SAN JOSE, Calif. – Cell phones will replace AM radio in a few years as the first place drivers go for information on traffic jams.
But all the broadcasters who compete to provide endless updates don’t need to panic just yet.
The current crop of services offering what’s grandly called “real-time traffic information” to cell phones are too difficult to acquire and use, and lack important features.
But it’s worth taking a look at what’s available today because a big name just entered this immature field: Rand McNally.
Maps on your phone
On Feb. 2, the 150-year-old mapmaker launched a service called Rand McNally Traffic (www.randmcnally.com/traffic) for $3.99 a month, available to most customers of AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless.
Rand McNally Traffic puts highway maps on your phone’s screen with color coding to show driving speed. If a stretch of Highway 101 is red, traffic is crawling along at 33 mph or less. A yellow section along Interstate 880 means cars are moving at a moderate 33 to 59 miles per hour. If there’s green along Interstate 280, you’re free to move at or near the speed limit – or, if the California Highway Patrol isn’t looking, even faster.
The maps also display icons to indicate the location of accidents, construction and other commute killers. You can click the icons, using the keypad on your phone, to get details of why you’re stuck in traffic.
At least three other companies offer similar services: MapQuest Traffic (www.mapquestservices.com/mobile) from the MapQuest subsidiary of America Online for $2.99 a month; Smart Traffic from Pharos Science & Applications (www.pharosgps.com/products) for $3.99 a month; and Vindigo Traffic from Vindigo Studios (www.vindigo.com/traffic) for $3.99 a month.
All three services are available on Verizon Wireless. Smart Traffic is also available to users of Windows Mobile smart phones on the AT&T Wireless, Cingular and T-Mobile networks. Cingular Wireless offers an in-house service called Tele Atlas Traffic (www.cingular.com/media/cooltools) for $2.99 a month.
You’ll pay more than just the monthly fee, however. Verizon Wireless requires you to use airtime minutes to access traffic data; if you spend five minutes looking at highway maps, that’s five minutes gone from your monthly bucket of minutes. Sprint PCS lets you use airtime minutes or subscribe to its unlimited PCS Vision data plan for $10 a month.
What’s more, not all cell phones are compatible with these traffic services. As a rough rule of thumb, most phones with color screens that are less than 2 years old should work. Older phones, and those with black-and-white screens, often won’t.
Almost all metro areas
The services cover almost all metropolitan areas in the United States, making them useful when you travel.
I tried Rand McNally Traffic using a Samsung A660 phone borrowed from the company, running on the Sprint PCS network.
The service was mixed in presenting accurate traffic information, although probably no more so than radio reports, since Rand McNally traffic taps many of the same information sources as radio stations.
One night on my drive home, Rand McNally Traffic correctly warned of an accident off to the shoulder of southbound Interstate 280.
I briefly tried Smart Traffic, using my personal Motorola T720C cell phone on Verizon Wireless. The response time was slightly faster, but the maps were uglier
The expense and hassles of the two services, in other words, outweighed the inconvenience of waiting 10 minutes for the next radio traffic report.
There are other ways your cell phone can help with traffic, however. In the Bay Area, you can call 511 (www.511.org) for traffic updates from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The service uses voice recognition to find out what area you want to hear about, and there’s no cost beyond airtime minutes.
Some wireless carriers also offer text-message updates on traffic conditions, covering the route of your choice at the time you specify; Verizon Wireless Traffic Alerts (www.vzw.com) is one example. For more alternatives, see the story by my colleague, Matt Nauman, accompanying this column.
If current cell phone traffic services are so bad, why am I convinced cell phones will ultimately become the primary source of traffic news? Technology.
New high-speed wireless phone data networks, rolling out in the next year or two, will instantly pop maps and updates into phones. Cell phones will soon know their geographic position, allowing them to display a traffic map at your precise location. Bluetooth short-range wireless networking could connect your phone to a bigger display screen in your car’s dashboard, where maps would be displayed at an easily readable size.
Such cell phones could even help make traffic data more accurate, if wireless networks start reporting the position and speed of phones moving inside cars. I’m looking forward to a future where I don’t necessarily get home from work faster, but always know what’s on the road ahead.
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AP-NY-02-23-05 0627EST
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