London traffic congestion and accident risk in congested traffic illustrated with real time traffic clip!

We all experience traffic congestion at some time when driving in our own cities and are under constant threat of insurance claims directly related to accidents in congested traffic. We always hear the complaints of traffic congestion in other cities but mostly have to go on hearsay as to how bad it might be… But what would it be like to drive in a city such as London in the UK?

We can now have a fascinating look at what congested traffic look likes by way of a movie clip based on a full day of real time traffic provided by TomTom. This is a very powerful illustration at what is meant with “peak traffic.”

It clearly shows the travel patterns when people go to work and return to their homes, and might also give a good indication as to why employees are trying to change their travel patterns by perhaps going to work earlier & leaving earlier – or going to work later and returning to their homes later.

The TomTom manifesto is aimed at reducing traffic on our roads through the innovative use of GPS Navigation.

TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn revealed that if 10 per cent of the TomTom userbase were to use HD traffic, it “would reduce journey times for everyone – five per cent in Europe. And that’s where we want to go. We are on a mission…we are committed to make this work and do our bit for society and our customers.”

This data is also becoming ever more important to insurers. Vehicle telematics now allows for usage based car insurance where technology is an important component in calculating insurance premiums. With vehicle telematics car insurance premiums are determined by actual performance on the road.

Telematic devices transmit real-time driving data to insurers, who can then gain a more accurate picture of driving behavior and use this to set fairer rates for law-abiding, fuel-conscious drivers who are driving at “safer times”and in “safer areas.”

For more on these products view:

Hollard and Pay As You Drive  – see “Pay As You Drive”

Outsurance and Safe_Driver@Out  – see “Outsurance activates technology to reward safe driving behaviour”

Discovery and Vitality Drive – see “Drivers have an IQ, EQ and now with car insurance also a DQ”

MiWay and MiDrivestyle http://www.miway.co.za/midrivestyle