Can A Smartphone Outsmart Memorial Day Weekend Traffic?

NEWPORT, RI — The holiday rush has begun. Newport is expecting a big Memorial Day weekend, according to Discover Newport. Travel forecasts call for a million more people this year to take trips compared to 2016. So, if you have to travel over the weekend, here is a way to scope out the traffic in advance and hopefully avoid some of the headaches. Start by going to Google Maps and finding directions.

https://www.google.com/maps/@4...

Some drivers prefer Waze, and it's probably the easiest to use. But it didn't show all the traffic issues. On a test run from Newport to Narragansett, Waze let the driver know America's Cup Avenue was pretty slow Friday night, and traffic was moving about 10 mph. But everything else looked like smooth sailing. The reason seems to be that Waze relies on crowd sourcing for its data. So, if the people aren't in Jamestown or Narragansett, you don't get the info.

Google Maps, on the other hand, showed some slow spots in Jamestown and Narragansett. It seems more complete. The color coding is simple. Red is for slow to a dead stop. Green is for fast. And so on. The highways are outlined in the appropriate color. For live and updating backups, scroll down, find the area you are looking for, click the three dots on the bottom right of that map, then click the box for traffic incidents and slowdowns. As always, dark red is very bad. If it looks bad, you can go to Directions and look for an alternate route.

https://www.google.com/maps/@4...

One nice feature, you can compare live conditions to the typical traffic congestion at a specific location. That can help decide if you really need to take a detour. Construction areas are identified with little icons, and so are accidents.

Let us know if you use any traffic apps and which ones you like best.

Alison Bauter (Patch Staff) contributed to this report.