TomTom Traffic

I can't get any sense out of the traffic feature. Either this service
is entirely useless or I'm using it wrong.

1. It fails to notice most congestion. I assume they've got some kind
of feedback.. sensors in the road, camera operators etc. but for the
most part it just completely misses traffic jams - even regular ones
that happen every day in the same place. It seems to be updating every
couple of minutes so *should* be accurate, but it isn't.
2. For once today *finally* I it recognised a real jam at the time it
was happening (first time it has done this in 2 weeks). I selected
'reroute' to avoid it (I know there are alternative routes, but don't
know the roads well enough to navigate them) and it did.. absolutely
nothing... How is this supposed to work? If all it's going to do is
tell me I'm going to be in a traffic jam ocassionally it's f...ing
useless IMO - I expected it to find an alternative route.

In another couple of weeks TT are going to start wanting paying for
this service and I really can't why anyone would do so. I'm guessing
I've missed something pretty major about it.

Are there any alternative services that work better? I'd have no
problem paying a monthly fee for a traffic service that actually
worked..

Tony

I had my free month, and didn't subscribe. I found it would warn of all
sorts of stuff which wasn't important, e.g. "slow traffic", which seemed to
mean that the motorway was moving at 50mph rather than 70. Big deal! I
really want to know if it's going to add significantly to my journey, but
any major holdups would have been lost in the "noise" of the
minor/insignificant incidents.

It also had a crap UI on TomTom mobile, meaning it was very hard to drill
down to the detail of the incidents it was reporting on my route - something
not to be attempted in a safe manner while barrelling down the motorway. Now
I rely on my RDS radio and the BBC traffic news, the Trafficmaster gadget on
the dash and the 240 RAC/Trafficmaster info on the phone.

The other problem about rerouting is that, with the increasing number of
people with Sat-Nav these days, when there's an incident, everyone uses it
to reroute, and jams up the alternative route, because everyone's trying the
same thing. There was a report on the radio the other day of people in some
village complaining about the increase in traffic, as the Sat-Nav systems
were routing more and more people through it as a detour route!

Graculus wrote:

Tomtom one is worse. It beeps. Occasionally it'll say 'slow traffic'
- while you're travelling in a queue at 5mph. There are some utterly
useless icons that tell you nothing, but they're just there to look
pretty.

Someone mentioned TrafficMaster was where they get their data. I had a
look at their coverage map for Manchester... essentially nonexistant -
- it's no wonder it doesn't work... unless you're on the ring road
you're not covered... WTF is the point if it doesn't cover the major
roads at least?

Tony

They use those sensors that you see mounted to bridges etc. If there are no
sensors, you get no info. The M26 is a classic, there are very few sensors
so you won't get any info of traffic backing up on it from the M25.

To be fair I use Tom Tom Traffic and around the M25 and other main
motorways, I find it works quite well and the re-routing does work. I guess
it just depends on where you are in the Country. Some A roads do have the
sensors, but only at key junctions.

Martin

M3 is the same there are very few sensors and long stretches down south
where there is nothing.

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Tumbleweed

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