Avoid traffic with Windows Live Maps

Over the past year or so, pretty much every major online mapping service has added some sort of real-time traffic detection system. But while these systems will let you know which roads to avoid, for the most part they don't do a great job of presenting you with alternatives. Now Microsoft has added a new technology called Clearflow to its Live Maps service which will let you choose a route based on traffic.

What this means is you can now choose to search for the shortest route by time or distance, and you can also have Live Maps redirect you to avoid heavily congested areas. The system is available for 72 US cities at the moment.

The system predicts traffic by time of day, weather, sports events and other factors, so it doesn't rely solely on real-time conditions to determine the best routes although live data is taken into account as well. While the interface is clean and easy to use, we don't see an easy way to let Live Maps know what time you plan to make your trip, which sort of defeats the purpose.

[via New York Times]

Tags: clearflow, directions, maps, route, traffic, windows-live-maps