Google Maps has revolutionized the world of navigation. But to make the most of its functionality, you need to know some tricks
Google Maps is one of the many services developed by the Mountain View company. It is one of the most used: every day millions of users launch the Google Maps application on their smartphones to follow the directions to reach a city, an event or a hotel.
One of the secrets of the success of Google Maps is definitely the ease of use and the ability to get in real time the traffic situation. But there are many features offered by the navigation service, including one that allows you to find your parked car. But few people know some tricks that allow them to speed up their daily trips. By making the most of the application you can choose the best time to start your journey and not catch traffic on the highway. Here are some Google Maps tricks to speed up your car trip.
Check your route several times
If we have to undertake a journey of a few hundred kilometers, it is preferable to check the route suggested by Google Maps in the previous days to verify the best time to leave. The service of the Mountain View company allows you to set time and day of departure and offer an estimate of the duration of the trip depending on the probability of finding traffic. The prediction is based on the data present in the Google Maps database. This feature turns out to be very useful especially for planning the departure time of summer vacations (the famous smart departures). The function is present only on the desktop version of Google Maps: to use it you must access the website, choose the address of departure and arrival and select Departure from the dropdown menu at the bottom. At this point you must enter the date and time of departure and Google Maps will show the duration of the trip.
Check directions via Street View
If the directions to follow are rather complicated, a trick to make them easier is to use the Street View feature that allows you to "go down" directly into the street and see the directions on "real" maps. You can do this both from desktop and mobile via the app.
Points of Interest
On Google Maps there are also POIs, or points of interest. Restaurants, gas stations, hospitals, and any other place reported by users. Making a detour from your trip to get to one of these points of interest is very simple: just select it and Google Maps immediately recalculates the route.
Check alternative solutions
When we look for directions to get to a place, Google Maps offers us several solutions and indicates with blue the fastest one. But it is not always the best way. In some cases the roads indicated by Google Maps turn out to be a real hell. For this reason, before starting the navigation you should also check the alternative solutions highlighted with gray.
Enable the "Traffic"
Don't want to be late for work in the morning? Simple, just turn on the Traffic feature on Google Maps. The map service integrates a feature that shows real-time traffic on all major Italian roads using the signals coming from Android devices. In the morning before leaving home you can check on your computer or smartphone (the Traffic feature is present on any device) how the situation is and evaluate which road to take to get to work. It's a very useful Google Maps trick that lets you start your day off right.