Google Maps Traffic - Update Speed

[BigNumbers]

I figured CP could answer this Calgary centric post:

How quick/Real-time is the traffic on google maps? I have a few ways home and often wonder if I can rely on checking goggle traffic 5 minutes before I leave my office to determine the faster way home? or is it,say 30 minutes delayed and I am best going with my gut?

First world issues, I know.

[Barnes]

It's pretty much real time as far as I know. It's pretty simple to tell how fast a number of devices are traveling compared to the posted limit.

[BlackArcher101]

From my experience, it appears to be 10-15 minutes delayed. It was 15 minutes before it showed a backlog on Glenmore from the train collision.

[burn_this_city]

I use it all the time and I'm pretty sure it's real time.

[Ryan Coke]

Is there somewhere on the internet that shows the times for deerfoot that show up on the signs at the side of the road? I apologize now for a terribly constructed and run on sentence.

I looked around a bit on the city site but couldn't find it anywhere.

[Russic]

This is pretty obvious, but I find it gets unreliable to the point of useless once you need to travel a certain distance. So much can happen in 30 minutes during a rush hour that traffic can easily back up 90 minutes without much warning.

[Jimmy Stang]

I take a quick peek at it before I leave the office and it does help a little, particularly if I'm going somewhere that I don't usually go. To take it one step further, on the web site you can actually see projected traffic based on a certain day and time. Obviously this won't help you when accidents inevitably happen, but it can give you a rough idea of how bad a certain road will be at a certain time of day.

Also obvious to some, but the Android/iPhone app can also show traffic, so you can either take a quick glance or use it to suggest routes based on current traffic.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Also obvious to some, but the Android/iPhone app can also show traffic, so you can either take a quick glance or use it to suggest routes based on current traffic.

I do this regularly since I have several options for getting to/from work. I find the times are optimistic for routes with a lot of traffic lights but fairly close for freeway-type routes (e.g. Deerfoot, Glenmore). At least it's useful for letting me know when I shouldn't take my usual route.

[yads]

I have a hard time believing it's real time. Google probably runs batch jobs to process the raw info from devices and update the traffic data at periodic intervals.