Waze is the world’s largest and number one community-based traffic and navigation app with which you can share real-time traffic and road info so that you and fellow drivers can save precious time, gas money, and make the hassle of daily commuting as smooth as a Sam Cooke ballad. Thanks to Waze’s community-reported alerts, you’ll always be one step ahead of road-related misery caused by accidents, hazards, police traps, and road closures. Waze boasts a selection of maps constantly kept up-to-date by community map editors and has a turn-by-turn, customizable voice-guided navigation with voice packs featuring, for instance, Shaquille O’Neal and Morgan Freeman. Waze is a fast learner, which it proves by learning your frequent destinations, commuting hours, and preferred routes. Waze is also concerned about your gas money budget and finds you the cheapest gas station found along your route. To top it all off, Waze has a game-like feature: by contributing road info, you’ll earn points and will start climbing the ranks in your community, bringing not only fun but also competitive spirit into this already wonderful and immensely useful application.
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TomTom is a real veteran in the GPS game, and in its latest mobile app, the company combined its most recent car navigation technology with said-to-be world-class traffic information. It is not community-based, but still has key features noticeably similar to that of Waze, the most crucial and most handy of which is giving you information on where traffic delays end and start and offering priceless pieces of advice in the form of alternative routes. TomTom boasts millions of POIs (Points of Interest) from landmarks through hotels all the way to gas stations and brings you a 3D view so that you’ll know exactly where you are and never miss a turn. TomTom helps you avoid speeding fines with speed warnings and safety camera alerts, has always-up-to-date world maps, and does not need an internet connection to navigate you to your destination; so it’s all dandy and fine, but unleashing the true potential of some of its features requires a subscription, which makes Waze – at least for everyday use – a much more sympathetic and user-friendly option.
Trafi – Public Transport App
Trafi – Public Transport App is the odd-one-out in our compilation, as it is aimed at those commuting to work using various means of public transport. With Trafi, you can plan trips across all types of public transport and select the best routes according to your preference (least transfers, earliest arrival, and shortest walking distance). Thanks to Trafi’s live traffic alerts, up-to-date and accurate timetables, real-time map, and upcoming arrivals-feature, you will neither be late nor get lost abroad – especially because using Trafi does not require an internet connection. In selected cities, Trafi’s bike sharing map displays the nearest bike stations, giving you yet another alternative to get from point A to point B. To put it short, Trafi is the public transport-based version of Waze, and is just as useful as its car-based counterpart.
Glob – GPS, Traffic and radar
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to see where speed cameras are located so you can dodge them when you are speeding, or at least by-pass traffic jams? Glob allows you to do all from the palm of your hand. It will search for your location on a map, and then displays the speed cams and traffic jams. With this information, you can plan your trip more efficiently. The app uses Google data, but also anonymous sourced data (from other app users) to display information on how heavy the traffic is. Glob will even warn you when you are nearing an accident or speed cam. When you finish a trip, you can also export the data to share with your friends. This ability to share the trip information – in real-time – makes this app a powerful social commuter app. I have used the app a few times in the last week and the collection of the data works amazingly.
