Which Traffic App Will Give You the Best Commute Experience

Traffic...traffic...traffic.  In suburban spaces there is no escape from the traffic, so it’s time to figure out how live with it.  One of best things about the information age is the amount of data at our disposal.  Try to forget about big brother knowing too much about you and glory in the fact that we have real time traffic information that can be put to use. I’m going to evaluate 3 traffic apps and see how they benefit your commute.

The Contenders

Commute by MapQuest is a simple app for understanding the total time from “Home” to “Work” (and the reverse) both at departure time and throughout the drive and shows your real-time location on a route map during your travels.

Waze by Waze Mobile (a Google company) is comprehensive app with directions, alerts and real-time alternatives supported by a community of fellow drivers that provide insight into road conditions and alternative routes both as you drive and through a map editing application.

INRIX Traffic by INRIX is an app that is backed by a very big transportation research company.  The app itself provides commuting time forecasting and real-time alternatives routes with forecast arrival for each option and displays your real-time location on a route map for the duration of your commute.

The Criteria

• Ease of Configuration - Based on single work site location, how easy is the app to configure
• Richness of Features - How much does the app offer in terms of functionality
• Pre Departure Info - How well does the app alerted me about traffic conditions before I get into my car
• Easy of Departure - How easy is it to get rolling
• En Route Info - How well does the app indicate the current situation and give alternatives
• Hands Free Safety - How distracting is this app

Ease of Configuration

Commute is the simplest app to configure: Just type in address for work and home and the times that you usually depart for work and leave for home.

Waze is a more complicated app altogether and does require creation of user id, input of work and home locations and then you can get crazy with many other options if you so desire.

INRIX is interesting because it requires the home and work locations as well, but then you can pre-program different routes and give them names.  The route planning takes a little effort because you to place waypoints and INRIX fills in the route.  You must carefully pick the waypoints if you want to travel specific roads on your alternative routes.  Alternatives routes can be very nice as you’ll see later.

Richness of Features

Waze is number one in features because it includes such incredible detail in terms of real time road conditions, traffic cameras, location of police and the capability to post alerts as you drive (more on that later). Waze doesn’t use the overview route map, which in my opinion is a super tool to know the condition of the whole route.

INRIX has some great features with respect to commute time forecasting and forecasting alternative routes.

Commute is dirt simple. It gives you a forecast of your commute and tracks progress of your drive with updated arrival time every minute or so.

Pre Departure Info

INRIX provides a notification of your commute time at a time you specify.  So you can know before you go. I get an alert at 30 minutes before I depart for work.

Commute can provide you with a quick route information if you open the app and wait a couple seconds for the map to update and provide the commute forecast.

Waze does not provide any pre departure info and you must touch through a few menus to get the commute forecast … Waze is my least favorite for getting pre departure info.

Ease of Departure

After you get in your car you want a fast departure.

When you launch the Commute the app immediately comes up with your route forecast and begins tracking your progress and updates as you go.  Only 1 single action to get everything.

INRIX usually requires that you select your destination before it provides a forecast.

Waze also requires that you select a location and it requires the highest number of interactions with your mobile device among the three apps.

En Route Info

Waze takes the award for most information provided during your route.  You get voice driving (if you want), voice alerts for road hazards, real-time updates on traffic changes, real-time alternatives routes with driving directions.

INRIX provides a great tabbed view of alternative routes right at the top of the application. And each route has forecast arrival time so you can quickly see which one might be the best.

Commute basically tells you one route and sometimes indicates an alternative.  Unfortunately the alternative route is sometime indistinguishable from the main route due to the limited size of the screen on the mobile phone. And in the event the alternative route is clearly visible, it’s not obvious where you should turn to get on the new route because all navigation cues are provided on the route map.

Hands Free Safety

Commute is the safest app to use in my opinion because it does not offer options that require the user to interact.

INRIX offers the on road options of checking a new route by selected a good sized tab at the top of the app.  

Waze is crazy flexibly and I’ve caught myself coming up close on the person in front of me because I was distracted while reporting heavy traffic. The real time info of waze does amaze the commuter, however the actual number of interactions with a mobile device is very high.  To create a traffic alert in Waze requires 4 interactions with the app. That is at minimum probably 2 seconds and possibly up to 4 seconds of driver distraction.  If you are travelling in traffic and someone stops in front of you while you were entering an alert, you just ate up all your margin between your and the car in front of you. Additionally, if you want to confirm a road hazard, it’s one interaction, but still a bit of a distraction. Entering and confirming traffic notifications are optional of course, so safety is really up to the discretion of the driver.  Note that the value of the app and service does necessitate a high engagement with the community.  Update: I will be trying the voice commands aspect of Waze over the next few commutes to see how that impacts safety.  

Summary

If you want it simple and informative Commute is likely the app for you.

If you want to analyze pre-recorded routes for your commute and you want pre-flight information, then INRIX could be a good solution

If you are a commute road warrior and you want to try new routes on the fly, Waze will suit you fine.  

Below is a summary of the criteria and rank for the apps. Experiment and see what works for you.  I’m currently using all three of them and comparing their features side by side.

	Ease of Configuration	Richness of Features	Pre Departure Info	Ease of Departure	En Route Info	Hands Free Safety
Commute	1	3	2	1	3	1
Waze	2	1	3	3	1	3
INRIX	3	2	1	2	2	2

If you have any questions or thoughts on these apps, please send me an e-mail.

Want to Help Your Teenagers Do Chores With Better Attitudes

What is Steve doing writing about Teenagers on a Productivity Blog? Honestly, one of my biggest productivity challenges has been GETTING MY TEENAGER TO DO THINGS. Here are some thoughts...

You are probably saying, “You’ve got to be kidding.  There are a few impossible things in this world, and teenagers happily doing chores is near the top of the impossible scale."  But wouldn’t you like to know a few tips to help make life easier for you and more productive in your home?  Let’s explore a couple techniques that are effective with teenagers.

Doing The Boring Chores

In our house we have two different lists for our kids.  There is a list that is printed that has recurring tasks that must be done around the house everyday and it’s boring and repetitive.  Here’s a sample of the daily chore list for our house.  We have three lists similar to this that cover all the regular chores (one list per kid). The list are rotated each week to reduce the boring factor just a little bit.

Achieving The Household Necessities

Then there is the all the things that are one time things like painting the garage door trim or hall the tree stumps to the fire pit.  These jobs are little more involved and there are dozens of them.  I’ll bet you could name a few of your own...

1. Clean out refrigerator
2. Clean living room windows
3. Clean bathroom floor grout with tooth brush
4. Paint window sill
5. Clean oven
6. Mulch the flower bed

Note that teanagers are, “Not as smart as they think they are and much more capable than they believe.”  I’ve coined this phrase as an axiom for life and it applies just as much to me as it does to my teenagers.  And since they are much more capable than they believe, they can do very difficult things and tedious things and overcome some of their fears about household maintenance.

Improving The Attitude

I’ve been doing experiments with my kids for years to figure out how to make chores and house maintenance a regular part of childhood and an accepted part of the weekly routine.  This is very challenging, but I’ve hit upon a couple things that seem to work pretty well.

1. Boring chores will be boring, but they are the gateway to TV, iPod Touch, computer and the like.

Creating a routine where all digital things are unavailable until the boring chores get done can be an excellent way to enable your kids to achieve doneness before moving on to their most prized adventures. After several sessions of re-do’s for different jobs that were not quite right, this system worked out well for just keeping pace with the mess we make everyday of our lives.

2. Home maintenance chores require a little more creativity, but a similar reward structure.

I have engaged technology to help me manage my list of home maintenance activities.  I mounted a tablet on my kitchen wall and named it “Gimli” (We are big fans of Lord of the Rings). Little gimli hosts only a couple apps: Calendar and Trello.  The calendar is synchronized with the family’s google calendar and Trello is a web app that provides a beautiful interface for hosting a pictorial tasks list.

My kids don’t love the fact they have to do chores and home maintenance, but they are now in the habit of doing 1-trello task per week during the school year and 2-trello tasks per week during the summer. They also do 1-trello task on a Saturday after cleaning their rooms.  I also have some tasks that I’m willing to pay for and the dollar amount is listed in the item description.  I find that it’s not very motivational for them to make money, so I let them pick either a paid item or non-paid item.  

Takeaway

What helps your teenagers attitude...

1. Regularly scheduled work
2. A pick list instead of specific assigned tasks (for extra maintenance items)
3. A very accessible list of items
4. A graphical list of items vs. just word for word description
5. Getting the fun you want after you do the work

Please let me know if you’ve tried other things that work for you. If you have some specific questions about implementation of any technology or tips, please post a comment or send me an e-mail.

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-Best Regards, Steve.