TomTom 3 Traffic

[Darren]

[MrT]

Well yes and no. TomTom did originally say May as in the link I posted, but now they have amended the product description to say:

http://www.tomtom.com/products/content.php?ID=238&Section=1628&Language=1

"TomTom Traffic will become available in the beginning of June 2004, only in the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands. If you subscribe to the TomTom newsletter, you will be informed when TomTom Traffic becomes available."

I just wish it was available a few days earlier for the Bank Holiday weekend.

[Trev_H]

Did anyone notice map changes when adding TT traffic?

For example, the A12(northbound only, southbound was fine) from the M25 to Colchester was called an unnamed road. This has now been fixed and correctly states A12. Plus approaching Colchester it now says 'keep right' when passing the A120, previously TT just ignored it.

I guess this would explain the 4mb download - not just traffic, but routing engine changes too.

Trev

[MrT]

I have noticed what appears to be a new error in a certain place which could be explained by the previous suggestion.

When you are heading South West from M25 J21 on the A405 North Orbital towards M1 J5 and your route takes you straight on under the M1 towards North Watford, as you approach the M1 where you should be in the middle or right lanes to go straight on, it tells you to keep left, which is the turning for the M1 Southbound entry.

[DavidW]

[iancjc]

Does anyone know what traffic info tomtom are subscribing to?

On Friday night Trafficmaster correctly identified a 4 mile jam on the m11 outside cambridge (with the usual 30 minute delay - avoid etc warnings), tomtom traffic showed absolutley no problems.

On this basis less sure than before about paying a sub plus gprs when 30 quid to trafficmaster does the lot.
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TyTn II (WM6.1) / tomtom one v2
TTN6.03 tomtom 7.xx (one)

[DavidW]

I'm pretty sure the data is coming from ITIS, who, unless I'm mistaken, also provide the RDS-TMC service via Classic FM, as well as quite a lot of the premium rate traffic services.


I'd noticed that Trafficmaster's data tends to be more responsive than that from ITIS to developing problems. I've one of the old AA Vodafone Roadwatch 1800 units - the subscription free Trafficmaster units that give you icon and bleep based information for the next fifteen miles - or three junctions on a motorway.

The phone number if you want more information used to be 1800 - more recently it was changed to 2222. Originally the data came from Trafficmaster, but more recently it switched to ITIS. Since this move, I've found several times that Trafficmaster was correctly showing some delay, and the phone line was saying there were no delays.


It would be great if TomTom used Trafficmaster data, but as Navigator 3's traffic setup appears to be based on TMC technology, and Trafficmaster may not be willing to licence their data to TomTom because of a conflict with their own Smartnav product, I think we may simply have to accept that it is ITIS data being used, and hope that ITIS improve their performance.

You can view the ITIS data on the web at http://62.225.145.21/itis/mapping.asp?MAP=VI - when you've zoomed in, don't forget to select "View traffic information" (before anyone asks - this is a public URL linked from the ITIS Holdings home page - I'm not giving a back door into a subscription based system here).

A while back I posted a comparision of the ITIS and Trafficmaster data on a particular day - that can be found here.


ITIS tell you how they collect their data here - I suspect that, even though they say they've got thousands of vehicles reporting, their system is less able to respond quickly than Trafficmaster's is - though their doesn't require the expensive infrastructure that Trafficmaster's does to add coverage (I think Trafficmaster now regard their network as complete and don't intend to add significant extra coverage, apart from, presumably new major roads and bypasses).



David

[MrT]

There is also the Highways Agency own real time data for the motorway network.

Look at:
http://www.highways.gov.uk/travel/rtt.htm

and

http://www.highways.gov.uk/travel/trafficmap.htm

[Dave]

Both links are showing 404 errors. Try http://www.highways.gov.uk/trafficinfo/

[iancjc]

Noticed something tonight which will probably swing my cash back to traffic master....

Tonight tomtom traffic correctly told me that the M11 was closed and I selected the reroute to avoid the hold up. Unfortunately it still wanted me to go up the M11 and pull off the junction before it was closed - following this advice would have left me at the back of 3 + miles of stationary traffic.

Traffic Master told me stationary traffic for x miles SEVERE DELAY avoid (but only when I was approaching the M11 - so tomtom gave me the info 25 minutes before trafficmaster because it knew where I was going).

From my experience of running it I have the following observations;

1. The ipaq connects correctly to the phone but the GPRS connection is very hit and miss whilst on the move, especially in poor signal area's.
2. The screen on my 2210 gets very cluttered with all the options running.
3. The traffic updates are less reliable than trafficmaster but more useful when they work correctly.
4. The rerouting routine needs work and a little more thought - it should try avoiding the closed road completely rather than suggest you drive upto the closure and then turn off.
5. GPRS costs are very reasonable - less than £1 a week on orange payg.
6. A combination of Radio 5 plus trafficmaster is nearly perfect tomtom taffic with trafficmaster data would be closer still to perfect.
7. Other big drawback is the coverage of the traffic info - main roads only but I guess thats life.
8. Final implementation of traffic shoul be good as for a beta product this is as good as it gets.
9. If you want to use a bt headset you will need a 2nd phone for the gprs data.

As it stands I have unistalled it tonight and will wait for the final version to appear - the big test will come when I have to pay a sub and the traffcmaster payment is due - I think trafficmaster is favorite at the moment.

Ian
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TyTn II (WM6.1) / tomtom one v2
TTN6.03 tomtom 7.xx (one)

[MrT]

I am not sure which TrafficMaster product you use, but I use two derived from them. The old YQ (~£12pm) and Traffic-I at £40pa + GPRS. Traffic-I is certainly quicker to react to traffic conditions than TomTom, but it is tricky to keep swapping applications then scroll in Traffic-I when driving. The YQ is easy to use, but it is another screen on the dashboard.

I have found two repeating issues with the reliability of trafficmaster data. Particularly on the A12 of the past few years where there have been major roadworks (Wittam, Keveldon etc), the roadside power is disconnected as a result. This means that trafficmaster are getting no data from this area, so it shows as there is no congestion where there can be massive delays. The other big bug is that if the traffic is totally stopped for a long time or the road is closed, their sensors see no slow moving traffic and assume the road is clear.

[iancjc]

I'm using a freeway unit - one annoying feature of it is that if you sit for long enough not moving it effectively turns off! No big problem providing you hit the button every now and again.

I'm coming to the conclusion that ttn3 plus traffic plus checkpoint may overload the ipaq I have (it certainly overloads the screen!) - not sure that tomtom traffic is going to be worth the 10 euro monthly fee (to me at least).

Ian
_________________
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TyTn II (WM6.1) / tomtom one v2
TTN6.03 tomtom 7.xx (one)

[mark1968]

Tomtom have updated their products page and Traffic is now showing with a direct link to the activation process.

I have downloaded the update which seams to be different to the previous verson!
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Please follow me on twitter @mdyson1968

[Taz]

[DavidW]

Trying to use infra-red in car is going to be very tricky, as you have to keep the ports lined up.

For infra-red, all you do is select the COM port that refers to the infra-red port, and activate infra-red on the phone. From there on, it should just work - assuming that you have Internet GPRS service available to you and the right settings.



David

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