How to Avoid Traffic with the Right Apps

It’s a fresh Monday morning and you are all set to fulfill your food orders incoming on your food delivery app.

The moment you hop into your car and hit the road, your excitement starts fading as you are stuck in a traffic jam hardly a few minutes later. You still don’t lose hope and move ahead only to end up facing red brake lights and construction work obstructing your way. 

Eventually, your happiness turns into frustration and stress as you find yourself watching the minutes being wasted on the road with no destination in sight. 

By the time you reach your workplace, you find your potential client has already left and you missed your golden opportunity.

How about considering a technology solution that can overcome your ordeal? 

This is where traffic apps come in handy that can help you beat traffic and ensure a smooth commute experience.

Understanding the Impact of Traffic

Traffic congestion goes beyond inconvenience and has severe negative effects, as follows. 

1. High risk of accidents

Stop-and-go traffic often increases the overall chances of accidents and collisions, jeopardizing commuters’ safety.

2. Longer travel times

Traffic jams lead to motorists taking longer than usual to cover distances, which may result in late arrivals and missed bookings or appointments.

3. Increased stress

Motorists finding themselves stuck in traffic jams can feel frustrated and stressed, impacting their health and well-being.

4. Fuel wastage

Vehicles like cars and bikes when idling for a long time can lead to unwanted fuel consumption and hence, can increase associated fuel costs. 

5. Environmental hazard

When vehicles get stuck in traffic with their engines on, it not only leads to fuel wastage but also increases carbon emissions and air pollution, leaving a significant environmental impact. 

4 Top Apps to Help You Prevent Traffic

If you are feeling bogged down by traffic jams, it’s time to tap into the potential of apps that can help you navigate around traffic congestion. 

Let’s find out the best apps that can help you with this.

1. Google Maps

Google Maps is a leading web mapping and navigation app downloaded by over 10 billion users worldwide. 

Moreover, this app emphasizes improving the user interface and rolling out features. Therefore, it recently announced the ‘Immersive View of Routes’ at I/O 2023, which utilizes computer vision and AI to let you visualize each route segment. 

Key Features:

• Traffic updates: Google Maps considers real-time traffic by determining the locations of users who permit access and whether they are moving or not. This helps Google pinpoint areas where users are not moving, indicating high traffic or road closures. 
• Route options: Google Maps provides multiple route options with estimated times of arrival (ETAs) against each. It also shows the most fuel-efficient route, symbolized by a green leaf. Moreover, it lets you view a route that avoids highways or tolls.
• Rerouting: In case you deviate from your suggested path, Google Maps quickly reroutes you to the shortest path possible. This helps you save time on retreating to follow the preassigned path and reach your destination as fast as possible.

Pros:

• Free and easy to use
• Provides easy integration with other Google services, including GPS tracking tools and delivery management software or apps

Cons:

• Limited multi-stop routing capabilities (allows for adding only 10 stops along a route at a time)
• Inaccurate routing in some instances, especially in rural settings
• Lack of advanced route optimization functionality, including on-demand scheduling or routing based on vehicle capacity specifics.

Want to learn about Google Maps alternatives? Here’s the blog to help you out.

2. Waze

Waze, formerly known as Feemap Israel until 2006, is known for its community-driven updates where those using Waze report a road closure, congestion, or accident while traveling. 

This helps people stay aware of road conditions in a specific area and decide their navigation path accordingly. 

Based on people’s insights gathered over a period, it maintains a historical database and updates it regularly so the most efficient routes are suggested to avoid traffic and delays.

Key Features

• Community-driven updates: Waze not only indicates traffic conditions but also sends community-driven updates regarding police presence, ongoing construction, or other events. This helps people plan their journey accordingly and change their route if required. 
• Conversational reporting: Waze allows you to report potholes, traffic, construction, or other incidents simply by tapping on the recording button and speaking about it naturally as you chat with friends.
• New camera reports: This feature shows you alerts about speed cameras or those cameras that enforce HOV lanes, seatbelts, speed, or compliance with signals. It also sends a warning to drivers in some areas where their cell phone usage is being tracked.

Pros

• Real-time traffic-based routing helps avoid jams and congestion, saving time and fuel.
• Voice-based turn-by-turn instructions make navigation easy.
• Freedom of customization of icons representing different types of Waze users, engaging users. 

Cons

• Lack of offline navigation capabilities, limiting usability in poor coverage areas.
• The app may look cluttered at times due to too many icons and information, leading to distractions.

Read our guide on “How to Use the Waze Route Planner” to make the most of it and navigate your route seamlessly.

3. Inrix

Inrix AI Traffic relies on artificial intelligence to provide the most accurate and updated traffic information to help you reach your destination as fast as possible while ensuring drivers’ safety. 

Key Features:

• Accurate ETAs: Inrix provides the most precise ETAs based on driving speed, traffic, and road conditions to ensure drivers can plan routes accordingly.
• Lane-by-lane precision: This helps determine the speed of traffic in individual lanes to help users decide which one to take.
• Map Agnostic: INRIX features the most popular on-the-fly traffic location referencing system compatible with most navigable digital maps and devices.

Pros: 

• Highly accurate real-time traffic data
• Coverage of all roads, and not just busy streets
• Future traffic predictions based on historical data

Cons: 

• Imprecise crowdsourced data may cause routing inaccuracies
• Some services may require payment, increasing costs

4. Apple Maps

Apple Maps is a go-to choice for iOS users and boasts high privacy and security. It is continuously working to make its driving directions as precise as possible with each new update. 

Key Features:

• Detailed 3-D experience: This feature lets you experience major cities and explore neighborhoods, buildings, trees, and crosswalks in day and dark modes.
• Driving directions: They allow you to view current speed limits, and nearby speed cameras, and provide lane guidance that lets you stay prepared for turns and exits. 
• Integration with Apple Services + CarPlay: This helps you enable Apple Maps across all devices and integrate it with Siri, Spotlight, Message, and Weather to provide relevant information as required. Carplay lets you view directions based on the data stored in your device and use turn-by-turn voice directions to enable hands-free navigation.

Pros: 

• Compatibility across multiple iOS devices
• High user privacy with minimal data collection
• Offers both cycling and driving directions, making it suitable for a variety of users

Cons: 

• Requires you to zoom in to see smaller streets and businesses
• Limited traffic data collection capabilities compared to Google Maps

Here’s a detailed guide on How to Use Apple Maps Route Planner. 

Save More Time and Money with Multi-Stop Route Planner

Undoubtedly, the above list of apps can help you avoid traffic and reach your destination on time. 

However, you may want to save more on your travel time, idling, and empty miles, especially if you are an independent delivery driver who has to handle hundreds of deliveries daily. 

Moreover, you must consider other delivery constraints, including your customers’ preferred delivery time and vehicle capacity specifics while planning routes. Upper’s multi-stop route planner for solo drives can help you achieve it all. 

Here’s how.

• Upper’s advanced routing algorithm lets you create efficient routes for up to 500 stops based on multiple delivery constraints, including delivery time windows, priority, drivers’ shifts, average duration per stop, or vehicle capacity specifics.

• Upper helps you eliminate the headache of verifying each address manually and utilizes address validation capabilities to avoid redundancies or inaccuracies.
• Upper lets you customize the colors of your location pins based on their types or priority orders, indicating whether they are deliveries, pickups, high-priority, medium-priority, or low-priority.
• Upper allows for choosing from preferred navigation apps, such as Google Maps, Waze, and MapQuest to navigate routes your way.

How do Traffic Apps Work?

You may often be wondering how these apps give you precise traffic updates to make your commuting easier and more efficient.

Well, here’s how they achieve this. 

• Real-Time Data Collection: These apps collect information from GPS data from users on the road, enabling them to provide live updates on traffic. 
• Community alerts: Some apps like Waze rely on updates from Waze users when it comes to information on accidents, hazards, or construction to reroute users. 
• Route Optimization: After analyzing current traffic patterns, these apps suggest the most optimal alternative routes to save you time. 

Tips for Using Traffic Apps Effectively

Traffic apps are valuable in helping you prevent being stuck in traffic and getting delayed. 

Here are the best ways to make the most of them. 

1. Explore multiple apps

Consider your needs first and see which app caters to them most efficiently. For instance, if you want user-generated real-time traffic data, Waze can be your go-to choice. On the other hand, if you want to access detailed information on locations, Google Maps can be your best bet. 

Here’s a detailed guide on the Best Free Route Planner Apps to help you find the most suitable one.

2. Customize your notifications and alerts

Customize your notifications and alerts regarding your preferred settings, such as preferred routes (longest, shortest, or those avoiding tolls or highways). This will help you stay aware of any changes made to them in real time. 

3. Plan your route ahead of time

Before you step out on your journey, you must look for the most optimal routes and real-time traffic conditions so your travel is not hampered. If you anticipate traveling through areas with poor connectivity, it is advisable to download offline maps ahead of time so you can navigate your route even without a data connection.

4. Use hands-free navigation

Set up your navigation beforehand and utilize voice commands as much as possible to ensure you can focus on the road while driving and minimize distractions, thus enhancing safety.

Conclusion: Take Control of Your Commute

Traffic is there to stay no matter what. However, you can always overcome the challenges it poses to your daily commute by tapping into the potential of the right apps. So, it’s time to reclaim your precious time and make your commute a hassle-free experience.