What Does A Red Line Mean On Apple Maps?

Whether you're embarking on a cross-country road trip or taking a quick skip downtown, Apple Maps is one of the navigation apps you should use for any journey. It's also the default platform that your iPhone uses, so it pays to learn the software's many ins and outs. One visual element you may not be aware of is the red lines that sometimes appear on your Apple Maps route. Unfortunately, these are bad omens, as they mean there's significant traffic ahead. 

According to the r/applemaps community, there are three warning colors that Apple Maps generates: 

• Yellow, for a slowdown.
• A lighter red for stop-and-go traffic. 
• A darker red (more like maroon) for bumper-to-bumper traffic. 

Before you even leave your driveway, Apple Maps allows you to pre-check your route to see what types of traffic conditions you can expect. To do so, launch the Maps app and set up a route. Then, select the button at the top-right of the screen, tap Driving or Satellite, then select the X icon.

Apple Maps will also display incident markers on the route or nearby to let you know what types of hazards and other important road features you'll encounter on your drive, including accidents, speed checks, roadwork, and road closures. You can even report an accident or hazard yourself by summoning Siri and saying, "Report an accident," or "There's something in the road."

Let's say Apple Maps generated a route for you that doesn't bode well for one reason or another. Typically, the map will provide different routes to consider, suggesting different travel ETAs for each one. You can also tell Apple your driving preferences, such as not wanting highway routes. Grab your iPhone and go to Settings > Maps > Driving, then toggle on "Highways" (under the Avoid section). Even if you end up adding a few miles to your route or getting to your destination at a slower speed, it probably beats sitting around in rush-hour mayhem. Another option would be to avoid tolls, which increasingly use cameras that are rarely wrong to identify you on the road. 

Apple Maps should typically present you with at least one alternate route when the preferred path is bottlenecked, without you needing to change any route settings, but toggling them might force the routing calculator to consider other options.

One last thing to consider is that maps apps tend to use official routes, and don't always know when a street might be undergoing construction. Apple Maps is tracking you, both to learn your favorite locations and to help identify when unexpected slowdowns are happening. But the system isn't perfect, and it's always worth listening to local residents over an app if someone else is suggesting a better route.