50 minutes normally, or up to an hour and 10 minutes in traffic.
(Then again, Google doesn't suggest the routes I use in the first place: It avoids I-66, directing me on 50 to the Beltway instead; to reach BWI, it sends me through D.C. on New York Avenue instead of the Anacostia Freeway.)
Google also seems to underestimate just how bad traffic can get--a strange thing for a company that has to deal with the San Francisco Bay Area's congested roads. It says that our route last weekend up to New York City's Upper East Side can take just under four and a half hours, but may run as long as 5 hours and 10. In fact, we needed about six and a half hours to make the trip. (Go ahead, ask me how much fun it was to sit for 20 minutes on the approach to the G.W. Bridge--in the EZ-Pass lanes! at 11 p.m.!)
Let's do a little experiment: Plug in your commute, then report back here on the accuracy of Google's traffic-delay estimates. Does this new feature work, or does it need another development cycle or two?
By Rob Pegoraro |
August 3, 2007; 10:04 AM ET
| Category:
Pleasant surprises
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Posted by: Judith | August 3, 2007 11:21 AM
I think they're using data from the private Traffic.com, which relies heavily on road sensors. I'd rather know that there's a crash ahead and figure out how to avoid it real time. WaPo.com's traffic site is much preferred for that info. (I think it comes from the live people at Metro Traffic here in DC.)
Travel time info might be more useful if you could plug in the time of day you were traveling, and if they could then tell you that, at that hour over the last XX number of days, the travel time on that road at that hour has been XX minutes.
I've heard that many mapping sites avoid plotting I-66 because of the stricter HOV restrictions inside the Beltway during the week (again, goes to what time of day you're driving). But I've seen with Google maps that once the course is plotted, you can select along the map and adjust your heading by dragging a point on the line to your preferred road.
Posted by: JC | August 3, 2007 11:28 AM
Having said that last, I just tried plotting a trip from Manassas to Washington and it steadfastly will not let me move the line to I-66 inside the Beltway. Hmph!
Posted by: JC | August 3, 2007 11:33 AM
McLean to Dulles airport. "15.2 mi - about 21 mins up to 25 mins in traffic" is right on.
Posted by: wiredog | August 6, 2007 10:04 AM
I tried it for my route in Chicago. Showed 31 minutes and up to 40 in traffic. 31 minutes is the fastest I've ever done it, at like 9 pm or on weekends. It's probably more like 50-55 minutes during rush hour. I actually don't even take their suggested routes and use surface streets instead.
Posted by: Ann Marie | August 6, 2007 10:11 AM
Quit wasting time and get back to work.
Posted by: The Boss | August 6, 2007 10:36 AM
Google directions have regularly been suggesting an illegal U-turn on the west-bound approach to the Sagamore Bridge between Cape Cod and the "mainland." Not only have some drivers tried this lunatic maneuver in the past, the state highway department has put up pylons making it more difficult.
It's too bad the site doesn't have a feed-back feature to warn of such problems.
Posted by: John (Cape Cod) | August 27, 2007 3:25 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
I'm going be commuting from Mountain View to San Francisco State twice a week soon, and Google says it could take up to 1 hour with traffic. I've never made the trip in under an hour and plan to allow 1 1/2 hours for travel - and I still expect to be late from time to time. On a side note, I live about 2 miles from the Googleplex, and I note that they don't allow any traffic congestion time from here to them, although I know there's always a huge jam in the mornings, both on the highway and the surface streets. So I wouldn't take this new feature too seriously.