Anyone use navigation with live traffic data?

[Shadow]

I've been using the system built into my car quite a bit lately and I must say that I'm VERY impressed with the accuracy and the functionality. I honestly don't know how I'd live without it anymore. As long as I enable the "dynamic route guidance" function in the navi, it will monitor my route for traffic and reroute me automatically to avoid getting stuck in traffic delays.

I've also been paying close attention to the indicated traffic speeds on the roads around here and that has also been extremely accurate. In fact, it's so accurate that I wonder how they do it. Does anyone know? Do they somehow use live speed data from cars already on the road? Other than that, I can't figure out how they'd get the accuracy so, well, accurate. For example, I got onto the northbound land of the NYS Thruway this morning and I noticed that my navigation system was indicating heavy traffic in the southbound lane. Sure enough, there was heavy stop-n-go traffic in the southbound lane. I had a clear road ahead, so I kept an eye on the navigation system and noticed that the navigation was indicating lighter traffic on the southbound lane and then free flowing traffic about a 1/4 mile further up. Sure enough, the actual traffic was a perfect match, just as the navigation had indicated. I don't see how that's even possible unless of course they are using some sort of real-time data.

BTW, my navigation system also gives me detailed reports about traffic obstructions within about 50 or 60 miles of my current location. It sorts them based upon their relative distance to me, closest being first on the list. It will give me a short blurb about the problem (overturned car, road construction, disabled car in left lane, etc...) when I click on the heading. Very cool and very useful. I really love technology....it's fantastic when it works right.

[six]

There are sensors embedded into the roads all over major thoroughfares. This data is usually provided real-time (or just slightly delayed, like 5 minutes) by the local transportation authority or the state's transportation department. It's the same data that your local radio station or TV station would use for their on-air traffic reports.

[mtheis]

http://flightaware.com/live/

[potownrob]

back when i got my first gps in 2009, garmin either stunk at live traffic updates or the system wasn't set up right yet; i'd get reports of major delays and find no traffic where it was said to be. i was paying for a subscription to have the traffic feature. the newer models had free lifetime traffic which was said to be not as good back then. i haven't really used the traffic report system since then, and i hardly ever use that gps or even my newer magellan. i do use my phone sometimes but, if it does have traffic data, i haven't been using it since my poor experiences back in 2009-10. maybe i'll give it another shot.

[AHTOXA]

Galaxy Note II (phablet) + Google traffic. done.

[potownrob]

Galaxy Note II (phablet) + Google traffic. done.

not to hijack, but how do you like the note 2??

[AHTOXA]

I love it. You get used to the large size very quickly and if you have large hands, it's not even a problem to operate the phone one-handed, even though it can be a stretch for your thumb. Until you get used to the large size it almost looks kind of dumb to hold such an enormous phone to your ear, but it never bothered me, really.

Overall the phone's very nicely packed with a ton of features. I use my phone primarily as a tablet for reading, watching movies and web browsing. This is the optimal phone for me based on how I use it.

[Rope-Pusher]

I love it. You get used to the large size very quickly and if you have large hands, it's not even a problem to operate the phone one-handed, even though it can be a stretch for your thumb. Until you get used to the large size it almost looks kind of dumb to hold such an enormous phone to your ear, but it never bothered me, really.

This is what you need.