TT HD traffic vs Google maps and traffic.

zzr1200

Hi,

I've been away from TomTom for about 12 months and have been using Google Maps on my phone. Situation has now changed and I might be going back to TT again.

From what I can see Google maps has come on immensely and its routes are quite good and it can find anything POI wise due to it being Google!!!

Why it can't do as well as TT is avoid certain roads, avoid next xxx distance etc.

However the one thing I am undecided on is which traffic service is better? Is HD traffic better than the free Google service? I know TT made a big publicity statement a couple of years ago saying HD traffic was better than Google. I'm keen to know if that still applies.

Thoughts and comments most welcome.

DennisN · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 8:01 pm Post subject:

TomTom tell everybody that HD Traffic is the best thing since sliced bread. It is when it works. But it does drop off from time to time, unpredictably. The good value of it is the re-routing to avoid traffic. I, of course, ignored it today and spent an extra half hour in the M4 traffic jam! Evil or Very Mad

I have no idea what Google Traffic is like.
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matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

Part of the issue here is the use that someone is allowed to use traffic data for. I think Google used TomTom data for a while, but were not licensed to use it for re-routing (have to pay more). They seem to have quite good detailed traffic info on our local roads, but I don't know if that is historic, or real.

But for driving, I've always found TomTom HT Traffic to be very good, so long as the device can actually get it. My TomTom 740LIVE is going to go on ebay soon as I found that it lost data too often. I use the app on my iPhone now, which is much better at keeping the signal.

Graeme2812 · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 10:32 pm Post subject:

In my area I've found on arterial routes such as A-class and Motorways the traffic flow reported to be more or less the same on Google traffic and TomTom, with perhaps Google reporting a little more specific information.

With Google you also get incidents reported by Waze users which is sometimes handy for road closures, accidents, vehicle breakdowns etc. This type of information isn't something I've come across all that often on TomTom - Unless it's a major incident.

What I've also found is that TT traffic seems to display some traffic data on unclassified, local roads that have reasonable amounts of congestion. Something that I don't seem to pick up on Google Traffic - I think they only cover arterial routes. (A/M etc)

I seem to remember reading some time ago that Google used Inrix for their traffic information.
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xtraseller · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:09 am Post subject:

Milesey · Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2015 1:16 pm Post subject:

As I do a lot of travelling, as well as using my built-in TomTom, I usually have Google maps and traffic running on my smartphone too and the main difference I see is that Google seems to lag more than TomTom, which could mean you end up re-routing even if the incident or heavy traffic has moved on. So I think TomTom's Traffic just edges it but it's very close.
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