HD traffic rapidly going downhill

MrT · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:36 am Post subject:

HD Traffic or any other traffic system is not going to cover every road closure. It does not (and is not claimed to) even cover every A road never mind all the streets in a city centre. It never will. The system is not yet fully doing what it is meant to do and needs fixing, but some expectations seem unrealistic.

Mapshare has the capability of temporary road closures, when you mark a road as closed. However I have not seen an explanation from TomTom of what temporary means. Unfortunately with map share you have no way of knowing if the person who entered the data is diligent or just a total idiot, so you have to choose to reject most of the data.

I have also wondered why people who show units not including the x40 in their signature have so many opinions on how well HD Traffic works when they cannot be using it.
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Drivelux

tkerby · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 10:58 am Post subject:

From Tomtom

tkerby · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:02 am Post subject:

Ideally, Tomtom would link HD traffic into something like this: http://www.roadworksscotland.org/

I could see a new service of HD Roadworks though - the roadworks data would only need updated by the device daily in terms of closures and restrictions thus not wasting bandwidth

mikealder · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:09 pm Post subject:

The Road information from the Highways agency is very good when concerning roadworks etc - however, a lot of roadworks are scheduled overnight, so the device would need to be updated a few times per day - its not difficult though and the Live connected devices would be ideal for receiving this sort of data.
I was using a POI file containing roadworks data last year while testing some ideas, so it certainly works on the device, but to make the information really useful and more accurate it would need to be specific to time of day - Mike

MrT · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:35 pm Post subject:

I found out today that the A412 St Albans Road in Watford is closed at its junction with the North Orbital for a month and of course it is not showing in HD Traffic.

I decided to block the road on my 940 and not to share it but oddly enough it did not ask if the closure was temporary or permanent. What has happened to this option?
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Drivelux

tkerby · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:58 pm Post subject:

Not all corrections ask the temporary / permanent question Sad

As for roadworks, the most important thing for routing would be road closures. Probably followed by temporary speed limits and lane closures which would slow down the IQ routes data. Then general warnings as a hazard ahead

HD traffic should handle most slowdowns in its normal operation but its the closures that are more useful, particularly within cities

Graeme2812 · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 4:50 pm Post subject:

MrT · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:01 pm Post subject:

I agree, major routes that show on RDS or GPRS should all show on HD and if they do not the problem lies with TomTom. TomTom are obviously receiving the data if it shows on the GPRS traffic system so it can only be their processing if it is missing on the HD. As for the content of the TMC that is outside of TomToms control and if it appears on the TMC but not the other traffic systems, TT should be asking their sources why not.

The fact that an area does not have HD coverage should not affect the HD system showing road closures and other Highways Agency traffic information as this infomation is meant to be mixed with the new HD derived information. Only the additional HD Vodaphone tracking information should be missing in areas without this new coverage.

Today on HD near me a major A road junction is closed for a month and it is not mentioned.
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Drivelux

ihunter · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:39 pm Post subject:

At the other end of the scale, Molescroft Road in Beverley has been shown as closed for weeks now by HD. I had the opportunity to drive the full length of it in both directions at the weekend (purely out of curiosity) and it is most definitely open with no indication of why it might have been closed in the first place. I've informed TT so it'll be interesting to see for how much longer it remains 'closed'.

tkerby · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:47 pm Post subject:

One of the issues with Highways Agency data is its often not updated at the end of work. For instance the Edinburgh Bypass has shown as closed for months due to a flood on gprs traffic. Whilst its hard for HD traffic to tell if a road is closed (it may just be unusually quiet,), it should be easy to determine if its actually reopened as the Vodafone data should show traffic movement.

It sounds like they need to add a lot more intelligence into the traffic algorithms

MrT · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:10 pm Post subject:

Yet near me the M1 has just been closed, the traffic has not yet built up and it is already showing on HD Traffic as closed (J6-J7N).
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Drivelux

ihunter · Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:56 pm Post subject:

It's a day short of 2 weeks since I reported Molescroft Road in Beverley being incorrectly shown as closed to TomTom and despite a reasonably quick response admitting it was a fault that they would investigate it is still shown as closed. If this is an indication of how accurate HD Traffic is I won't be wasting £7.99/month when my trial period expires.

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