Recent additions to Google Maps allow you to research an area’s activity level before visiting it. This means that the app may now be used for more than just travel.
The new “Area Busyness” function on Google Maps identifies the busiest parts of your city so you can plan your route to avoid heavy traffic and crowds.
Why Is an Area Busy?
When you zoom onto the map and the scale reads about 2,000 feet or one kilometer, the orange “busyness” indicator becomes visible. It starts to pulsate as soon as it is seen.
By tapping the icon, you may learn more about the location, including how crowded it is right now and how many people are there relative to a normal day or hour.
As you can navigate through each day of the week and view the typical foot traffic in one region, the tool enables you to schedule your days in advance.
The information screen also provides directions for getting to the region using your most recent mode of transportation, but you can change that by clicking directions and making the appropriate changes.
Another element is the “plus code,” a group of six or seven numbers that includes the name of the city or municipality. For later usage, the search box on the Map can be saved with this code.
How Are Crowd Sizes Determined?
Before the “area busyness” feature, Google Maps offered a busyness indicator by touching the desired spot.
Indicators like “as busy as it gets” and “usually not too busy” under site names later developed from this.
A combination of real-time busyness trends from places like supermarkets, restaurants, and cafes was used to collect this information.
Google used information from users who choose to use Google Location History, which is disabled by default. If a location has enough visitors, Google can reveal popular periods for the location. This cannot be manually entered and will only be displayed if Google has collected enough visitation data for the location.
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