Road related apps

[hobsini2]

I don't know if anyone has already covered this but I am wondering if any of you have apps for your smartphone that are road related that you like to use. I recently got a Galaxy S3 and I am playing around with the different apps.

I already have the follow that I am trying out:

Maverick GPS/Speedometer
SpeedView
Interstate Exit Guide
USA Rest Stops
RoadNinja
Map My Ride
Eexits
MyDATTrucker

I would appreciate any other good suggestions. Thanks.

[Pete from Boston]

I got my first speeding ticket in many years while trying out a speedometer app. 

I really wish NETR would release a historicaerials.com app.  Their mobile implementation is pretty unsatisfying.

[froggie]

I really wish NETR would release a historicaerials.com app.  Their mobile implementation is pretty unsatisfying.

Basically impossible on the iPad.

I only use a few apps that could be considered "road related", and all are Apple apps.  GPXMaster is the main one I use for tracking my trips, as it saves the trips as .GPX files.  I use the Inrix traffic map to check traffic conditions.  I also have an app (can't remember the name) that pulls OpenStreetMap data.

[1995hoo]

I occasionally bring up Waze if I hit traffic in an unfamiliar area or an area in which I don't know the alternate routes. My car's sat-nav doesn't include traffic info, so I'll use Waze to see how far the backup lasts and then use the car's sat-nav to plot an alternate route if needed.

I'm not a fan of Waze in local driving because I find it distracting, and I find it really annoying that it insists on defaulting to the irritating "track-up" view that rotates the map as you drive instead of letting you default to the conventional map view that puts north at the top.

[Pete from Boston]

Other apps I turn to with some frequency when out exploring (what I call the many long mundane drives I'm forced to make so it feels more rewarding):

Wikiplaces  A mobile implementation of Wikimapia, which is not the most torough or accurate site but does asnwer some questions.

Offline Topo Maps  There are probably a lot more topo apps now but this is the one I downloaded two years ago, and it does a good enough job.  Maps can be slow to load, but so can Google's.

5-0 Radio  Police scanner, because I'm a voyeur like everyone else and want to know what the incident I passed was.


What I'm waiting for:  AARoads Forum Mobile!

[hbelkins]

I have EveryTrail loaded on my iPhone and iPad. I use it to track my trips and post them to my site.

I'm going to check out GPXMaster since Mike Tantillo has been using it and I see that Froggie has it too.

[US81]

Other apps I turn to with some frequency when out exploring (what I call the many long mundane drives I'm forced to make so it feels more rewarding):

Wikiplaces  A mobile implementation of Wikimapia, which is not the most torough or accurate site but does asnwer some questions.

Offline Topo Maps  There are probably a lot more topo apps now but this is the one I downloaded two years ago, and it does a good enough job.  Maps can be slow to load, but so can Google's.

5-0 Radio  Police scanner, because I'm a voyeur like everyone else and want to know what the incident I passed was.


What I'm waiting for:  AARoads Forum Mobile!

"Offline Topo Maps" has lots of out-of-date road data, at least in Texas. I'm really enjoying scanning through, seeing what I remember or mis-remember, tracing old alignments, etc. Love it!

and I second "AARoads Forum Mobile" - although I suppose there's a risk I might never do anything else if it becomes reality.

[froggie]

Offline Topo Maps

On that note (and I forgot to mention it earlier), National Geographic has an app called "Trail Maps" which, though the name is misleading, allows one to download and store both USGS topographic maps (it grabs both the standard 7.5-minute series and the 15-minute series maps) and aerial imagery from Bing.  I use it extensively in those areas where I know the 3G signal is poor-to-nonexistant...best $2.99 app I've bought.

[J N Winkler]

I'm resurrecting this thread to ask if anyone has had any experience using Open GPS Tracker, an Android app which (judging by descriptions above) acts as a "GPXMaster killer" by using the GPS to record trip traces, which can be shared in either GPX or KMZ format.

The reason I ask is that the odometer in my elderly Saturn has given out, and the fuel gauge has been acting squirrelly.  (As a result of these factors--and my own bloody-mindedness--I ran out of gas yesterday, for the first time since I was an undergraduate.)  For low-intensity in-town errand running I can use Google Maps and a diary program to log my trips by length and serve as a check on the fuel gauge, but for longer trips and for "holes" in Google Maps' itinerary-mapping capabilities, it seems that a GPS-enabled smartphone app would be helpful.  I wonder about power drain though since it seems to me that the phone would have to be drawing power at regular intervals to take GPS fixes.

[deathtopumpkins]

I use Google's My Tracks app to record drives. The statistics it gives you aren't entirely accurate regarding things like elevation, but the location and distance are incredibly accurate, and you can specify things like how often it records your GPS location, plus it's integrated with Google Maps - which makes it really easy to then view the route on your computer.

[NE2]

I wonder about power drain though since it seems to me that the phone would have to be drawing power at regular intervals to take GPS fixes.

You could probably get an old standalone GPS receiver without navigation capabilities for cheap these days.

[national highway 1]

Roadsign Magic Pro for iOS, can be used to make road signs.

[KEK Inc.]

AARoads is terrible on mobile.  I know ipb comes with a mobile skin on those forums.  SMF doesn't?

[theline]

I wonder about power drain though since it seems to me that the phone would have to be drawing power at regular intervals to take GPS fixes.

You could probably get an old standalone GPS receiver without navigation capabilities for cheap these days.

GPS on my wife's Droid is a terrible drain on the battery. It even drains while plugged into the car charger. On the other hand, my iPhone handles the chore with relatively good battery life. Like with many things in life, performance depends on the equipment. 

[Pete from Boston]

I use Google's My Tracks app to record drives. The statistics it gives you aren't entirely accurate regarding things like elevation, but the location and distance are incredibly accurate, and you can specify things like how often it records your GPS location, plus it's integrated with Google Maps - which makes it really easy to then view the route on your computer.

I have been unsuccessful with tracking apps because the iphone goes to sleep and as I use other programs the tracking app goes dormant and stops tracking.  Has anyone found something for which this isn't the case?

[mapman1071]

Roadsign Magic Pro for iOS, can be used to make road signs.

Is there a similar app for pc/Mac

[hbelkins]

I have been unsuccessful with tracking apps because the iphone goes to sleep and as I use other programs the tracking app goes dormant and stops tracking.  Has anyone found something for which this isn't the case?

Try EveryTrail. That's what I use.

I downloaded Glympse. If they will allow it to post to FB pages and let you set the time for tracking for more than four hours, it would be great for real-time tracking and sharing of road trips.

[J N Winkler]

I use Google's My Tracks app to record drives. The statistics it gives you aren't entirely accurate regarding things like elevation, but the location and distance are incredibly accurate, and you can specify things like how often it records your GPS location, plus it's integrated with Google Maps - which makes it really easy to then view the route on your computer.

I have been unsuccessful with tracking apps because the iphone goes to sleep and as I use other programs the tracking app goes dormant and stops tracking.  Has anyone found something for which this isn't the case?

Could there be a permissions issue?

I installed My Tracks on my Droid Razr M this afternoon, following DTP's suggestion, and didn't have any of the problems you describe.  I did have to give it permission to sync with Google Drive, to run when the phone is turned off, and to access the GPS.  I also had to turn on the GPS itself (through the phone settings, which are separate).  I then took the phone out for a road test and was able to pull up store inventory search using Chrome (tracking app running in the background) when I was at Target trying to find the aisle where they hide the clocks.  I kept the phone off while driving, and when I got back home, my complete itinerary had been mapped to a high degree of precision, including my roamings inside Target, which looked like a skein of yarn unrolled by a cat.

So far it doesn't look like the GPS causes much battery drain by itself--only about 4% of capacity over the course of a half-hour walk earlier this evening.

[ChoralScholar]

I've got Waze and iExit, as well as Gasbuddy.  I use Gasbuddy daily.  The others, only on trips.

[formulanone]

Road Ninja doesn't tell you anything the blue signs along interstates didn't already convey. I suppose if you're thinking ahead, it's not a bad idea. But it's only for Interstate highways.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Waze is always on when I drive (gotta rack up on those points!).

I also have GasBuddy, Trails (GPX recorder), NavFree (free routing navigation app using OSM data, nothing too fancy), along with the obligatory Apple Maps and Google Maps.

Trails gives me the same problem as Pete as in it often goes dormant as soon as I do anything else that requires a bit of memory. I have to admit I have an iPhone 3GS...

[DSS5]

I enjoy using Waze, there are just enough users around that accidents and major traffic jams get reported, which is great because there's no local news stations serving my area and the local station doesn't really give much of a traffic report.

[Pete from Boston]

I use Google's My Tracks app to record drives. The statistics it gives you aren't entirely accurate regarding things like elevation, but the location and distance are incredibly accurate, and you can specify things like how often it records your GPS location, plus it's integrated with Google Maps - which makes it really easy to then view the route on your computer.

I have been unsuccessful with tracking apps because the iphone goes to sleep and as I use other programs the tracking app goes dormant and stops tracking.  Has anyone found something for which this isn't the case?

Could there be a permissions issue?

I installed My Tracks on my Droid Razr M this afternoon, following DTP's suggestion, and didn't have any of the problems you describe.  I did have to give it permission to sync with Google Drive, to run when the phone is turned off, and to access the GPS.  I also had to turn on the GPS itself (through the phone settings, which are separate).  I then took the phone out for a road test and was able to pull up store inventory search using Chrome (tracking app running in the background) when I was at Target trying to find the aisle where they hide the clocks.  I kept the phone off while driving, and when I got back home, my complete itinerary had been mapped to a high degree of precision, including my roamings inside Target, which looked like a skein of yarn unrolled by a cat.

So far it doesn't look like the GPS causes much battery drain by itself--only about 4% of capacity over the course of a half-hour walk earlier this evening.

This might be a difference between Android and iPhone.  I don't knoe this for sure, but it seems like iOS deprecates less-recently-used apps to the point of turning them off when they fall far enough down the list.  I don't know if there's a "keep running" setting, but given Apple's preference for proven features over new ones, I would not be surprised if this doesn't exist in the current slate of features (I use iOS 5.1.1 out of a stubborn affinity for the native Google Maps app).

[cpzilliacus]

Inrix (good for checking congestion ahead);
Ultra GPS Logger for tracks; and
VZNavigator (rarely, but is once in a while useful).

All of the above run on my Samsung Galaxy Tab (the original one), uses the Android OS.