Google traffic is a feature on the Google maps traffic, which shows the real-time traffic condition of the routes, highways and major places. It provides information by which pedestrians, as well as travelers, are able to choose the shortest route where traffic is less and can reach at least time to their destination; hence saving their time.
How Google Maps Traffic Works?
Google maps tracks, its traffic condition and recommendation of the faster route, based on two different types of data:
1) Google Maps Traffic works on Historical Data
2) Google Maps Traffic works on Real-Time Data
Historical data is about the average time it takes to travel a particular section of the road, at particular times on specific days, while smartphones and sensors that report how fast a passenger’s vehicle is moving send Real-time data. Right then! Let’s dive further into the intricacies.
The previous version of the Google maps depended only on the data from traffic sensors. These sensors are able to detect the size and speed of passing vehicles using radar, active infrared or laser radar technology, and then wirelessly transmits those information to the server. Government transportation agencies and private companies that specialize in gathering the traffic data installed most of the traffic sensors(mostly in foreign countries). Data from these sensors can be used to provide real-time traffic updates. Once this real-time data is gathered, the information becomes a portion of the supply of historical information which is used to find traffic volume on future days.
Nowadays, Google maps traffic works with the help of GPS enabled smartphones to trace the location.
In 2009, Google started a new outlook on crowdsourcing for the improvement of the accuracy of its traffic predictions. As soon as, Android phone users turn on Google Maps app with GPS location enabled, a bit of data is sent back by phone to Google anonymously, to let the company know how fast the user is traveling or moving. Google Maps constantly combines the data every second coming from all the different kinds of sources traveling on the road and shows it back through different colored lines on the traffic layers, which makes it easier for the user to know about the traffic near them.
The colors indicate the speed of the traffic on the road:
- Blue means there are no traffic delays.
- Orange means there’s a medium amount of traffic.
- Red means there are traffic delays. The more red, the slower the speed of traffic on the road.
- Grey lines show alternate routes.
- Green means there are no traffic delays.
Google Maps uses a variety of colors, which mainly consists of orange, blue, grey, green and red routes, to indicate slow-moving or heavily congested traffic. It provides great help when the user is trying to determine the fastest way to the destination.
Happy mapping!
REFERENCES: HowStuffWorks