I'm trying to figure out a way to avoid what happened to us this past Monday as we traveled through southern / central Oregon.  Situation. we had to be in Springfield OR Tuesday morning so AM Solar could start on our solar install. We had decided Memorial Day weekend in the Mount Shasta area would be fun, we've blasted up and down I-5 a few times and never took the time to stop before.  Had a blast, left at a reasonable time Monday for what should have been a 5 hour drive, 250 mile drive. 

ODOT site indicated some construction near Cottage Grove, but indicated no more than 20 minute delays.  We stopped for a rest stop break with 51 miles to go, the next 51 miles took 3 hours due to a 10 mile back up before a construction zone, then 7 miles of slow traffic through the construction zone.  ODOT has since issued a public apology but are predicting the same issue for the 4th of July holiday weekend  Google maps had shown a small amount of a "red zone" as we traveled through southern OR that just continued to get worse.  By then there wasn't really an alternate route and even from Mount Shasta there weren't a lot of good alternatives that would have taken less time.

So, knowing that yes, we travel on the weekends frequently so we don't have to use up my  vacation time from work, we are not retired, Dale's art show schedule determines our travel schedule, we're trying to figure out how to avoid this in the future.  We use the usual suspects for map programs (Google Maps and MapQuest), we check the state DOT sites to see if there's any major warnings for construction, etc. and then plan our routes.  Obviously in this case the state DOT site was a little wrong, our map programs didn't really give us much warning in advance or any explanation on what was causing the issue so we were wondering if there were better online apps or websites we should be using.

Any other suggestions? 

iOS Apple maps have been coming a long way in predictive traffic patterns.. and Google is making advancements in their on device apps too. The new Google maps release on both Android and iOS now gives you predictions on short cuts based on current traffic conditions at each possible re-routing you encounter as to how much time you might save by diverting from the original route. Of course, none of these are RV aware.. so you might get routed down a way with low clearances or such... so you still need to stay aware.

Sometimes one works better than the other and we're frequently running them head to head. But now the apps are using actual user data collected by other passengers in the same traffic patterns ahead of you to predict. Pretty fricken awesome stuff. Of course, that's only as good as the number of folks using the app with reporting services turned on.

Waze is another app that takes user collected data about routing and traffic to give you more in the moment reports.

Enjoy AM Solar.. we just adore Greg & Deb and the crew there.. give them hugs for us :) 

- Cherie

When in the PNW, I load up the King 5 News app, which is a Seattle television station - http://www.king5.com/content-toolbar/mobile1/KING5com-News-Mobile-App-182434901.html. It seems to cover all of Oregon and Washington with its traffic feed.

I use the map app that came with my iPhone and turn on the traffic function. It's an Apple app which uses info from Tom-Tom.

The traffic info is very accurate for the Southern California area. Little icons pop up on your route to show accidents, hazard or closures plus the roadway on the map goes from green to yellow to red depending on the speed of traffic.