Is Traffic worth the price premium?

[equlizer]

The only traffic that works in my area is the Go Live and brings a $90 premium over the Via 1535TM I have. Is it worth it to have traffic? I drive for a living but know the city pretty well.

 

[dhn]

Well, there are other services included in the LIVE model: Weather (which you can get a million other ways), Travelocity, Yelp (neither of which would be enough for me renew LIVE services after the 1st year) and Google Local Search which would probably motivate me to renew since it finds things that the crappy included poi data (around Toronto, anyway) doesn't include.

Also, the fuel prices do NOT include Canada so,the decision is yours....

I don't know what regular traffic is like in Edmonton, of course, but LIVE is certainly better than rds-tmc traffic in the GTA (Greater Toronto area).

No right answer, I'm afraid .............

 

[Tc4101]

I would like to know if it actually works. Has anyone tested it. I.e driven past an accident. Then punched in the route and tomtom told u to avoid?

I already have a via160, not sure if i should upgrade or its just a gimmick.

 

[dhn]

It is not a gimmick. And works quite well in most cases.

 

[canderson]

I would like to know if it actually works. Has anyone tested it. I.e driven past an accident. Then punched in the route and tomtom told u to avoid?

Seems a bit backward, so no. I don't think I've ever bothered to try it in reverse like that.

What I have had happen is to be driving and approaching problem areas and been told how and when to avoid them to achieve best time to my destination, which is how the device would normally be used. So yes, it works, at least in the areas where I've taken it so far. It won't do this for every little surface street, mind you. I don't know how good the coverage is on the streets of major AU towns, though. Can only say how it is here.

 

[Andy_P]

The way it works for me is that
1. I will enter a destination and it will calculate a route and then immediately show on screen "Traffic found on route, calculating alternative". It then shows the new route (and the time improvement).

2. During a drive it will say (visually and audibly) "Traffic on your route has changed. A new route has been found that is x minutes faster, do you want to take that route?"

3. If the alternative is only very small improvement it puts a message up on screen saying "Alternative route x minutes faster".


Of course, without having a partner in another car who goes by the original route while you take the new one, it's very hard to PROVE that the new route is better, but when I decide to ignore it's advice and go by the original route, I usually regret it!

 

[adidas1124]

I've used both RDS/TMC and LIVE... LIVE Is much more accurate.

I've learned that LIVE Traffic is very very good on major freeways/highways... side streets that are covered by LIVE are hit and miss a lot of the time.

The estimated time of arrival is usually 100% correct on my TT, even with minor traffic delays or major delays that require a re-route... I will be renewing when mine expires.

 

[Amesdp]

In Vancouver (Canada) the RDS traffic information available on the T suffix models is pretty useless. Drive time estimates in the rush hour are quite inaccurate (overly optimistic), worse than models that use only road type information from the map.

But to be fair, live radio traffic reports in Vancouver are pretty useless too. Bottlenecks appear and disappear on a 15-minute basis, and the radio traffic reports can't keep up. I've never yet avoided an accident because of the radio reports - they're always 5 minutes too late, or 30 minutes out of date after the accident is cleared up. Nobody really needs live reporting of the routine rush-hour slowdowns that are completely predictable (at least to everyone but TomTom IQ routes apparently). About the only time the traffic reports are good for anything is when there's a long-term road closure or restriction that started hours before and which will last for hours more.

 

[- et -]

It appears to me that the value of the traffic information depends upon the quality of the information source, which appears to vary with the location.

My personal experience has been essentially the same as that of earlier postings, and much better than that of Amesdp. I have the RDS receiver on my XXL540 and the LIVE traffic on my GO LIVE 1535, and both have been useful on occasion.

I recall one occasion on which I was leaving my home for a 20-mile drive. I would normally get on Interstate 405 (an expressway) about 2 miles from my home, but I saw a large delay on the GPS screen about 1.5 miles after the location where I would get on. I changed my route to enter the expressway after the predicted delay point. When I did so, I saw a major accident that was blocking the expressway just before the point at which I was now entering. If I I had not had the GPS traffic data, my 25-30 minute drive would have been 60+ minutes.

Since I live in the Los Angeles area, there are a lot of vehicles to provide traffic information in real time. I suspect that the value of that data would be much less in an area with relatively few vehicles to provide such data.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

 

[ttodd0450]

There are currently free aps that give you traffic to monitor from your cell phone .....

" The CTV Morning Live Traffic App provides instant traffic updates by means
of hands-free visual and audio alerts, right to your smartphone.

You have joined thousands of users within this network to make the CTV
Morning Live Traffic App the best traffic reporting system for anyone
travelling to and from work. The network relies on users like you to
passively and actively tell other users the traffic conditions ahead.
Whenever a user is stuck in traffic, that information is passed onto the
entire user network. You can also report a traffic tip with the "Call to
Report" button, which connects you toll-free to our traffic reporting
centre.

Before you hit the road, launch CTV Morning Live Traffic and start
recording your first trip. While you are recording your first trip, the
system immediately begin to advise you of the traffic condition up to 20 km
ahead of you, with voice and visual alerts. The next time you travel on the
same route, call up your recorded route. You will instantly hear real-time
traffic alert specific to your route instantly. "

 

[canderson]

For those who aren't familiar with CTV, it's a Canadian-only service. It services many of the major cities in Canada. It's a good idea to have your phone connected to an in-vehicle supply, since they use your phone as a 'probe' to collect traffic data (much like a TomTom Live unit) and your GPS functionality must be enabled when using the app.

Also, be sure your data plan can handle this as a daily commuter. The app burns about 5 MB of data for each hour of use. For most plans, that's a drop in the bucket, but not for all, especially when the average commute is 30 minutes each way. That's about 110MB per month.