Smarter Traveling with Google Maps

Before I leave home to work, school, or just about anywhere that'll require me to drive or board commercial vehicles, I plan with Google Maps. My commuting and travel decisions are much smarter with it because of the useful features it has. And this post is about how I use it in different scenarios to make my life easier in terms of travel.

Real-time Traffic Updates

For a place like Lagos, knowing when, where, and how long there will be traffic jams is vital information to start your journey anywhere. Lagos is plagued with traffic jams, so inadequate planning will just lead to medications for headaches. And so, the first thing I do is check my route and the real-time traffic updates.

When you choose your start location—which is usually your actual location with the phone—and your destination, you can know how long it would take to travel between those points according to the traffic updates, the areas on your route where the jams are most concentrated, and alternative routes if they are available. Sometimes, it would even let you know if there are points where road workers are working.

Blue means a clear road, which therefore results in the best time estimation of arrival. Yellow indicates a likelihood of traffic congestion, and Google Maps will indicate how much time delay that congestion can cause. Red means very dense traffic congestion, and that usually adds a lot of delay. The length of the indicators on the road shows how far on the road you'll have a clear drive or how many metres the congestion lasts for.

Long-distance Travel and Location Sharing

If I will be travelling far, especially to a place that I am not familiar with and may not recognise my stop, I will use Google Maps to monitor my movements on the map. I get to know how far I am from my destination, how long it'll take me to arrive, and just when to stop. This is particularly useful when I am driving.

After setting your start location and destination, you can choose to put the GPS on your phone to work, which will allow you to monitor movement right on the map and see the turns and stops you pass. That enables me to know just where I am and whether or not I am familiar with the places.

You can also share your live location with your loved ones, and they will also be able to see where you are at every point in time that your location services are on and you are connected to the internet, for as long as you allow them to. You can set how long you want the live location sharing to last. This is very useful for safety. If by any chance someone gets missing and can't find their way to their destination, external help can save them, and Google Maps facilitates that.

Street View, Bookings, and Essential Stops

One time, I needed to describe to a friend how they'd get to my house. To ensure that they wouldn't ever feel perplexed, should I be unreachable at some point or another, I used Google Street View to show them what some checkpoints and stops looked like on the way to where I lived. In their words, "it was so easy and straight-forward with Google Maps and the photos of those places." I didn't need to have already taken the photos.

Another use of Street View is to actually visit the places I want to visit before actually visiting them yet. That is, I'd simply use Street View for the resorts where I want to spend time with my woman and inspect the environment before making informed decisions. And the same goes for many other kinds of places that Street View is available in—hotels, parks, schools, hospitals.

With Google Maps, I get to find eateries, guest houses and hotels, movie theatres, gas stations, malls, and many more near me or wherever I choose on the map. More interestingly, I can even learn about those places right there on Google Maps—costs of services, open hours, and the like. And there are even reviews to help you make your decision.

Track Where You've Been All Year

Google Maps does well to provide you with a timeline of your journeys within specific times. You would be able to see all the places you have been and even the paths and roads you travelled on.

It tells you the places you went yesterday, counts how many trips you have made and how many days you travelled, and provides similar information. You even get to keep lists of your labelled and starred places, as well as the places that you want to go.

This can be particularly useful for walking down memory lanes, especially when they are lined up with the photos taken at those places at those times.

With these few, I make informed decisions and plan my travels better. For someone like me who doesn't enjoy traveling, this is the least we can do to make it all easier for ourselves. I hope you found it useful. Welcome to the Digital Lifestyle community!

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