All about Route Planners and how to get there quicker.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Traffic Reports & Alerts

We've come accross the Get Me There traffic monitor which shows you in a handy screen where the traffic problems are around the country. We used to use the Vauxhall TrafficNet just before we do long motorway journeys, but the Get Me There traffic map is much better especially if much of your journey isn't motorway based.

They've also got an online route planner, but when we try and review it it won't seem to work.

However, if you're really into your traffic alerts then you can watch Traffic TV on your mobile phone. This gives you the opportunity to watch CCTV footage from some of the TrafficMaster cameras around the UK road network.

Friday, August 11, 2006

USA Journey Planners

We think if you're travelling the United States of America (USA) then you'll probably want to the route planner that most people over there user - MapQuest. It is chock full of functionality but we don't like the over use of advertising.

Here are some other alternative USA Route Planners:
- Live.com
- Yahoo! Maps
- Maps on Us
- AOL
- MapNation
- TravMatix

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Green Flag

The Green Flag Route Planner looks disappointing but the main thing is that its not cluttered with advertising and gives you the core features that you need. You've got the option to set way points and itinerary offered is clear and precise.

There's no fancy gimmickry which may be nice, but the most important factor is the provision of easy to read and accurate directions, which Green Flag does provide.

Route Planners Rating: 6/10 - Perfect if you want to create a route very quickly and aren't fused with knowing how much the journey will cost you and if you want to avoid toll roads or select your car type or speed. But the main point is that there's no annoying advertising.

Maporama

The first impressions of Maporama is disapointing. There's too much advertising flashing at you and not a clear indication of the options you have. And when you delve deeper you realise that there realy isn't much to make Maporama stand out from the crowd.

Even the map it gives you basically just shows you the roads you go one, there's now show of towns or cities that you pass through.

It seems that only after you've made your route can you change the options. You can change whether you have the distances in miles or kilometres. You can also change if you're travelling by car or on foot (I wouldn't like to try this journey on foot). You can also change the speed levels that you expect to travel at as well as the option to avoid tolls.

The itinery itself is pretty useful. You can select to have the intersection maps within the directions or not. This is a feature that we often say is lacking. When you're travelling with someone that's driving its great to be able to see if the second turning on a roundabout is close to the first or if its all the way round.

There is one major draw-back with Maporama, however, and that is that you can't easily print the itinerary.

Route Planners Rating: 6/10 - Too cluttered, uninspiring, however the real featured are hidden beneath this mish-mash of a route planner. A "Print View" would help it, if you didn't nipp off and use the RAC route planner in the meantime.