The INRIX Traffic app provides up-to-the-minute traffic information and alerts for major roadways, saving you time and money otherwise wasted in traffic.

Here’s what’s new with the INRIX Traffic App:

• Custom Routes: In addition to INRIX travel times for common routes to your saved destinations, we’re giving you the ability to create custom routes to your saved places.   Now you’ll be able to save your secret route home or to any destination and instantly compare it with typical routes to see which is faster around the day’s traffic.
• Keep Moving Integration (U.K. only): Get automated traffic incident alerts on your phone with the latest information on why you’re stuck in traffic

Create personalized routes with just a few clicks of a button! It’s as simple as selecting edit under your ‘Places’ screen and adding a custom route to any one of your saved locations. Give your preferred route a name and add new waypoints. Bam! See arrival times and road alerts for your new route in map view, marked with a yellow dot.

Download the latest version of the app and let us know what you think of it by leaving a comment on our Facebook page.  For an overview of the app, check out this video.

The latest INRIX Gridlock Index (IGI) shows drivers have been spending a lot more time sitting bumper-to-bumper. Traffic jumped by almost 10 percent during February, for the largest year-over-year increase ever recorded by our 100-metro area index.

It looks like gridlock levels are finally climbing out of their long slump. While more people hitting the road might be awful for drivers, it’s also a sign that more jobs and more orders are being filled – great news for the economy.

The latest IGI shows that traffic in large metro areas like Boston, Detroit, Chicago and Houston also jumped dramatically. How did your city compare? Check out the complete list of IGI results here.

Related:

• Visit the INRIX Gridlock Index (IGI) for February 2013
• Visit the INRIX Traffic Scorecard for more detailed gridlock data, including on international regions
• Visit our website to learn more about INRIX

The latest INRIX Gridlock Index (IGI) – which now covers traffic trends in 100 metro areas — shows that drivers spent more time stalled in traffic last January than they did in January 2012. This is the second straight month that gridlock has increased over the previous year, ending a long series of year-to-year declines that had stretched back over 23 months. As an indication that more workers, more shippers, and more shoppers are hitting the road, January’s IGI is also a good sign for the U.S. economy. The IGI score was 6.4, meaning the average trip took 6.4 percent longer because of stalled traffic.

Yet it’s still too early to pop open the champagne. While the most recent IGIs have shown an upswing, a look back to 2010 shows just how far traffic has fallen – and how much it has yet to recover.

January’s IGI also showed why Utah was right to take “Industry” as its motto. Its Ogden and Salt Lake City metro areas saw some of the biggest jumps in traffic congestion year-over-year, growing by 202 percent and 113 percent, respectively. This lines up with recent reports that the state has seen more tax receipts flow into its coffers than it had expected. Tennessee also came out a winner: traffic in Knoxville and Memphis increased by 110 percent and 65 percent year-over-year.

As for IGI losers, traffic in the Kentucky region of Louisville was hardest hit: it fell by 62 percent from January 2012 to January 2013. The metro areas of St. Louis, Youngstown and Fort Myers also performed badly, with each seeing year-over-year decreases of at least 50 percent.

How did your city do? Check out the complete list of IGI results here.

Related:

• Visit the INRIX Gridlock Index (IGI) for January 2013
• Visit the INRIX Traffic Scorecard  for more detailed gridlock data, including on international regions
• Visit here to learn more about INRIX

The IGI score for December 2012 was 15.2, meaning that the average trip took drivers 15.2% longer because of traffic. This might be a nuisance, but higher levels of traffic congestion also mean that there are more workers working, more shoppers shopping and more business activity overall. This latest IGI score shows that gridlock actually fell by 3% from the year before. So why is this good news for the economy?

Traffic usually falls in December, as holidaymakers stay home. While December’s IGI did show a slight decrease in traffic on a year-over-year basis, the 3% decline was actually seven times better than the year before. This is a gigantic improvement from the previous year, when gridlock fell by 21% from December 2010 to December 2011 year-over-year as double-dip recession worries kicked in.

Another pleasant surprise in the latest IGI was the increase in Detroit’s score from November to December 2012. In fact Detroit was the only area out of the IGI’s 10 metro areas to register an uptick from one month to the next. Great news as the Motor City tries to fight its way back to its former glory.

Here’s a look at how all of the areas scored:

• Atlanta’s IGI score for December 2012 was 9.3, decreasing by 16.3% from the prior month. On a year-over-year basis Atlanta’s December 2012 IGI score was down by 14%.
• Boston’s IGI score for December 2012 was 14, decreasing by 18.8% from the prior month. Year-over-year Boston’s December 2012 IGI score was up by 5.4%.
• Chicago’s IGI score for December 2012 was 10.2, decreasing by 24.3% from the prior month. Year-over-year Chicago’s December 2012 IGI score was down by 16.9%.
• Dallas’ IGI score for December 2012 was 9.6, decreasing by 17% from the prior month. Year-over-year Dallas’ December 2012 IGI score was down by 9.1%.
• Detroit’s IGI score for December 2012 was 7.2, increasing by 9.8% from the prior month. Year-over-year Detroit’s December 2012 IGI score was up by 24.2%.
• Los Angeles’ IGI score for December 2012 was 27.7, decreasing by 12.2% from the prior month. Year-over-year Los Angeles’ December 2012 IGI score was down by -6.9%.
• Miami’s IGI score for December 2012 was 12.9, decreasing by 14.5% from the prior month. Year-over-year Miami’s December 2012 IGI score was down by 3.5%.
• New York’s IGI score for December 2012 was 21.8, decreasing by 13.3% from the prior month. Year-over-year New York’s December 2012 IGI score was up by 6.6%.
• San Francisco’s IGI score for December 2012 was 23.7, decreasing by 11.9% from the prior month. Year-over-year San Francisco’s December 2012 IGI score was up by 1.6%.
• Washington D.C.’s IGI score for December 2012 was 15.6, decreasing by 13.2% from the prior month. Year-over-year Washington D.C.’s December 2012 IGI score was down by 7.8%.

Did you drive more, less or the same amount in December? And what’s your guess for what IGI will say about the economy next month?

Related:

• Visit the INRIX Traffic Scorecard for gridlock data on other U.S. and international cities
• Visit www.inrix.com to learn more about INRIX

Traffic congestion is up in 10 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas, making the average driving trip 17.7% longer than necessary. This is according to the November 2012 aggregate score for the INRIX Gridlock Index (IGI), a monthly measurement of road traffic congestion.

So, more gridlock is bad, right?

Not necessarily. The good news is that the latest IGI score shows a sluggish yet enduring rebound in national traffic congestion providing further evidence of a slowly rebounding U.S. economy.

The mixed economic picture captured in the November 2012 IGI is all the more notable given the backdrop of lower national gas prices. While headline unemployment rates in IGI’s 10 metropolitan areas have also declined, the high number of discouraged workers nationwide (979,000 in November 2012) may exert downward pressure on overall traffic congestion.

Other highlights from the latest IGI release:

• New York’s November 2012 IGI score was up 20% over the previous month, possibly reflecting a rebound from the reduced access seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
• A November 2012 IGI score of 17.2 shows that Boston is regaining the ground it lost after dropping from 17.23 in September 2012 to 16.8 in October 2012. Like all of the cities in IGI, it has yet to retain the highs last seen in 2010.
• Dallas’ November 2012 IGI score of 11.6 was little changed from its October 2012 score of 11.7, remaining stable in the face of the relatively upbeat assessment seen in the last quarterly survey of the Dallas Regional Chamber.3
• San Francisco’s November 2012 IGI score saw a very slight decrease month-over-month from 27 to 26.9. The tech-hub’s score remained well above its 2012 low-point of 18.7 (observed in July).
• Los Angeles once again took top honors with the highest IGI score in the nation of 31.6, meaning that gridlock forced its drivers to endure an increase of almost 32% in the duration of their average driving trip.
• Miami and Washington D.C. are the only IGI metropolitan areas whose scores have increased every month since July 2012.

For the full set of data for November for the 10 IGI Metropolitan areas as well as other cities and countries around the world visit http://scorecard.inrix.com/scorecard/.

Feature photo courtesy of epSos (Flickr)

What’s the biggest holiday for travel in the U.S.? With more than 40 million Americans heading over the river and through the woods to visit loved ones each year, Thanksgiving is the chief contender for the title. But with gas prices at an all-time high, we’re predicting that traffic congestion is going to decrease nationally compared to past years.

However, don’t get too excited. You’ll still encounter more traffic than non-holiday times and we’re here to help you plan ahead. To avoid getting stuck in a rush of people heading out of town, we recommend leaving before 2 p.m. on Wednesday. You’ll find traffic pretty light on Wednesday morning if travelling locally (and even lighter if you wait until Thursday morning!)

Stuck at work till 5 p.m.? If you have to leave after 2 p.m., plan ahead for the delay. Nationally, drivers can expect an average trip to be 26 percent longer than normal.

Worst Thanksgiving Traffic – Is Your City on the List?

Here are our predictions for traffic trends in the top 10 cities with the worst Thanksgiving holiday traffic. If your travels take you to these major metropolitan areas this Thanksgiving, make sure you plan ahead for delays – especially if you live in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

*Your journey will take on average this percentage longer 

Busiest Airport Routes – Wednesday Afternoon

Heading out of town for the holidays? Check your flight time and plan ahead for delays. We predict that these will be the busiest routes to and from several major airports nationwide:

Drivers in Los Angeles can expect to see the longest delays in and out of Bob Hope Airport and heading toward LAX. Los Angelinos heading toward John Wayne Airport via I-5 will fare much better, with the delay only expected to be approximately 8.5 minutes.

Black Friday Forecast – Head Home Early!

Post-family fun, there’s the matter of getting back over the river and through the woods (and maybe picking up a few gifts along the way!) For shoppers and travellers, we suggest that you head out early on Friday if you want to avoid traffic.

Plan to sleep in? You’ll find that traffic will peak between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. as well as the 5 – 7 p.m. dinner hour on Black Friday. As expected, traffic will be heaviest in urban downtown areas and suburban shopping areas. Here’s an overview of the top cities for traffic congestion on Friday:

Want to stay up to date on the latest traffic conditions during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend? Get the INRIX Traffic app on iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone and Windows 8. Safe travels!

Feature image by Jonathan Kos-Read. 

Across the country, the number of traffic accidents is known to rise on All Hallows Eve as excited children and adult partygoers often pay less attention to road safety—especially during the peak trick-or-treating hours between  6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

As you could guess, it’s the residential roads that see the biggest increase in congestion, so INRIX advises drivers avoiding the trick-or-treating to stick to major routes and highways. However, if you’re heading into residential areas behind the wheel, here are 13 Halloween driving safety tips:

Leave a comment and let us know if these tips are helpful and if you have any tips of your own that you’d add. Also tell us what you’re planning to do this Halloween!

Here’s what you can do with the improved INRIX Traffic app for Android:

• Know the fastest route: INRIX Traffic can provide you with up-to-the-minute traffic maps for 1 million miles of highways, interstates and city streets nationwide.
• Determine the best time to leave and travel times using the predictive traffic feature: The app can help you get where you need to go faster by showing how traffic conditions and travel times are expected to change during your drive, based on historical data as well as local weather and events.
• Share INRIX arrival times:  Is someone waiting for you at the end of your drive? They won’t have to wonder when you’ll arrive, because now you can easily share your arrival time via email or text message with any contact in just a few taps.
• Get personalized traffic alerts: You can personalize the app to display alerts on your Android phone when accidents and other traffic causing delays might affect you on your routes. 
• Community Traffic Alerts: INRIX Traffic combines traffic data with real-time reporting from INRIX Traffic users to help everyone plan the best routes and adjust quickly to accidents and other incidents that affect traffic. Using the app, you can instantly view and alert others to incidents along your route with just a few taps.

Those are just the basics. The premium version of the INRIX Traffic app has even more tools and features, offering an unlimited number of destinations and access to more than 10,000 traffic cameras across INRIX’s nationwide network.  The premium Android app is also the first to offer instant insight into gas prices along your route, with daily updates for more than 100,000 gas stations nationwide. A lifetime subscription to the premium version of INRIX Traffic is available for just $24.99.

Download the new app and let us know what you think of it by leaving a comment on our Facebook page.

Mulholland Drive Bridge is scheduled for demolition. As a result the I-405 through Sepulveda Pass will be closed in both directions.

This Saturday and Sunday in Los Angeles, the north side of Mulholland Drive Bridge is scheduled for demolition. As a result the I-405 through the Sepulveda Pass will be closed in both directions on September 29th and 30th to allow for demolition.

The good people at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority refer to this as I-405 Closure II, but L.A. drivers know it by another, less-restrained name: Carmageddon II.

If you live and drive in L.A., how much should you dread traffic this weekend? For context, let’s take a look at what really happened last year during Carmageddon I based on INRIX data.

Carmageddon I: What Really Happened

Overall, Los Angeles experienced a 30 percent drop in traffic congestion over Carmaggedon I in 2011. In fact, it was the best weekend to drive in L.A. (outside of a holiday weekend) in history. Businesses unfortunately suffered as drivers stayed home and off the roads in massive numbers.

Friday traffic volumes increased by more than 7 percent between 12 noon to 4 p.m. as people hit the roads early to head home or run errands ahead of the weekend. As drivers prepared for Carmageddon I with an intensity that people in other major cities reserve for blizzards and hurricanes, traffic experienced delays of almost 25 minutes more on average than a normal Friday rush hour. I-5 was the most congested route between the Bob Hope Airport and Downtown L.A., with traffic jammed almost three times more than a typical Friday.

Saturday saw the largest drop in congestion — almost 30 percent — from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The 210 between I-5 and Route 118 saw the lowest congestion with traffic travelling at free flow speeds. I-5 and I-110 into Downtown L.A. were the busiest routes, but only marginally: INRIX data showed barely 5 minute delays.

Sunday traffic flow stabilized with a reduction of 12 percent below the mean. The 405 re-opened 17 hours ahead of schedule, but traffic remained light across the entire road network. This means Angelinos stayed off the affected roads for the full 53 hours of the anticipated closure.

Carmageddon II: Top 10 Bottlenecks

Although it’s hard to predict the behavior of drivers faced with closed sections of a major highway, we can examine the available alternatives and make a sensible prediction as to how traffic will redistribute itself across the road network this weekend, assuming that most drivers won’t stray far from their normal routes.

The bad news is that we’re unlikely to see the dramatic traffic reductions observed with Carmageddon I. If drivers decide to ignore the hype and take to the roads this weekend, INRIX predicts the following Top 10 Bottlenecks as drivers who normally use the 405 adjust their route:

1. I-5 between Route 118 and I-405
   Distance: 2 miles
   Traffic increase: 32%
   Travel time increase: 50.0%
2. Sepulveda Bvd between Route 101 and I-10
   Distance: 10 miles
   Traffic increase: 45%
   Travel time increase: 42.3%
3. Route 101 between I-110 and Glendale Fwy
   Distance: 7 miles
   Traffic increase: 29%
   Travel time increase: 37.5%
4. I-110 between I-10 and Route 101
   Distance: 2 miles
   Traffic increase: 35%
   Travel time increase: 33.3%
5. Sepulveda Bvd between Route 118 and Route 101
   Distance: 8 miles
   Traffic increase: 33%
   Travel time increase: 33.3%
6. I-5 between Route 170 and Route 118
   Distance: 3 miles
   Traffic increase: 29%
   Travel time increase: 33.3%
7. Glendale Fwy between Route 134 and I-210
   Distance: 10 miles
   Traffic increase: 28%
   Travel time increase: 30.8%
8. I-210 between I-5 and Route 118
   Distance: 6 miles
   Traffic increase: 28%
   Travel time increase: 28.6%
9. Route 101 between Glendale Fwy and Route 134
   Distance: 9 miles
   Traffic increase: 29%
   Travel time increase: 27.3%
10. I-110 between I-105 and I-10
    Distance: 4 miles
    Traffic increase: 25%
    Travel time increase: 20.0%

What are your plans for Carmageddon II – stay local, or take your chances on the freeways? Leave a comment on our Facebook page. And this weekend, we invite you to share your Carmegeddon II photos on Twitter.

Good luck, and drive safely!

New features for the iPhone 5 include:

- Thinner, lighter design

- 4 – inch Retina Display

- Ultrafast Wireless with LTE Wireless Technology

- A6 Chip, which promises better CPU and graphics performance

- iSight Camera with panorama capabilities

Our favorite feature? The way our traffic maps look on the big, beautiful display!

iPhone 4 vs iPhone 5: Look at all that map!

What’s your favorite new iPhone 5  feature?