Oh Noes! Ramadan Traffic!

lumia (Photo credit: twicepix)

My life, certainly my sanity, has arguably been saved by Nokia Here Maps over the past few days. A mild curiosity - one of many packed into the excellent Lumia 920 I am using (wot Nokia's PR agency gave me to 'trial' and then 'forgot' to ask for back) - Here Maps has been a thing of great beauty as Ramadan has rendered the normally relatively predictable traffic patterns of the UAE truly Brownian.

The mornings have now changed from the 7-8am school run congestion to a post 9am get to work rush, while the afternoons appear to start with the lunchtime rush and never really die down up until 5 o'clock ish. Different roads are seeing different traffic densities as people try out alternatives, timings change as they try and avoid the worst of the congestion. You'd hardly think a great number of people had already left for the summer, but apparently they have.

It's all made things a bit unpredictable and for those, like me, fond of the open road, you have to get pretty witty. Which is where my mobile has been so very handy: Nokia's Here Maps, apart from being nicely accurate, contains a number of overlays - one of which shows the density of traffic. So you can skim along your intended route and check if its clear (green) a bit sticky (orange) or utterly banjaxed (red).

I have been doing that rather a lot recently - in fact every time I venture out. It has saved me countless hours of grief and frustration already...