Get Live Traffic And Other Road Information In Maps In Mavericks [OS X Tips]

Sure, you can open up Apple’s Maps app on your iPhone (or iPad, but really, who does that?) and enable live traffic information with a tap or two. It’s super helpful while you’re on the road, and helps you avoid the nasty traffic snarls that might be up ahead.

But what if you’re planning a trip from your Mac running Mavericks? Shouldn’t you be able to access that kind of data on your Mac?

Well, you can! Mavericks makes it super easy to enable, too.

Launch Maps on your Mac with a double click on the icon, or from your Dock or other application launcher. When it’s up and running, find the address of somewhere you want to get to, or just navigate to a part of town you want to see traffic info for.

First of all, enable the traffic data by clicking the little car icon in the upper left (Thanks, brathell!)

Next, choose the view you want: Standard or Hybrid. The traffic info will show up on the map in either of these two views, but not purely Satellite. For heavy traffic, you’ll see red dashed lines, and for lighter but still tough traffic, you’ll see yellow dotted lines. There are also four other icons you might see, including icons for accidents, road work, closed roads, and incident reports.

Now you can plan your trips around town from the comfort of your own Mac, without having to try and use an iPhone while you’re driving. Which is scary bad, ok?

Via: OS X Daily

Rob LeFebvre

Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he’ll really appreciate it.