According to the New York Times and several other news outlets, Microsoft is slated to improve their online mapping service with a new feature called ClearFlow. This artificial intelligence is promoted as taking overall traffic flow into consideration when making recommendations on whether to stay on your current route or make a detour.

One of my pet peeves with my Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS is that while it monitors traffic flow, it does not intelligently suggest alternate routes when it senses a traffic tie up.

Microsoft thinks their ClearFlow system will do a better job of routing you around tie-ups. In some instances the suggestion may be to stay on the road and wait out the traffic. The software will take into consideration side-street congestion as well (assuming traffic flow is available in that area).

Several other alternatives exist for traffic routing.

Garmin Nuvi 660 - $ 304.33 at Amazon!
This model has built in subscription based traffic flow via an FM receiver. In my experience the traffic incidents in Connecticut are not timely enough that I would pay the monthly fee to receive them.

Dash Express - GPS - Uses cellular technology to share real time traffic flow with other commuters - $399.99. Once there are enough other users with this device, the promise is that you’ll share traffic flow. This could be the wave of the future if enough users in your area adopt the device. Of course if your navigating in an area with no cellular data coverage you may be out of luck. This device also carries a monthly service fee. It remains to be seen how many commuters will adopt GPS devices which suddenly are requiring fees for additional features (the basic mapping and routing remains free).

Via: New York Times - Microsoft Introduces Tool for Avoiding Traffic Jams