Google today announced live traffic information for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and their surrounding areas on Google Maps. It even works with mobile devices!
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…