These are the 5 Google Maps tips I always recommend to avoid traffic jams during the holidays

We are at the gates of some of the busiest days in Europe. August is the month par excellence for holidays in our country. So much so that many companies close for a few weeks (even if there is a wind of change) and force workers to take their days off this month. Without forgetting of course the school calendar, which places the biggest holidays in the summer period in all the autonomous communities. This leads many people to go on trips at the same time, which causes traffic jams on the roads.

Check which day is the worst. Usually, days 1, 15 and 30 are the worst to undertake a trip because the number of people moving at the same time is greater. That is why there are so many reports of traffic jams in cities like Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona or Seville, among others, some at the exits and others at the entrances. It is clear that when the road network has to support a greater number of vehicles, congestion is inevitable.

There are, however, ways to increase this influx of cars a little and, if we want to avoid traffic jams, we can use applications like Google Maps, which have integrated tools to know the traffic situation in real time, how to calculate alternative routes that are longer but on these occasions also faster, etc. Traveling without a mobile phone and without a map application is no longer normal. In fact, many car buyers appreciate that vehicles are equipped with systems like Apple CarPlay or Android Auto and this is largely the fault of applications like Waze or Google Maps.

Calculate departure time. Thanks to the huge database that Google Maps has, the application is able to predict, with some accuracy, the traffic that will be in a place depending on the time and day in question. Looking at a Monday at 8 pm is not the same as looking at a Friday at 3 pm. With this information, you can calculate whether it is worth leaving a little earlier or even a little later.

There is no point in leaving two hours earlier for our vacation spot if it turns out that we are going to be stuck in a monumental traffic jam for another two hours. To check what time is best to leave and find out what time we will need to get there, you need to select the departure point and destination in the usual way, then click on the three-dot icon in the upper right corner to click on Set. departure or arrival time.

There we have to put the departure time that we calculate and see what travel time it gives us. Then we can change this departure time to another and check if it is better or worse than the first. In this way, you can calculate the best options a few days in advance. The precision is not total, but it is worth spending a few minutes on it. It is also worth checking the traffic first thing in the morning. This will make us lose a little time at our destination but, sometimes, it will also save us many hours of waiting on the road.

Check traffic before you leave. Of course, one of the mandatory features when starting a trip is to check the traffic that will occur on the route we have to take. To do this, you must open Google Maps and click on the overlays icon on the right side of the map.

This is where the different layers of information are activated, among which is traffic. If it is activated, we will see how the main roads and tracks are colored in three tones: green, yellow and red. This slope is what indicates the amount of traffic there is, to see if it is better to take a detour to get to a place even if it is by a longer route, because it could still be faster. These colors vary depending on the day and time.

Look at alternative routes. The application itself allows us to calculate alternative routes when we establish a journey between two points. The interface indicates the time of each of these routes and, if we wish, we can click on each one to give us more data.

When we have selected one, we can open the lower drop-down menu, which has a section that shows the traffic on that route, so that we can quickly compare it with other routes that have been proposed to us. These routes can be customized by avoiding tolls, highways or ferries.

Real-time routes. One of the advantages of Google Maps not being an offline application is that, being permanently connected to the Internet, it obtains data in real time. If we follow one of the routes that have been indicated to us but there is an obstacle in front of us, which was not there at the beginning of the journey, it is possible that the application itself recalculates the route and sends us elsewhere.

To do this, it is important to have the application open in the foreground, whether on Android Auto, Android Automotive or the mobile itself, depending on the car you have. The calculation of new routes is automatic and you do not have to do anything to activate it.