Two Favorite Apps: Travel

For all the time spent on the road this winter, I had a decent amount of opportunity, with good cell coverage, to check out some new travel apps.
The first and favoritest, is Waze.
This app is community based, in that it works off the GPS signals of your fellow traveler/commuters. It bases traffic conditions off their (and your) reports as well as shows a visual indicator of slow-downs, collisions, abandoned vehicles on the roadside and where the Law Enforcement types may have set up shop for a speed trap.
I will say it's more of a "set it up before you leave the driveway" than "fumbling with it during the drive" so as to avoid distraction, but it's layout is very similar to what your normal GPS program looks like, following your route with the addition of real time traffic issues.
I encourage taking a look at the computer friendly version at home at www.waze.com to familiarize yourself with the map and what symbols mean what (a busy rush-hour near Bellevue, for instance is pretty impressive).

A blown out view of Seattle and surrounding area. A mild Saturday drive!

Zoomed in to an incident on I-90, just outside of Issaquah.

Number 2 App is: Road Ninja.

Road ninja pulls up information on the highway ahead of you (Interstate specifically) and tells you what options you have at upcoming exits. Information includes: rest stops, restaurants by name, hotels, and gas stations with their prices for Regular Unleaded. It takes the guess work out of which exit you should take to grab a bite and fill up the tank.

Road Ninja example of exit options

Lastly, a bonus for the Washington state peeps, make sure you have the WSDOT app. It's got road conditions, mountain pass reports and ferry schedules. No more searching through your glove box to find out when the Kingston ferry takes off!

Safe travels! -Tara