ETA too conservative in medium/large cities- GO Mobile Android

Ernesto_Che

In medium and large cities (≥ 200.000 inhabitants) the driving times are a lot underestimated. Traffic lights aren't taken into account. Driving times in such cities should be multiplied by at least 1,3.

Ernesto_Che

Anyone experiencing this problem?

Asprin

You asked this already 3 months ago.

https://en.discussions.tomtom.com/tomtom-go-mobile-and-navigation-for-android-156/eta-too-conservative-in-medium-large-cities-go-mobile-android-1036142

And there was no action on it.

Ernesto_Che

I know what I do.
I think the programmers should act on that.

Asprin

How would that work?

There is no why you can really predict what the traffic is going to be like when you get into the city or any place for that.

A traffic light not working.
A little old lady can not get her car started and the light turned green.
You come through the city when rush hour comes into play.
How fast you a driving before you get to the city.
Did you have to stop for gas, something to east or go to the bathroom?
There are many factors that come into play.

The simplest thing to do is give yourself enough time not knowing what the traffic will be when you get there or anywhere along the trip..

Cutting it short when one has to be someplace is not the best thing to do.

You never know what you run into.

Better to be 10 to 15 minutes too early then late.


All GPS apps and stand alone units do their best on what your time of arrival will be.
With a plus or minus one way or another.

I have driven all over Europe for my work or on vacation.

The app and the stand alone unit have always been on the money as to when I will get there.

I can see it on the display if I am running 5 to 10 minutes behind or 5 to 10 minutes ahead of time.

When I check the info when I finally get to where I was going it is almost the same as to when I started out and it told me 2 hours 10 minutes as an example.

Even with traffic prediction history that is not a golden rule it can be different on the day you make your trip.

Ernesto_Che

I always arrive late than stated in Tomtom in urban trips. Always.
Those aggressive estimates sometimes makes TomTom traversing a city as part of the Fastest Route, when everyone knows that it's better to circumnavigate that city via a country road.
Simply adding half of the duration of a red light for each light encountered would eliminate 80% of the problem. There are cities of 25,000 or 50,000 inhabitants with only 5 traffic lights or less: in those cities the ETA is quite correct.