Do I need TomTom traffic?

Thrubwell · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 30, 2004 Posts: 21

I'm using TT3 at the moment and am interested in TomTom Traffic. I've seen quite a few negative comments in this forum about it. Is there anyone who thinks its:
a: The best thing since sliced bread
b: OK for a gadget but of no real use if you actually want to get somewhere.
c: Useless, my money would be better spent on the extra fuel I would burn up in the traffic jam I was going to get stuck in anyway!

Question

mug · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 29, 2004 Posts: 24

For what it's worth, I think it is fantastic. Yep, I love it. I have been using it for a couple of month and am convinced it has saved me hours of sitting in jams. I drive about 40 - 50 miles each way to work and have a choice of a either a shorter but slower cross country route or a longer but faster motorway route. I switch on tt traffic when I leave home / work and by the time I get to the end of the road, I know which route to take. Many times, I have been vindicated by calls from colleagues stuck in the jams I have avoided. It has worked equally well when using the "minimize traffic delays" and letting it route me round jams. Recently 2 car fulls of us left from our office in Guildford heading to near Heathrow. Those in my car arrived in 30 mins - the other car arrived 40 mins later. I could justify my company paying for my whole set up based on just a couple of weeks saved time.
Of course it is not perfect - I have been caught in some jams without warning and seen it report some that had already cleared, but this is nothing compared to the whole picture.
And in case your wondering, I have no link to TT or anything to gain from this!
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DavidW · Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 11:01 pm Post subject:

I presume you're talking about Traffic in the UK. If so, I think the considered opinion is that the iTIS data TomTom Navigator uses is inferior to the data provided by Trafficmaster.

However, Trafficmaster appear unwilling to licence their data for use in systems like TomTom Navigator - they do have a navigation product called Smartnav that uses their data, but it's very limited in other ways (the routing is done by a service centre, much like Wayfinder) and I'd find it hard to recommend.

Trafficmaster collect their data in an expensive but very elegant way - via their number plate recognition cameras. iTIS don't use such a sophisticated system - their data seems to depend mainly on feedback from various vehicles equipped with iTIS hardware. This means the iTIS system is slower to respond and the data is less reliable, but their coverage potentially better. Trafficmaster have, I believe, stated that they believe their network is complete and they don't intend to roll out further coverage.

As the Trafficmaster data is unavailable, TomTom Traffic is as good as it gets (the iTIS data is the same data that is made available over RDS-TMC). It's imperfect - I've driven into jams when Traffic said the road was clear, and I've also found Traffic warning of delays when there weren't any. However, I found it sufficiently good to pay for a year's subscription.

Traffic doesn't use much GPRS data - though do make sure you can access the Internet over GPRS from your device in car, otherwise Traffic is useless.

The "belt and braces" approach is to use Traffic and carry a Trafficmaster device, such as a Freeway, or, if you can find one, one of the old no subscription "bleeps and lights" devices. I have an old AA Vodafone Personal Roadwatch 1800 which was still working a few weeks ago (I haven't used any covered roads since) - just be aware that these devices tend to be a little heavy on batteries.

If you find one of the "bleeps and lights" devices, don't bother with the phone lines - certainly the AA Vodafone one (now on 2222 at something like 50p/minute) uses iTIS data, not Trafficmaster, so it won't tell you anything not already shown by TomTom Traffic.

David

Thrubwell · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 30, 2004 Posts: 21

Thanks for the info, I'll give it a go.

As for the old AA vodafone roadwatch units, I did have one of those but was always suspicious that they were a ploy to get you to use their dial up service. As my company block 2222 but allow GPRS TT traffic looks like a winner.
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