The new costing is as following:
MY30: $249
MY50T: $349
MY55T: $449
MY500XT: $549

The offer kicks off on November 1 and ends January 31 next year, although I can’t imagine the price will go back up then — you just won’t get the mapping updates free anymore.

[Navman]

Powered by Intelematics – the guys behind the SUNA traffic channel for your satnav device – the Google traffic service appears on the maps as a coloured line over a major road or motorway. Green means, good, yellow means average congestion, red is heavy traffic and red/black means you’d be better off walking. The info is updated every few minutes, so it’s always ready to go.

In all honesty, this probably isn’t the most practical way of transmitting traffic information – exactly what is the difference between a yellow and red line, for example – but if it helps just one person avoid being late to a meeting because they went a different way to avoid traffic, then I guess it’s all worth it…

[Google Australia Blog]

Apparently the addition of Canberra brings Suna’s nationwide coverage to over 12,500km of Australian roads, and covers all main Australian cities. Considering that getting traffic on your satnav is a one-time expense when you buy your satnav, it’s a pretty solid reason for a standalone GPS device…

Sydney cabs have been fitted with special GPS units which allow SUNA to monitor their location, route and travel time to improve the traffic notifications for subscribers to their service. Not sure how that works when there’s a line of cabs lined up at a cab rank waiting for someone to hire them, but I’m sure the folks at SUNA would have thought of that.

On top of monitoring taxis, SUNA now also has access to 50 new traffic cameras across Sydney, courtesy of the RTA. Not sure where those 50 cameras are, but really, does it matter? It’s just good to know that Intelematics, the peeps behind SUNA, are constantly trying to improve their service.

[SUNA Traffic]

Interesting factoids to reveal themselves during the interview is the drive of Suna into smartphones and the somewhat missed opportunity of digital radio. Adam also talks about upcoming features, like partnering with parking stations for realtime updates to the number of spaces available at any given time.

But enough from me. Head on over to Lifehacker to read all about it yourself.
[Lifehacker]

This will bring coverage to most of the major metropolitan regions in Australia, considering it already covers Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and the Gold Coast. Gus has interviewed the CEO of Intelematics, Adam Game to score the news, and we’ll see the interview a bit later this week on Lifehacker.

[Lifehacker]

They also plan on launching traffic information for Perth, Adelaide and Canberra later this year.

[SUNA]

The only potential problem we see with this solution is the lack of voice notifications, meaning that people may be inclined to check the service on their phone while driving. And unlike the satnav solution, this one won’t reroute you around the traffic congestion, it merely informs you about it. Although it will be very intersting to see whether this app will be integrated with any of the turn-by-turn navigation apps that will come out post iPhone 3.0 software. I for one, truly hope so.

According to the D.C. Department of Transportation, 74% of more than 15,000 very old parking meters in D.C. are designed to self-correct themselves. This means if you park your car at a broken parking meter, there is a great chance that while you are gone, the meter will fix itself, resetting the time to say there’s zero left on the meter and leaving you stuck with a parking ticket.

In 2008 alone, there apparently had been a record of 116,354 calls to the D.C. Department of Transportation, complaining about such broken meters. When contacted, Jim Graham, chairman of the public works committee, said he was oblivious to the idea that dead parking meters had the ability to correct themselves. Sure, but then again, I can’t help but wonder if this is yet another traffic conspiracy. [NBCWashington via Geekologie]

A study by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that in south west US states, lightning strikes near major roadways increased up to 25% during weekdays, coinciding with pollution increases. Look for next next next gen Prius’s to have lightning rods on their rooftops. [New Scientist via BLDGBLOG , image from Garry''s]