Every morning, I wake up and need to go to office. I have several routes that i can use. However I cant decide which is the best one unless from experience. This does not always help as today traffic is good, tomorrow its free flow, the next day its completely grid locked.
All along, there are people who drive the same route as me, or use matatus on the route with smartphones. Ma3route works, and people update on twitter, however the usability of ma3route means i have to scroll too many tweets to get the status (and sometimes miss it completely).
My thoughts:
- create a traffic app that automatically updates a map based on data received from the location of the smartphones using the app.
- The map would be colour coded, say Red for stretches between 0-5kms/hr, amber for 10-30km/hr, yellow for 30-50km/hr and green for anything above 50km/hr.
- When leaving home/office enter your destination and this opens the map to see the current traffic data and various route options. However, for you to see the current map, you must share your location data as well, so that the app always has live data.
- When you arrive at destination, the app goes into offline mode, and this then disables location data - the app only needs traffic data when you are on the move.
Challenges:
- Privacy concerns that someone can know where you are. The app can be made in such a way that you dont need to login, and does not need any of your personal information, apart from the location data. On the map, there would be no information on who has contributed to the map.
- Data charges to the users. Location information would be uploaded every few seconds.
What do Wazuans think? Would you be interested to try such an app? Would it help you get to your destination much faster?