We're Talking Vehicular Traffic Here
Did you ever wonder how Google gets the information for its traffic map that shows how heavy traffic is along the roads?
I did.
I never bothered to look it up though. Someone found the answer for me here. It's really quite amazing the more you think about it. Those programmers at Google are quite the bunch.
As noted in the Wikipedia (WDNL) article in that link, Google gets the information from your cell phone. Also described there is the fact that you can prohibit Google from getting that info by opting out of such tracking on virtually any device.
I would think just turning off your phone would do the same thing and would probably be much simpler.
So what if we all just turned off our phones today while driving, to celebrate Mess with Google Traffic Day?
If you think about it, that's the way you used to drive, isn't it? Back in the olden days, when almost no one had a phone in their car and everyone had a land line, you didn't miss having an active phone while you drove.
If you think about it, you really don't need to be connected while driving. No, you don't. End of argument.
So what we need to do is get everyone who drives today on board with this idea of turning off their phones to see what happens to Google's traffic map. (If someone knows that just turning them off isn't enough, let us know.)
You can turn your phone on again as soon as you reach your destination. If you make more than one trip, be sure to turn it on and off as needed each time.
Driving without an active phone is safer overall. If you find that someone thought they needed to get in touch with you while you were driving, just explain the above. Odds are that won't happen though.
So sharing this post would be really helpful today. Maybe it won't get spread around enough today to put a dent in the Google traffic stats. If not, there's always next March 7.