Patent ID: 8615354

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for providing information relating to traffic conditions on roads, the method comprising: providing a map for display that corresponds to at least a portion of a geographic area, the map including displayed representations of multiple road segments of one or more roads in the geographic area, the providing of the map being performed by one or more configured computing systems; identifying a route of interest between at least two locations in the geographic area, the route including at least some road segments of the multiple road segments; automatically determining, by the one or more configured computing systems, comparative traffic conditions for the at least some road segments that indicate differences between actual and expected traffic conditions, the determining of the comparative traffic conditions including, for each of the at least some road segments: determining expected traffic conditions for the road segment for a selected time, the expected traffic conditions reflecting traffic conditions that are normal for the road segment at the selected time; determining target traffic conditions for the road segment for the selected time that correspond to actual traffic conditions at the selected time for the road segment; and determining whether a difference exists between the target traffic conditions for the road segment for the selected time and the expected traffic conditions for the road segment for the selected time, and providing, by at least one of the one or more configured computing systems, information for display on the map about the determined comparative traffic conditions for the at least some road segments, wherein the provided information includes an indication for each of the at least some road segments of whether the difference is determined to exist for the road segment for the selected time and includes an indication of a determined numeric difference between actual average traffic speeds at the selected time for the road segment and expected average traffic speeds at the selected time for the road segment, such that the displayed representation of the road segment on the displayed map includes an associated visual indication of the determined numeric difference for the road segment.