trafiic data not updated?

Question

HI<o:p></o:p>

I am using
the Bing route service with the traffic information to calculate the time of a
trip in several countries between large cities.<o:p></o:p>

Unfortunately
the time returned is always the same for a specific trip; it looks like the
traffic information is not taken into account.<o:p></o:p>

Does this
service really use live traffic data or am I doing something wrong in my code:<o:p></o:p>

        Dim results As String = ""

        Dim routeRequest As New RouteRequest()

        routeRequest.Options.TrafficUsage = TrafficUsage.TrafficBasedRouteAndTime

        routeRequest.Options.Optimization = RouteOptimization.MinimizeTime

        Dim routeService As New RouteServiceClient()

        Dim routeResponse As RouteResponse = routeService.CalculateRoute(routeRequest)

        results = routeResponse.Result.Summary.TimeInSeconds

Answer 1

Traffic based routing currently is only available in the US. Note that Traffic data was just recently added to Bing Maps for areas outside of the US but the Routing service has not been updated since this data has been released.

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http://rbrundritt.wordpress.com

Answer 2

@Ricky - I never realised that TrafficUsage was based on realtime traffic data, even in the US (which is what the OP and your answer seem to suggest) - is that right?

I always assumed that setting TrafficUsage.TrafficBasedRouteAndTime used average/expected patterns of traffic along the route to revise the expected travel time/determine the quickest route.

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twitter: @alastaira blog: http://alastaira.wordpress.com/

Answer 3

I'm not 100% certain on the realtime traffic. I have seen cases in the US where using the traffic based routing gave you a route that was significantly different from using standard routing. But, more to the point on this question, Bing Maps only had any traffic data in the US until recently. Traffic incident data and realtime traffic flow data can be seen on the map as a tile overlay. Traffic based routing may be available outside of the US in the future but isn't something that was in our intial expansion of the traffic feature. 

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http://rbrundritt.wordpress.com

Answer 4

Traffic based routing will use a combination of realtime information where it is available and calculated/historical speeds on other roads. In the US, most major highways in urban areas have realtime data and so will reflect that in the route chosen.

Answer 5

Thanks for the clarification, Duncan - I never knew that! (but, then again, as almost all of my work is non-US I've had little need to investigate the TrafficUsage parameter before...).

Might go and do some tests...

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twitter: @alastaira blog: http://alastaira.wordpress.com/