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Petekk
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pcaouolte
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Location: South Lincs, UK.
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 Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:52 pm Post subject: Re: HD Traffic Coverage Map - full strength' by March 2009 |
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| The page linked above wrote: | | Because there is normally less mobile phone traffic on smaller A roads it is not always possible to detect traffic jams on these roads. Next to this, complex traffic flow in city centres does not always make for reliable traffic messages. |
So we shouldn't expect it to work very well where there is not much traffic or where there is a lot of traffic. 
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DennisN
Tired Old Man
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 14892
Location: Keynsham
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:05 pm Post subject: |
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No!! You shouldn't expect it to work at all in town. Didn't you notice the follow up sentence... | Quote: | | However, historical IQ Routes data is used in city centres to ensure you always get the best route. |
Which means to me that they don't use HD in town, only year old IQ route information!
They'll also get the HD up to "full strength" after you've started to subscribe £8 a month for it.
I shall shortly increase my sales stock to include pigs in pokes.
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Dennis
If it tastes good - it's fattening.
Two of them are obesiting!! |
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Andy_P
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Joined: Jun 04, 2005
Posts: 19991
Location: West and Southwest London
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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| There ARE no pigs in pokes, they all flew away to TomTom HQ... |
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MrT
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Posts: 2143
Location: Surrounded by A1, M1 & M25
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:52 am Post subject: |
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| DennisN wrote: | | Which means to me that they don't use HD in town, only year old IQ route information! |
Take a look at Central (or most of) London on the HD Map or TT Routes and you will see the traffic in action and from experience it is fairly accurate, whilst it is nowhere near perfect, it is a lot better than the GPRS or TMC versions.
I would not have thought that traffic info from Vodaphone is needed in towns as the Highways Agency have monitoring "loops" in most of the roads for traffic flows. Whilst it could give indication of a delay on a through route, it will not be of much use from local traffic such as delivery vans and taxis which are stop start.
The info from Vodaphone is just an additional source of information for the HD traffic service, not the only one. A lot of the quality will be down to how the various information feeds are processed and combined by TomTom to produce the traffic output.
To quote TomTom:
TomTom HD Traffic uses a revolutionary new source of traffic information: the traffic flow of up to 16.7 million anonymous mobile phone users on the road. From this anonymous data, TomTom knows exactly where, in which direction and at what speed all these mobile phone users are travelling throughout the road network. This real-time data is combined with other existing quality traffic information sources, resulting in the most complete and reliable traffic information.
[/b]
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Petekk
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Take a look at Central (or most of) London on the HD Map or TT Routes and you will see the traffic in action and from experience it is fairly accurate, whilst it is nowhere near perfect, it is a lot better than the GPRS or TMC versions. |
This is my point. Having played with HD Traffic quite a bit, London does have a fair bit of coverage (with the exception of the bottom of the A40). You can see the traffic "in action", with a number of roads displaying fairly insignificant delays (i.e 1min etc). Traffic is always displayed for the same roads, with the time varying. Therefore when a route is calculated, it should give you a route that is dynamic depending on the reported traffic.
Outside of London only major trunk roads and motorway seem to be covered. i.e have a look at the Birmingham area, and apart from the motorways you will not see much else. Yet, I can assure you that traffic delays (over an above that predicted by IQR, which does not vary by enough between peak/off peak) exist in central birmingham (Hagley Road for instance).
A good example is yesterday, around the Merry Hill Shopping Centre. Delays all day, due to traffic to the centre, located on the A4036. These were 30mins+ on the A road, before you got to the centre, but no sign on HDT.
Back of envelope calculations. 10,000 parking spaces, 2 people per car, each space is used by 2-3 cars per day (10 hour period). Percentage who bring mobiles, percentage on voda etc, and you start to realise that there must be a load of voda sims around this location, on a A road, no going far. I have driven past with my x40 to add to the mix, and still there is no sign on HDT.
HDT is without a doubt better that the alternatives out there, but it does not provide what was promised. I am becoming more and more convinced the roads covered have to be profiled by TT, and that the coverage is far less than TT would like us to believe. |
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tkerby
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Joined: Aug 07, 2006
Posts: 160
Location: Edinburgh
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:33 pm Post subject: |
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fascinating map. I know myself and a number of others havrequests about accidents shown on hd being 'stuck' for many days. The amjority correspond with areas in the grey shaded regions of the map (Fife, Durham etc.). The other stuck incidents appear just north of Oban in the scottish highlands which shows coverage but that surprises me as the phone signal in notoriously poor there.
So I'm guessing that Tomtom have made use of a different data source for the grey regions which is updated much less frequently. This suggests that for non grey regioons where there is a good phone signal the only information is coming from the phone network |
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MrT
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Location: Surrounded by A1, M1 & M25
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:05 pm Post subject: |
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There are quite a few stuck incidents around the country, if you are looking on the x40 your info will be biased around where you are. The A12 at Romford, M5-J2, M54, M26 have had accidents for weeks and there are false road closures on the A12 nearer the Blackwall Tunnel.
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Drivelux |
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MrT
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Location: Surrounded by A1, M1 & M25
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe this is premature but all the false incidents seem to have disappeared. There is traffic info but very little of it.
I wonder if the phantom incidents will return?
EDIT:
Spoke too soon, they are back again and false jam on the M25 "From: J21A BRICKET WOOD To: J22 LONDON COLNEY stationary traffic for 1.2 mi, with a delay of 25 min". My wife is next to the M25 there at the moment collecting my son and the road is running freely
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Tomo
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Joined: May 17, 2004
Posts: 212
Location: Fife Scotland
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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The accident on the A92 in Fife (on the edinburgh section of map) is still there.
Must be some massive accident to still be there after 3 weeks now..............
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pcaouolte
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Joined: Dec 27, 2006
Posts: 998
Location: South Lincs, UK.
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 7:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Tomo wrote: | | Must be some massive accident to still be there after 3 weeks now.............. |
Elf & Safety are taking careful measurements for a risk assessment. The Camera partnership are taking more measurements to ensure that a speed camera can be located in the most profitable position. It all takes time.
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Petekk
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Joined: Mar 06, 2004
Posts: 137
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| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:01 pm Post subject: |
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In the mornings I might get 200-250 incidents and the traffic info does seem to work (to a degree).
However, at night (2am etc), I get 77 incidents. I have had the same number for the last 3 days. After looking at them, they all seem to either be the grey incidents (with no time detail) or the few roads in central london that seem to be covered. I suspect that most if not all of these incidents are stuck - and shouldnt be there.
The central london roads have the same delays in the same places, in the middle of the night, as during peak hours. The main Westway route into central London never shows any traffic delays (and a 10 min journey according to IQR) - but there is standing traffic every day. |
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mikero
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Joined: Feb 28, 2006
Posts: 84
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| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Very poor quality up here in West Cumbria! Certainly not worth £7.99 a month. I was in a 20 minute delay both yesterday and today on the A595. My device showed absolutely no traffic, even though there was a 3 mile standstill. |
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matthewj
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Joined: Apr 03, 2006
Posts: 751
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| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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| mikero wrote: | | Very poor quality up here in West Cumbria! |
Cumbria is one of the "dark" places they say isn't yet covered. I think it is a big pity they don't use the TrafficMaster data too. For the money, they should. |
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tkerby
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Posts: 160
Location: Edinburgh
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| Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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Got a reply about the stuck incidents
| Quote: | | It has come to our attention that we are experiencing challenges with our Plus Services Server, which may be affecting some of our customers. Technicians are working hard to resolve this and we hope to have the service available again shortly. |
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