Why is Bing Maps Traffic Functionality Not Impressive???

[foosball]

I was so pumped to see that last month Bing Maps added traffic for LOCAL roads and not just highways at long last. It was one of the biggest features that separated Bing from the industry standard Google Maps.

Unfortunately in my experience it doesn't work as advertised and is essentially useless.

See the attached pics for an example of why Bing Maps traffic feature is unacceptable and sub-standard as it stands today. The results speak for themselves. Bing says everything is A-Ok and I should not encounter any traffic problems.

Google Maps tells me that there is a traffic jam at the intersection and allows me to plan accordingly.

Has there been any info released as to whether Bing Maps traffic feature is in a beta version or would explain why Bing Maps is so unreliable?

 

[btbam91]

I'm going to take this opportunity to say how much Board Express sucks for never letting me open up pictures.

 

[bear_lx]

i dont know...

 

[selfcreation]

cause they just added NOKA Drive functions to it....


not to nark on Nokia , but ever sints that update ( 2 weeks ago ) its been sucking. when its suppose to be better...

I had the same issue where i had GREEN LINES.....BUT
Near my house their is CRAZY traffic all the time cause of construction and i get GREEN lines.....so i drive out cause i had to go downtown... and BOOM

took me 1hour to get off my DARN street...

 

[jimski]

Not a local road, but two weeks ago Bing pinpointed an accident (red, followed by green) right down to the mile marker on the Interstate. When I came to a stop (at about midnight) checked and saw that I only had about a 1/4 /mile of pain. 15 minutes later I was on my way.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro

 

[wolf1891]

maybe that's been the case for you but, in my area the new traffic data has been an excellent and much appreciated addition. even before they added the new traffic data my girlfriend would generally prefer to use my DVP for directions over her SGSII but, since they made this upgrade to Bing Maps there's been no question about which phone she would reach for when we wanted to map a route out (mine, in case you were wondering). Directions come up faster, are generally more useful (Bing knew about a new construction closure last night and routed us around it while Google insisted that not only was the road still open but, that traffic was flowing smoothly on it at that time).

So, I accept that you may not be too pleased with the Bing maps traffic info but, as for me I'm quite satisfied.

 

[selfcreation]

my GF uses a GS2 as well and we always switch back to my WP .. ROLF...

but maybe its just MY area but the traffic doesnt seem to be workign any more.....

it just frustrating cause it use tow ork PERFECT! now ims witch back to google maps on the GS2.. ( witch i cant freaking stand man, i hate google maps now.. specially on DROIDS..)

 

[turbulent28]

While on the Bing issues..

Anyone have problems with Bing voice directions cutting or not playing via bluetooth?


Im a Bing noob to begin and even when not on Bluetooth, i have a hard time getting the damn thing to "speak to me" without touching the screen. Sometimes itll speak directions on its on, sometimes it wont.


When in the car, the music will stop playing because its being interrupted by the notification that my phone is saying something... Problem is, it doesnt say squat..lol


just the little alert you hear when the phone waits on your spoken command..
followed by some silence and then music comes back on

 

[eric12341]

Maybe its because you're using Google chrome and not Internet Explorer.

 

[jabtano]

Never use Bing maps. WP7 and I hope WP8 should have come with a really good navigation app. Looking at what apple is doing with there own maps and the new ios6 it somewhat ticks me off. I'm using win8 right now stand-alone.I like but using IE10 you can not arrange your saved bookmarks. sometimes with MS they are there own worst enemy they can have and do so much yet it always seams they do things lackluster.

 

[foosball]

I'm actually really interested to find out what the reason is behind this and did some more testing today. Based on my limited unscientific results what I found is that Google is pretty good at anticipating traffic patterns even before they emerge. They must use aggregated data over time to build up a database and use some type of prediction model.

At around noon today when the roads should be relatively free before rush hour traffic I noticed that Google predicted some minor delays in my area which I personally investigated. Google was anticipating traffic heavier based on construction and usual delays so it indicated on the map that traffic was "yellow" meaning fair but not good. My assessment on actual traffic conditions was that traffic was actually green but Google said it was yellow because it had a high chance of going from green to yellow throughout the day.

Bing simply said it was green.

However, there are some hot spots which are problematic throughout the day and this is what is pictured in attachment to this post. Check out the difference between the Google and Bing traffic maps in the pic. It appears that Google gets much more data for traffic points on these minor roads and so has a better handle on local traffic. Bing is "blind" to these conditions for whatever reason.

During the evening rush-hour commute I observed more differences in how the two map services work. Bing basically will capture some of the bigger hotspots on the local roads the same as Google but then tends to ignore those inconvenient back-ups which would be nice to know about in advance but aren't more than 5 minute delays. It appears that threshold for Bing is much higher than Google so that Google's sensitivity level is tuned relatively higher OR Bing just doesn't have access to this level of detail. So a green area on Bing might be a yellow-to-red on Google but only for a relatively short period of time.

In any case, it seems certain that Bing will continue to add features and that traffic functionality will improve over time even if its not yet on par with traffic from Google Maps. When trying to get the most accurate real-time traffic data we still have Gmaps in the marketplace.

 

[jimski]

Ah, so now I see Apple invented navigation. Way to go.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[lippidp]

Google, typical of its "screw privacy" mantra, harvests data from Android phone users driving in cars and uses that data in their traffic modeling. I don't know if Microsoft does this, but even if they do it won't be as good since there aren't nearly as many Windows Phones on the road.

Live Traffic Rerouting Comes to Google Maps

 

[blehblehbleh]

Google, typical of its "screw privacy" mantra, harvests data from Android phone users driving in cars and uses that data in their traffic modeling. I don't know if Microsoft does this, but even if they do it won't be as good since there aren't nearly as many Windows Phones on the road.

Live Traffic Rerouting Comes to Google Maps

Not to steal your thunder, but I thought I'd mention that the Inrix Traffic app does the same live traffic data harvesting, though they allege that they provide the mapping services for a ton of GPS devices anyways and are within their rights to do so.

 

[HeyCori]

Microsoft just announced that traffic coverage is improving starting today. Will fully roll out around the world and all major US cities within the coming weeks.

Beep! Beep! Better traffic coverage on the way

 

[foosball]

Microsoft just announced that traffic coverage is improving starting today. Will fully roll out around the world and all major US cities within the coming weeks.

Beep! Beep! Better traffic coverage on the way

First, thanks for the heads up because this could have been a great article.

Unfortunately it's only an article touting the existing traffic features and not introducing anything new.

One commenter put it best when he said:

`The secondary street traffic information is useless. It always shows green even in complete gridlock. The highway conditions are usually pretty accurate, though.'

As a WP fan I'm looking forward to when they make the traffic feature more robust and reliable. Until then we are stuck with other alternatives like Gmaps.