Plan A Headache Free Commute With Beat The Traffic
It's probably the least favorite part of any day: getting up early to avoid the rush to work. Fortunately, technology has helped to make the everyday routine much more palatable with traffic reporting and apps like Beat The Traffic which can help to take the stress out of the commute.
Beat The Traffic is a free companion iPhone app for the website of the same name. The site and the app, as you might expect, offers real time coverage of traffic updates for dozens of major metropolitan US cities as well as a few in Canada. You can check maps and view live traffic cameras to see conditions before hitting the road.
Although Google Maps has traffic overlays for you to gauge driving speeds on local highways, what the Beat The Traffic app does further is provide on screen indicators to give more details on what the delays are so that you can avoid them. Additionally, the app includes a traffic forecast feature that uses historic data and algorithms to predict traffic conditions up to two hours from your current time to help you determine the right time to take off.
While the core functions already described are part of the free iPhone app, many of the worthwhile features of Beat The Traffic can be had with a subscription to the site's premium content. For $19.95/year, you can get personalized trip info like detailed traffic forecasts for any of your routes and SMS alerts for when incidents pop up along the roads you travel. Live video feeds of traffic cameras are also only accessible on the iPhone with the subscription.
As a free app, Beat The Traffic is a worthwhile addition to include on your iPhone to help minimize the aggravations when it comes to dealing with the daily grind. The interface is simple and the information goes beyond the stock traffic overlays of the Google Maps application. To get the full experience, you'll need to pony up for the annual subscription but given the robust features it provides, it may be a small price to pay for a smoother ride to work.
You can pick up Beat The Traffic for free on the App Store.