‘Live traffic’ on your sat nav – is it worth paying for?

At TomTom, using the RDS TMC was sometimes painfully inaccurate, especially when trying to navigate through a foreign country.

When Live traffic was introduced I was amazed at how accurate this system was, right up to the point detailing exactly where the jam started. The devices basically have a SIM card in them that checks for other stationary devices on the same stretch of road. If more than 3 = traffic jam.

I am completely unsold on paying for it though, much as I hate sitting in traffic, if the main route is blocked, this means that all the secondary and tertiary routes are going to be rammed also. The best way to go at points like this is by stopping and plotting a new route around everything manually rather than rely on the most popular.

I mostly use google traffic before I leave, yet it never seems to be entirely accurate. It can be green yet there are miles of tailbacks due to an accident, or it can be red when the traffic is moving freely. Having so many issues with breakdowns/accidents in the M1 Luton roadworks, I just don’t take that route north anymore.

Subscriptions are the way forward as a business model, but ultimately I lament having to pay for information that is provided for free elsewhere and will never sign up for something like that, regardless of how accurate it is.

Maybe if I was on the road every day, but I am not so it doesn’t matter to me

Whether it is “worth it” or not, there is a fundamental problem with having to pay for this service. Good quality, accurate information about traffic conditions should be freely available to all road users. These are our roads, paid for by our taxes.

The Highways Agency have installed CCTV cameras and gigantic matrix display panels, again at our expense, but the quality of the information is sometimes appallingly poor, unreliable or out of date. For example, on 1st November, traffic queued for 3 hours on the M23 between Gatwick and the M25 – a distance of less than 5 miles. The signs only said there were “delays” between J5 and J8 of the M25, not that the road was closed and would not be reopening for several hours!

If a road has been closed at the decision of a public authority, they surely have a duty to inform all road users of the fact, not just those that pay for a premium subscription service or happen to be listening to the radio at the right moment?

I have a garmin nuvi model which came with FM traffic. It is “free” being included in the price, so no annual fee. It is superb! It will re-route you automatically when on the road, and will avoid traffic delays when programming. The only thing I have found is that is does not automatically re-route when the congestion has cleared; so every half hour or so I reset it to the destination. Would definitely NOT buy a satnav without it.
Has any one else found that mapping is not very accurate on minor roads through villages and on speed limits which have been in place for several years?

This subject seems dead.

I was looking for some feedback on the current usability of live traffic services on TomTom, Garmin and others. I believe there issues with some devices which rely on an internal connection via the mobile network to obtain live data. The network(s) now get congested at busy times and drop the connection – this usually happens when there is a lot of traffic (M1, M3, M25 etc) just when you need it.

The Which November review on Satnavs does not help.

Whether live services justify the cost (some devices now have a lifetime service) is not part of my question. However in deference earlier posts my subscriptions have saved my bacon over time (eg making a flight departure, making business meetings etc)

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I am using Navigon for Android which comes with their Traffic Live Alert. I have found this almost totally useless.

This morning for example I tried their new look app on the way to work. It immediately started spewing out almost continuous messages about traffic congestion on the A3 between Hindhead and Portsmouth. The messages were repeated so often that they ran into each other. All the messages warned of traffic congestion with an average speed of 10mph and showed a vastly increased travel time of approximately 1 1/2 hours.

The truth – the traffic was lighter than normal. there was no impediment to driving at 70mph except where slowing for the Ham Barn roundabout and when exiting off at slip roads.

Completely useless