Real time information on your mobile
Getting stuck in the city traffic jam or facing problems to circulate on the highway because of an accident is part of our everyday life but we would really enjoy if we could skip all this.
However technology and all the several apps on our smartphones and tablets help us a lot giving us useful information about traffic gridlocks so to get around them. For instance, VAI ANAS is a smartphone app based on Octo Telematics satellite data system that informs us on the traffic. It is also impossible not to mention Infoblu, a platform providing multichannel services on road conditions and congestion. Now let’s discover how they work and which are the other similar applications.
VAI ANAS
Traffic data updated every three minutes, information on traffic and possible accidents: these are only some of the services provided by VAI ANAS , a free app for Apple devices(iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch), resulted by the cooperation between the Company in charge of the management of the Italian national road and motorway network (Anas) and Octo Telematics. This app allows you through a georeference system to identify your location in real time on a map and immediately informs you on possible slowdowns, queues and gridlocks all over the roads network controlled by Anas. This app is divided into 2 main areas: “map” informs you on possible road work in progress, accidents, exc. ; “city traffic” gives you the chance to choose alternative routes avoiding the traffic gridlocks. VAI ANAS uses data resulting from satellites managed by Octo Telematics and from the cameras located along roads and highways. Furthermore, this app provides you with news about the weather conditions. Thanks to VAI ANAS you could always be updated on your speed, also along a limited selected stretch of your route. With few clicks, this app creates a chart with the average speed data of your trip.
Infoblu
More than 300 cameras that steadily control the road situation all over Italy, cutting-edge traffic data gathering & management systems: Infoblu is not only based on advanced technological systems, but is also one of the more complex integrated multi-service platform on traffic data. Its special mutichannel service is its strenght: for example its website provides constantly updated information on traffic, routes, weather forecasts and highway services. While Infoblu Traffic is a smatphone app useful to monitor the highway traffic conditions directly from your mobile device. And what’s more: thanks to the cooperation with RTL 102.5 radio traffic data are displayed on those GPS and radio devices connected to RDS-TMC channel. Moreover Infoblu provides the news broadcasts of the Operation Center on Highway Traffic with contents such as dynamic maps, 3D animation, videos from the cameras located along the highway network and it also sends direct news feeds in xml format on traffic news and multimedia data.
iCCIS
An app which provides to a mobile device the same services already available on the website, radio and tv thanks to the data issued by the National Information and Road Safety Coordination Centre (CCISS): this is iCCISS, a free app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (and it will be soon available on Android devices too) which allows you to access traffic information issued by the National Information and Road Safety Coordination Centre, sponsored by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. This app is available in two versions: iCCISS and iCCISS Pro. Both of them are free, but the Pro version compared to the other one has more detailed maps but takes up more space in the memory.
TrafficDroid
It has been conceived for Android devices. It is free. It is TrafficDroid. Also in this case, you could easily be informed about queues, slowdowns and possible gridlocks and you only have to download TrafficDroid on your smartphone. It is very easy to use it: you select the stretch of road or route you are looking for and the app will monitor them. Indeed TrafficDroid is connected to the cameras located along the Italian highways and consequently sends warning on gridlocks and accidents. What’s more is that among all its services it could calculate the highway toll and remind you about the expiry date for the payment of the car tax.
Waze and other apps
Free app for Apple and Android devices, Waze is a kind of “social GPS”: you could find information about queues, accidents, works in progress, police checkpoints directly sent and updated by the drivers themselves, that could constantly be connected to other users through other social networks too (Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare). This app displays also very updated maps and works as a GPS device. While SkyWay24 is an app that control the Italian highways and beltways. Through the GPS the app detect your car location and shows you the traffic data within a specific range of kilometers.
Also Infotrafic Quattroruote informs drivers about highway traffic, every day from 7 am to 10 pm, along a selected road stretch. 23 cameras put along the main beltways and highways broadcast real time videos on traffic and road viability.