App for traffic alerts

[anxious_ant]

I have a long an challenging commute so I rely on both my TomTom and Waze to get me home safely and in time.

I tend to stick to usual route unless I sense something is wrong. This is normally when both TomTom and Waze keeps trying to re-route.
Reason why I don't just follow TomTom or Waze is because I find that they constantly try to re-route even with the slightest delays.
On my commute the alternative routes can get a bit tricky during winter time hence why I try to stick to the main route if possible.

What I would love is an app that will ping me an alert if there are major incidents or delays along my usual commute. Waze used to do that but seems to have stopped. I try to check Google Maps before I leave but sometimes tend to forget if very busy.

I can't seem to find any app on Apple store and wonder if anyone could advise?

[indigochim]

If you add your commute to google maps does it not give you traffic warnings? TomTom speed camera app also gives you warnings of congestion ahead but I don't think that's available on apple devices.

[anxious_ant]

indigochim said:

If you add your commute to google maps does it not give you traffic warnings? TomTom speed camera app also gives you warnings of congestion ahead but I don't think that's available on apple devices.

I don't use Google Maps (although I have a Google account) for my commute so can't really tell.
There are no alerts on TomTom satnav or Waze when I use it in the car. It just tries to re-route my commute.
I will be helpful if I can get some kind of alert to help me decide as sometimes both TomTom and Waze will re-route even for minor delays.

If I'm not mistaken Waze used to pop up notifications if there are any serious incidents or delays along my usual route but it stopped doing that.

[Mr-B]

Have you changed your settings on waze? It should give alerts. RAC has a free app with traffic alerts I think.

[Funk]

Tell Google Maps your work and home addresses and what time you need to arrive at and leave work (Settings > Commute Settings) and if you usually drive/get train etc, it'll give you a daily heads-up (automatically) if there's congestion on your usual route and provide information about the alternatives. It appears in your notifications on your phone before you need to leave in the morning and before you leave for home at the end of the day.

Very useful and does exactly what you're asking.

[anxious_ant]

Funk said:

Tell Google Maps your work and home addresses and what time you need to arrive at and leave work, it'll give you a daily heads-up (automatically) if there's congestion on your usual route and provide information about the alternatives. It appears in your notifications on your phone before you need to leave in the morning and before you leave for home at the end of the day.

Very useful and does exactly what you're asking.

Thanks. I will give this a go. I've saved home and work address but didn't realise I can also set the time.

[anxious_ant]

Mr-B said:

Have you changed your settings on waze? It should give alerts. RAC has a free app with traffic alerts I think.

Checked Waze settings and all looks in order. I do put Waze in sleep mode when not using as it drains battery otherwise.
Will give the RAC app a go too.

[Funk]

anxious_ant said:

Thanks. I will give this a go. I've saved home and work address but didn't realise I can also set the time.

These are the settings you need:

Edited by Funk on Tuesday 1st October 23:10

[indigochim]

That's what I was referring to well explained Funk. The tomtom speed camera app isn't the same as the nav. it alerts you of congestion, traffic/danger zones and shows your average speed through average speed zones it's very good and you can set it to start and close when it pairs with your cars BT.

[anxious_ant]

Found it and have now setup with time to arrive and leave. Interesting how the notification will adapt over time from historical data.

Also noticed that "Time to Leave" notification is turned off which I've now turned back on.

Do notice it suggests a route however hopefully it will learn my preferred route as I currently do not use Google Maps as my sat nav. Maybe I should consider it over Waze.

[anxious_ant]

Funk said:

These are the settings you need:

Edited by Funk on Tuesday 1st October 23:10

The "Get Commute Notifications" feature is exactly what I'm looking for

Also curious if I will get a notification of the best time to leave to arrive by the target time.

If that's your real commuting hours I'm well jealous I start at about 6.30 am (mostly to avoid traffic) and leave at about 6 pm.

[Funk]

anxious_ant said:

Found it and have now setup with time to arrive and leave. Interesting how the notification will adapt over time from historical data.

Also noticed that "Time to Leave" notification is turned off which I've now turned back on.

Do notice it suggests a route however hopefully it will learn my preferred route as I currently do not use Google Maps as my sat nav. Maybe I should consider it over Waze.

It will automatically select the fastest route with the least congestion - it's possible that may sometimes be your preferred route but perhaps it's everyone else's route too, hence the traffic...

Google keep everything - they know what the congestion was this day last year on 'x' route at 'y' time for example. Combined with real-time info about what your phone is doing and where it is (along with everyone else's) means they can quickly spot hundreds of phones slowing to a crawl on a particular road and which is down to congestion. The accuracy is usually uncanny.

anxious_ant said:

The "Get Commute Notifications" feature is exactly what I'm looking for

Also curious if I will get a notification of the best time to leave to arrive by the target time.

If that's your real commuting hours I'm well jealous I start at about 6.30 am (mostly to avoid traffic) and leave at about 6 pm.

Maps will tell you how long your journey will take (and alert you if it's longer than usual) - so you can make sure to leave in time to arrive at the time you specified.

As for my commuting hours I do usually get in for nine and out at half five although depending on what I need to get done that can flex in both directions. The company I work for treat me like an adult and know that it's about getting stuff done rather than marching in or out on the dot - very refreshing.

Glad I was able to help and I hope you find it works the way you need it to!

[eybic]

I didn't activate that feature as it would seem that Waze needs to run in the background all the time. My battery life is bad enough as it is.

[PF62]

Funk said:

Google keep everything - they know what the congestion was this day last year on 'x' route at 'y' time for example. Combined with real-time info about what your phone is doing and where it is (along with everyone else's) means they can quickly spot hundreds of phones slowing to a crawl on a particular road and which is down to congestion. The accuracy is usually uncanny.

They may have that information, but they don't use it (or at least display) it very well.

There is a regular 100 mile journey I do to Birmingham where I set off at 7am. At that time Google is showing a 'green' clear run, yet I know for certain that by the time I reach Coventry it will be showing 'red' as the traffic has built up. Now Google knows this happened yesterday, they day before, and the day before, etc. but for some reason chooses not to show it.

Anyway, back to the OP's question, I find that Waze will redirect you to save 30 seconds, but Google will only redirect you if it is going to save a substantial amount of time (5 mins or more).

One option I have used in the past is to run both split screen to see what each suggests.

[paulrockliffe]

anxious_ant said:

Found it and have now setup with time to arrive and leave. Interesting how the notification will adapt over time from historical data.

Also noticed that "Time to Leave" notification is turned off which I've now turned back on.

Do notice it suggests a route however hopefully it will learn my preferred route as I currently do not use Google Maps as my sat nav. Maybe I should consider it over Waze.

Bear in mind that Time to Leave broke 4 years ago, it took two years for Google to accept it didn't work, but they've moved on to whizzier things now, so I doubt they'll ever fix it. It's probably the best feature they ever added in my view too, so useful and in such contrast to all the rubbish they come up with that they claim is really useful but isn't.

I don't get commute notifications either anymore, so I think that might be broken too.

The notifications don't adapt in any meaningful sense, eg after a year of me only commuting Monday to Thursday, it still sent me commute notifications on Fridays. Google know when I'm on holiday as it's in my calendar and they know when I'm not at home because they have my location data, yet I still got commute notifications from daft places while it worked. I actually had a really set routine for a good chunk of time, with fixed days when I took kids places on the way to work, Google never picked any of that up.

It'll annoy you that it doesn't learn your commute routes, so if your usual route is too busy with traffic it won't give you the slight variations that you know, it'll try to take you a long way out of the way. So when you arrive at your decision point it's giving you an alternative time for slower route rather than the alternative that you always take. It always seems to assume you won't want to use a rat-run or smaller roads, so gives you no useful information on a commute you do all the time.

[paulrockliffe]

PF62 said:

They may have that information, but they don't use it (or at least display) it very well.

There is a regular 100 mile journey I do to Birmingham where I set off at 7am. At that time Google is showing a 'green' clear run, yet I know for certain that by the time I reach Coventry it will be showing 'red' as the traffic has built up. Now Google knows this happened yesterday, they day before, and the day before, etc. but for some reason chooses not to show it.

Anyway, back to the OP's question, I find that Waze will redirect you to save 30 seconds, but Google will only redirect you if it is going to save a substantial amount of time (5 mins or more).

One option I have used in the past is to run both split screen to see what each suggests.

Ah yes, that one. It shows you the live traffic, not the traffic it thinks will be there when you get there. I can see some logic in that, but the longer the journey the less useful the live data is.

It also doesn't give you alternative faster routes until you're almost at the junction, so you think you're going to be delayed hours, then at the last second it whisks you out of the abyss.

That said, I once drove Durham to South Wales and it did an awesome job of skirting me round two accidents in Birmingham,delays of two hours at least.

[techguyone]

indigochim said:

That's what I was referring to well explained Funk. The tomtom speed camera app isn't the same as the nav. it alerts you of congestion, traffic/danger zones and shows your average speed through average speed zones it's very good and you can set it to start and close when it pairs with your cars BT.

I've used it for some years as an overlay to google maps, very handy. As seen

[paulrockliffe]

techguyone said:

indigochim said:

That's what I was referring to well explained Funk. The tomtom speed camera app isn't the same as the nav. it alerts you of congestion, traffic/danger zones and shows your average speed through average speed zones it's very good and you can set it to start and close when it pairs with your cars BT.

I've used it for some years as an overlay to google maps, very handy. As seen

Can you set that up so it opens automatically when you open Maps, or do you have to faff about too?

[Funk]

paulrockliffe said:

techguyone said:

indigochim said:

That's what I was referring to well explained Funk. The tomtom speed camera app isn't the same as the nav. it alerts you of congestion, traffic/danger zones and shows your average speed through average speed zones it's very good and you can set it to start and close when it pairs with your cars BT.

I've used it for some years as an overlay to google maps, very handy. As seen

Can you set that up so it opens automatically when you open Maps, or do you have to faff about too?

The TomTom overlay opens over whatever's running (and on the home screen if no apps are open).

One thing I will point out - many people have their phone on 'vibrate only' these days and as such the audible TT alerts wouldn't be heard if you leave it set to 'use device speaker'. I have it set to use the 'device selected output' as that's always my bluetooth in the car. This means the alerts come through over whatever music is playing although bear in mind also that if you aren't using the bluetooth at the time, ie. you've got the radio on then you won't hear the alert through bluetooth either. I think it would be better if the TT alerts could be treated as an alarm which would work via the phone's speaker even with it set to silent.

[anxious_ant]

Must say Google Maps isn’t really working for me. The notification only pops up when I’m in the car and on the way. Strangely enough it once pop up when I sat in my car during lunch time.

The notification I get is X amount of time to go work. Weird.