Tracking Toronto Traffic on the iPhone

Sorry, but I just hate car people. I hope they run into a giant traffic jam and never get out.

Sorry, but i just hate non-car people. i hope they get run over by a car while jaywalking.

I hate all people. I hope someone runs over a jaywalker and causes a traffic jam.

Who would have thought that simply owning a car vs not owning a car would spell the difference between being instantly hated or loved?

I LOL'd at these comments! I love both car and non-car people alike.

That being said - I drive about an hour every day for work (not to and from, but to meetings, etc.) and so far there hasn't been one iphone app I would consider paying for but this one I'm going to the iTunes store to buy right now.

Jerrold, thanks for the review. My iPhone's imminent (as soon as I can negotiate a delivery time with UPS, and I found this very interesting.

Any other Toronto-relevant iPhone apps we should know about?

There aren't any Toronto-specific iPhone apps that come to mind, although I haven't done an exhaustive search.

Oh, and one point that I failed to mention is that the $10 cost of the app might also speak to the fact that this isn't an app that will be used outside of a small user base.

Apple is crap. There is a reason they still only have 10% of the PC market.

Which brings me to my main argument. Save your money. There are much better devices out there.

I think the app sucks. using the camera views is fine but the COMPASS maps are rudimentary at best. no sense of direction is a crucial oversight for and mapping software.

but I should disclose that I have a vested interest it it sucking. I created an online traffic map - http://toronto.ctv.ca/traffic/ - that scrapes COMPASS and RESCU cams and I've entertained the idea of doing a more sophisticated iPhone version of it for a while.

thus I wish I could give my ideas for improvements but I won't since I want to make a selfish buck off of them.

btw, while I love all motorists and pedestrians, I hate all Toronto iPhone traffic apps that I haven't created.

"vested interest in it..." is what I meant to say.

damn you, super fast typing style!

Ummm... RBeezy... your online version on CTV doesn't indicate camera/road direction either.

no Jerrold, but that's actually a problem with using COMPASS and RESCU. the main view camera direction sometimes changes and it doesn't indicate what direction you're in. only the reference (unchanged) views do that. hence I think an app that shows both the dynamic and static reference views is best.

CTV only wanted to have the main view showing...don't ask.

Any Toronto-specific apps for blackberry?

Jerrold,

thank you for your review and suggested improvements for the app.

Regarding the issue about which way the camera is facing is not a problem the app can solve for Toronto. All the of the Toronto cameras turn and zoom so the direction can change at anytime. They are usually turned away from direct sunlight during the day.

Typically the camera polls are located on the south side of east-west roads, and on the east side of north-south roads. So generally that should help users to determine the camera direction.

I don't plan on purchasing this app. Seriously... $10? I acknowledge that Apple charges developers $100 for use of its SDK and then takes 30% commission... but seriously... if it were $1 or $2, I'd likely have jumped at it. I have already bookmarked the COMPASS traffic flow maps, and I don't find the traffic cameras useful. Landscape view is crucial!

@RBreezy, I think you missed the irony in your attack on Mark's iPhone app "no sense of direction is a crucial oversight for and mapping software" while your own creation for CTV is equally as guilty.

I accept your response and understand how a company can limit logical design, I just wanted to be a prick and point it out. =)

I just can't wait until RESCU adds the Allen. Should be soon, I've been told.

@Daryl: yeah, I embraced the irony fully as I was writing my post. the main difference is that I was operating under a strict mandate. this iphone app most likely had less constraints so what's their excuse?

@RBeezy, having the orientation views clutters up the already small screen. For most users I've had feedback from, it does not take them long to get a feel for the direction. Especially after they learned about the locations of the camera polls, as I noted above.

About price. I wish it could be $1-2, but a niche product (Toronto iPhone users that drive the main highways regularly) does not have the luxury of long tail economics and be able to be profitable enough to sustain development.

@mikeb thanks for the heads up about the Allen, I'll add them to the app as soon as they are available.

to the developer. The $10 price is a bad idea irrespective of audience. I would have purchased for $5 but laughed at $10 because I don't drive every day or commute via car. But I would have considered it at 5 for my leisure driving. I don't think you've done your due diligence in terms of iPhone app economics. You would generate siginficantly higher sales at a lower price point. Ask the game developers. I really think you missed a good opportunity here.

Sorry Mark, but long tail or not there is no way that the app is worth $10. I don't want to be too critical, but considering that all it does is display (and distort to the point of illegibility in the case of the 401) images from a site, it's barely worth the minimum of 99?. It's actually got LESS features than you would get by just bookmarking the original site, since that actually gives you detailed information when there is a problem.

There is a much larger market for an application like this than you're giving credit for. The fact that a pirated version of the app is already making the rounds around the underground community attests to that.

I would have paid 1 or 2 for the app without thinking about it, but...

@seamus and geodee. I understand you views on the price. Finding the right price point involved considerable research. I have received many comments similar to yours from people that have not used the app. Paradoxically, comments from many of those that have used the app say that a one time cost of $10 is well below the value they get out of being able quickly and easily check traffic conditions. As one user commented, "I get more value out of this app than I do 2 lattes at the same cost".

Regarding the economics, at a price point of $1-2 the market is not large enough to yield a 400-900% lift in sales. That is a fact any developer selling to a small market needs to know. Same reason books are more expensive in Canada even when there is dollar parity.

I would like to include construction and collision info in the app but that would require licensing the data so it can be parses and delivered to the app. If the app is successful enough for that then it will be included.

I dont own a Mac or an iphone, but I have been using TrafficEye, a FREE product from The Weather Network over the last few months. It essentially does everything this app seems to do and more, weather, traffic incidents, road conditions.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/desktop/trafficeye

I run it at work and at home to help me decide when to leave and what route to take.

As commented by others, for an iphone app that is screen scraping free web resources, charging 10 bucks for it is robbery. Sure the TrafficEye has an Ad on it, but after years of being on the internet, I dont even notice them anymore.

@Mark Pavlidis, in regards to "licensing" the accident information... is there no licensing required to steal the pictures from the COMPASS websites?

@Daryl, that is a good question. One that I found the answer to prior to releasing the app. The images are being linked to and the transfer is initiated by the user. No MTO data is transfered to or from Pavlidis.ca. Deep linking does not violate copyright and several landmark cases have ruled that deep linking is legal. If the images were being served to users of Toronto Traffic from Pavlidis.ca or other 3rd party site, then this would be redistribution and would be in violation of the copyright holders terms.

Well, lookee here. Looks like Mark's come to his senses, a bit at least. Price is now down to $4.99. I wonder if he plans to give the $5 back to those who bought it at $10 a pop. I suppose that considerable amount of market research didn't quite get the right price point after all. Never mind, I'm much more pissed at the guy who got me to pay $1.99 for the iTTC app.

@seamus The economic models of the App Store nowhere set, so I've been playing around with a few price points to see what it does to sales. For both $5 and $2 price points the lift is nowhere near what it needs to be to support the price.

@mikeb Allen Road is included in the next release, v1.4, pending approval.