This morning, officials from the Jakarta government, transportation department and police are meeting to discuss whether to get rid of the city’s 3-in-1 traffic rule. The test removal of the 3-in-1 over the last week has certainly increased traffic on some of the capital’s major roads, but opponents say the 3-in-1 was largely ineffective and was promoting child exploitation.
Whatever is decided, Jakarta’s terrible traffic is going to get worse before it gets better. Earlier this week, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama recommended that drivers use traffic app Waze to help avoid the increased macet. Well today, the world’s other widely used traffic app, Google Maps, has launched a new feature that will give users even more information to help them find alternative routes through traffic.
A press release from Google Indonesia says the new feature helps identify the sources of traffic congestion in more detail. If you are following a route in Google Maps and it detects that there is congestion in front of you, a notification will appear at the bottom of the phone screen giving you alternative route information as well as an explanation for why the the route was recommended.
In the screenshots provided by Google, it shows notifications indicating that there have been car accidents along the user’s route, as well as information on how much time the accident will add to their trip and suggesting alternative routes.
This is not the first feature for Google Maps that is of particular importance to Jakarta drivers. Last year, the app also added a feature that gives directions based on landmark information (very helpful when describing routes to taxi drivers).
Waze, Ahok’s recommended traffic app, is actually owned by Google as well. But while the two apps do share some data, they actually have quite a few differences. Waze has more options for users to report their own traffic data (like accidents and police locations) while Google Maps has more features and a cleaner user interface. In a head-to-head lineup between the two apps, Lifehacker concluded that “Waze Gets You There Faster (by Car), but Google Maps Is Ultimately More Useful”, but that comparison was from a few months ago and doesn’t include each app’s latest features.
