Traffic Alerts via radio
 

Hello

Does anyone have suggestions for radio traffic alerts?
Does it exist here in Canada/Ontario/Kitchener Waterloo?
In the UK while driving you could set your car radio to allow interruptions with traffic updates, to help avoid jams
Please sign post me to a radio station or a way to get this if available
Many thanks

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

If you're on twitter you could follow @TrafficGuelph. I follow @ReginaRadar and people report closures and delays due to accidents as well as speed traps.

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

CBC Radio 1 is the only cross-Canada provider of spoken traffic bulletins (5-9am and 4-6pm typically), but as RDS is generally not present/functional on Canadian car radios, you won't get the traditional 'interrupt' traffic bulletins that come over whatever station you are listening to.

If you've got an RDS TMC SatNav, that will also work, but only in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto to about 50km outside the cities (along with a lot more US cities):

RDS TMC Coverage Maps

It isn't very good, however - traffic updates are slow. I've just replaced by old Satnav with the one below:

Better is something like a TomTom Go 500, which uses approx. 7MB of data per month from you Android or iPhone and provides 'HD Traffic'

Have a look here to see what sort of detail it provides:

Live Traffic

Zoom in to the areas you want, to see what is happening right now. This is the same data that the Satnav uses.


Alternatively, Google Maps on a smart phone has traffic, I think, but will eat your data bundle!

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

Down load "Waze" to your iPhone and run the map ap. Or just listen to 680am radio they have traffic reports every 10 mins

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

Ok thanks all,
I'll try 680am...
Not on twitter and really want an interruption on live radio while driving; though the GPS ideas will help too
Thanks

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

Screen shot from Waze now time

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

wow thanks magnumpi
such lengths to help me get home on time on a Friday evening...

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

Canada is behind the times on traffic alerts.

I like what they have in Seattle, signs with lights that flash and a radio station to tune to when they are flashing, and just about every station there seems to have life traffic updates and choppers in the air checking things out with reports every 15 mins or so.

Twitter alerts would be useful before a trip, but unless your breaking the law and using your phone in the car, pretty useless while your actually driving.

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

Waze is a phone app, leave it running like a GPS and it gives traffic issues also if you route it will change the route to the faster way round any issues. It also warns of red light cameras, radar traps and cops.

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

That would be useful then. I suppose you need data for it to work?

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

Yeh sure does, don't think it uses any more than the map app tho

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

Can't you get all that on mobile Google Maps navigation mode?

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

To a degree, there is traffic show. But it does not re route or show construction, cops or cameras.

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

Just listen to the news on any local KW radio station as they do traffic reports.

As for the service you are talking about, I've never heard of it.

But I lived in Waterloo for ten years and cannot see any situation in which you would need that service because traffic is so light there compared to other areas such as the GTA. The only major issues there are when the expressway gets clogged up.

Re: Traffic Alerts via radio
 

For the GTA, the OP is in KW and I don't think there is a local station that does traffic reports that frequently.



You cannot generalize for the entire country.



They have those in the GTA.


Same here in the GTA with one station doing it every ten minutes.




I agree about not using a phone while driving (I was badly hurt in an accident in which I was rear-ended by some idiot talking on her phone). Twitter alerts aren't necessary here in the GTA as you can just jump online and use the COMPASS traffic cameras which show you live shots of the various highways.