Google Maps traffic rerouting question

I have a garmin car gps and my google maps on my cell. I use both the garmin for the speed limit an upcoming speed limit changes information and the google maps for routing and traffic information. Today put in the google maps to route me to waco from dallas it gave me 2 options the option it recommended had traffic and the other option did not but it said it was 5 minutes longer. My question do yall is do you usually take the longer route when the google is routing you through a traffic area? I mean how accurate is it's estimates on time when traffic is involved? I've noticed that it's traffic time estimates are less then what it actually turns out to be. In another words if it says 5 minutes it's usually 10 to 15 minutes of course this might be because by the time I actually make it to the traffic it's gotten worse. but today i went ahead and took the alternative route and it ended up being fine and got me there quicker then what the estimated time on the other route did. it seems it does this often that is routes me through areas were there is traffic when there are other routes that may be quicker but it routes me through the traffic anyways as it's estimates of the amount of time it will take are slightly scewed being that it's estimating what it currently is and not what it actually will be by the time you get to the traffic congested area.

 

You should never trust a car gps, including google maps, to route your truck.
If you don't have a truck gps, use an atlas to do the routing. You can keep maps running for info like eta, but don't trust it.

 

yeah don't totally trust them, i always pull up the satellite view to see what's actually in the area if it starts routing me to an area that looks like a residential area or an area that doesn't look big truck friendly i'll obviously ignore that. i mean you got to use some common sense with those. it's the traffic info i'm concerned about with the google maps. the garmins ive used were never really reliable for that sort of thing it seems. maybe i need to spend some more money and get a truck gps. just have a hard time shelling out 400 bucks for one.

 

Routing...probably either through town or around the loop. Depends on the city or the time of day. Dallas? I'm taking the loop. Dallas has all of these crazy bridges, onramps and offramps. If anything goes wrong, you're sunk!
Houston is bigger, but completely different. i-10, flows well. 45 is a cluster on either end. I avoid 45 at all costs.

Don’t look for hard rule, be flexible.

“But Six, I may not know the area well. What then?”

The bypass is usually the safer bet during high traffic times. Usually.

There is one thing about your post that concerns me...the part about you setting the GPS for the speed limit.

“But Six, I might miss the sign.”

Not if you’ve trained yourself to look for them. If you miss a sign, you weren’t paying attention. Don’t miss...it is inexcusable.

Luck in battle.

 

I'm doing the same thing, a car GPS for speed limit at anytime I want to look and google map for routing, my GPS even chime for school zones. I've found that google map is very good on traffic, a few times that I didn't trust it I was sorry Now I input the destination and see what routes it suggests, any traffic on the routes and how bad it is then make my decision. One can see what kind of roads are on the route from looking at google map, if necessary then stay on major highways to get close to destination as possible.

 

Idrive arkansas is pretty accurate in traffic issues. Usually verifiable by live 24/7 traffic cameras that are growing around the state.

I do not rely on that and take traffic as it comes. Especially with a auto and what I call a jersey crawl which at a certain speed never stops despite stop and go of traffic. Thats one reason I work mainly at night. Hardly any.

We learned certain routes around the USA become beneficial when traffic is too aggressive. Even bypass say the entire city of DC back then. If i have to go 20 minutes around to I-81 and run until 17 then east through the woods I'll do it. (Police roadblocks Manassas US 15. Don't know about the old US 301 bridge.)

Sometimes where possible I'll sit out the rush with time in the sleeper after a meal. No hurry. It reduces the risk of trouble in certain areas of the USA.

 

We run houston, austin, san antonio,dallas, oklahoma city, new orleans and everything in between so there are times at night going through little town after little town you miss one here and there it happens. the gps tells you before you get and warns you. i don't care who you are or how good you think you are at paying attention having another set of eyes is always a good idea. but yeah i hear what your saying and some times i should be paying better attention.

 

Right and that's pretty much what I do.. it's just tough seeing the traffic on the route its suggesting and then seeing another option and then trying to figure out whether or not to take it's suggestion. i mean like i said in the post the traffic could have gotten much worse by the time you get to it. so i guess if your 20 miles or so from the traffic assume that the gps isn't taking that into consideration and assume that it will be worse by the time you get there and re route accordingly.. of course there's always the possibility it could be better by the time you get there also lol..

 

right good point. yeah most of the time the reality is it's better to go around even if it takes a bit longer, you'll probably end up getting there at the same time anyways but with less of a headache. id rather hit a couple stop lights and go through a couple small towns to get around then stop and go traffic for a half hour or more.

 

I see a couple of you posting that you use the car GPS for speed limit.... why? You're not in a car and it's not always the same. That's going to get you a pretty pink ticket one day.