Just noticed that now maps.google.com.au has traffic in brisbane, if its accurate it will be the last port of call before i leave work for the day :)

does google do their own distances yet?

i use http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm to calculate how far im running in the mornings, seems to be pretty accurate

I've never known google maps to not do distance if you give it a start and end point. I'm not a google guru, but it's been there for a couple of years.. Unless I'm misunderstanding your question.

They must have only just added this, because I was looking for it less than a week ago. Good stuff.

Looks great. Too bad that because I'm colorblind I can't tell the difference in the 'fast' and 'slow' colors they've selected. GG.

Looks great. Too bad that because I'm colorblind I can't tell the difference in the 'fast' and 'slow' colors they've selected. GG.

Looks good in Melb, Raven! Nice one, will use this feature flat-out to see how Springvale Rd is looking.

I'm skeptical, I bet they are going by statistics.

I'm skeptical, I bet they are going by statistics.

Then they'll be right on average :)

But I have no idea how they do it. Their help reveals that they have real time traffic monitoring in over 30 US cities. Not really descriptive of their methodology.

Perhaps they are tracking iPhones :O

/tinfoil hat

lol noobs I noticed this s*** at like 9:30am

does google do their own distances yet?

i use http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm to calculate how far im running in the mornings, seems to be pretty accurate

Spook, I use this:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

It's pretty good

yer, that is pretty cool, cept it doesnt track through parks, i loved the elevation measuring!

http://members.iinet.net.au/~davidbroughton/dailyrun.JPG

i need to plot a course to measure my distances, like the page i linked, or opecs page

last edited by Spook at 12:06:22 15/Sep/09

http://maps.google.com.au/ has had distances for over a year now and is incredibly accurate. I'm using it to plot my distances in Italy next year.

As far as the traffic goes, I doubt they go off statistics as you cant predict when some ricer is going to drive over some poor c*** on a scooter, or some dips*** trucky is going to protest blocking 3 lanes of the gateway.

yer, that is pretty cool, cept it doesnt track through parks, i loved the elevation measuring!

Spook it does, you have to choose the "manuall (straight line)" option in the draw route. It'll let you plat route anywhere you want then :). I'd normally use the first option for road running, makes it easy to plot straight runs etc but when you're running through non-road bits just turn that off, plot the route, then switch back once you're back on the road.

Yeah the elevation plotting is awesome.

Spook, I use this:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

It's pretty good

For a second I thought this was going to be a Google map of Dennis Ferguson's whereabouts.

where do they get the traffic data from?

That's pretty sweet. Should be pretty handy to use.

On that note tho, google distances and times are way out. When planning a route to drive, it always over estimates. It says it takes over an hour to get to ipswich from the n'side when it only takes 45mins max. Whereis is more accuate on timings than google is.

They probably get the traffic information from the same source as everyone else - you can buy add-on units for Navman, Garmin and TomTom units, so I'm guessing they use the same data.

where do they get the traffic data from?

Probably SUNA ?

this is awesomeo

I think i'll probably use the traffic stuff via Maps on my iPhone more than via Maps online.

I just use SportsTracker on ma N95 when I jog with the GPS.

Has anyone used the TomTom traffic service? Is it any good? I've often thought about having a play with it but been too lazy.

Looks good.

iPhone more than via Maps online.

thats a shame that you can't get online with your iphone, its best to see the current traffic.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/bright-side-of-sitting-in-traffic.html

"If you use Google Maps for mobile with GPS enabled on your phone, that's exactly what you can do. When you choose to enable Google Maps with My Location, your phone sends anonymous bits of data back to Google describing how fast you're moving. When we combine your speed with the speed of other phones on the road, across thousands of phones moving around a city at any given time, we can get a pretty good picture of live traffic conditions. We continuously combine this data and send it back to you for free in the Google Maps traffic layers. It takes almost zero effort on your part — just turn on Google Maps for mobile before starting your car — and the more people that participate, the better the resulting traffic reports get for everybody."

Theres been a bit of a stir about it recently in the states, tho apparently the iPhone google maps doesn't send back data (yet), but the rest do.

after a little more reading, looks like Opec was right as well, they did a deal with Suna for their traffic data as well

8:00am the M1 is Green, Yeah I belive that...