TT Home .. Daft Question

[Mikeact]

Going into the traffic alert page...I keyed in the A3 and it came up with Portsmouth to London...fair enough, but how do you reverse it, London to Portsmouth ?

Another small point/question. Where do TT get their safety camera information from ? Licenced from this site or do they pore over the public domain information available ?

Likewise the 'live' traffic information...(assuming that they are only based in Holland)

[Darren]

[Mikeact]

Following on from the above, I would be grateful for an explanation as to what happened in the following scenario, assuming that Itis and the RAC are the only two providers of real time traffic in the UK.
On Christmas Eve, my family and I left Sussex to visit my daughter in the Midlands. TT6 plotted the route as I would normally go with no problems. I also switched on TT Traffic and a little traffic icon appeared in the bar that runs down the right hand side of the screen. On closer examination, it transpirred that there was a 20 minute delay at the M40/A43 Cherwell Valley Services motorway junction.....usually pretty busy at the best of times. At this stage we were at least 80 miles away with Traffic set to update every 5 minutes. Not once did this change....you've guessed it, we hit the M40, half expecting a bit of a delay, and what did we come accross ? Absolutley nothing at all...the Motorway running perfectly well, both ways. Interestingly, the minute we passed the junction the warning icon went out.
It is these sort of frustations which make me wonder why I should sunscribe if this is the sort of service I can expect.
(This is nearly as frustrating and annoying as the polce not turning of the motorway gantry warning signs, when there is nothing happening...really stupid of them. The M27 is the best one for that fiasco.)

[Darren]

You need to understand how the data is collated to appreciate why issues such as you describe arise.

iTIS collate data from sensores in fleets such as Eddie Stobart and National Express as well as data received from Highways Agency etc. As such it is not a wholly accurate real time picture. How many times have you seen signs announcing 'FOG' long after the fog has gone?

If iTIS receive a traffic alert from Highways they broadcast it. Until they receive the cancellation from Highways or one of their other data sources shows the issue has changed the alert will remain.

Think of it as an advisory. I'd never recommended having TomTom auto re-route you based on Traffic Information. I listed to the radio traffic reports as well and make a value judgement based on what both say.
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Darren Griffin

[Mikeact]

Gotcha ! And a Happy New Year to you

[st1967]

I am a traffic user since the very beginning and believe me the service is 100 times better than it was.

My tactics for it's use is to have the auto re-route facility on, but if the reroute only saves me around 10-15mins I ignore it and carry on up the motorway. Usually these have all cleared when you get there and you carry on your merry way. That way you always get all the major holdups / accidents but can make an educated guess if the minor holdups are worth the risk.

However over the past few weeks I have come across a worrying trend that the data seems VERY accurate! I've been ignoring the re-routes only to sit in said traffic for 15 mins

I hope this will continue past the new year and I will happily be renewing in March
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Samsung S22 Android, Google Maps & Camera Alert

[jimbo_hippo]

RDS, TMC, TrafficMaster, blah blah ..... have any of them ever been reliable? Before I activated TT traffic, my favourite annoyance was RDS kicking in to tell me about the traffic I am sitting in! TT Traffic is currently pretty good IMHO. But I think we'll see the power of it with the proposed Vodaphone (?) deal where the flow of traffic is monitored by the movement of mobile phones. The more I think about this the more it sounds like the most reliable of all the options.

And when it comes into play, I need to find a couple of thousand people to buy a Vodaphne PAYG handset, run with me in convoy and synchronise us all throwing them out the window! The challenge of creating a false incident is too much for my wicked imagination!
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Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

[Mikeact]

Thanks guys...as a bit of a follow up...I was engaged in conversation on New Years Eve, (party) with another TT user, and he managed to get me quite confused. What, I think, he was asying was to forget TT Traffic etc., and get on to 'TMC'..insisting that this is by far the best option, and it's free.
Now the confusion...could somebody explain it more now that I have sobered up...how do I get this traffic device or was I wound up ?

[mikealder]

Mike the RDS-TMC unit is a single one off payment for the purchase of the accessory and associated license which is lifetime duration, no subscription and no running costs.

1/ The device ONLY works with the Go-x10 devices
2/ Reception quality is not good in the UK, often no signal = no data.
3/ More wires strung across your dashboard.
4/ limited coverage when compared to GPRS traffic (where you get the entire country).

Obviously no running costs are the big plus point, and when it works it is very good.

There is some information detailed in THIS Thread - Mike

[jimbo_hippo]

With Tom Tom there are 2 ways to get the traffic data: One via GPRS coupled with your Phone or (as I do) using a GSM enabled PDA. Second is via optional Hardware Device using TMC.

GPRS system costs for subscription but doesn't require the hardware.

Bear in mind that the two options use different sources of data and the reliability and accuaracy is a matter of debate and shifts every month.

I opt for the GPRS approach for 2 reasons. The TMC hardware provided users with a total nightmare in the UK. Search the forum and you'll find some HUGE threads on this one.

Secondly, yes the TMC approach is free but you have to buy the TMC hardware which is tied to your device and will probably be redundant when you change thw hardware. I don't think I'd spend more on GRS charges than I would on the hardware. And as I'm using TTN6 for PDA I don't think I have the TMC option anyway but I went through this when analysing the idea with Destinator. it looks free but the hardware is expensive so it isn't really if you see what I mean.

Plenty on the TMC device problems if you search through. Check out the dedicated TT Traffic forum too.
_________________
Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

[jimbo_hippo]

Sorry Mike, both typing at the same time!
_________________
Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

[Mikeact]

Darren, you're quite right,
" How many times have you seen signs announcing 'FOG' long after the fog has gone? "

Coming back from Yorkshire on the MI this week, first gantry sign indicated 'Queuing Traffic 60 mph,...next sign 40 mph, next one all clear....and guess what ? No sign of any traffic whatsoever. Just who are the faceless idiots that are supposed to control the motorway signs ? Are these idiots supposed to be looking at the monitors or just there to confuse and irritate the rest of us? I complained to Radio Solent just recently, to tell them to call whoever is responsible to get the sign turned off for exactly the same thing. I can only assume that these d***heads are just too busy drinking tea or reading the paper to actually notice what is going on on the roads for the rest of us...rant over.

[M_at]

The "Fog" signs set themselves - there are sensors by the side of the road. They're not 100% foolproof howver.

The speed limits set 60, 40, all clear, etc are to slow traffic down to dissipate problems - they too can set themselves based on the flow of traffic over a stretch of road.

If they weren't set there's a good chance that the traffic would have worsened and instead of flowing straight through, albeit at a reduced speed, you'd have ended up in a jam.

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