Google Maps now shows traffic lights on Dutch roads

For the first time you now notice the traffic lights on Dutch and Belgian roads in Google Maps. The feature was previously not available in Europe, but now you can see the lights on map in several European countries.

Traffic lights in Maps

Last year, in July, it was announced that some Maps users worldwide were seeing traffic lights in their navigation app. In the right place, an icon with a traffic light appears on which the three colors of a traffic light are visible. The function is now also available in various European countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium.

The traffic lights are visible in the navigation interface as well as in the map view. The icons appear regardless of which layer you have active in Maps, and therefore also, for example, with the satellite view. You may notice that the traffic light icons seem quite small. This was done consciously, because when you’re on the road, they get bigger the closer you get.

Detailed maps

Google has been making efforts to make its maps in Maps more detailed for some time. Last year, Google started working in more detail with a new color palette, but maps will soon contain even more information. Google will display the crowds in areas and there will also be information about the correct location of footpaths and zebra crossings. The latter was announced last month during the company’s presentation at the Google I/O event.

It appears that the traffic lights were added to Maps via a server-side update, meaning they appeared without an update from the Play Store. In the navigation app you will not get a word of explanation about the feature. The functionality is not yet available throughout Europe, because the editors complained to the French Frandroid that the function is not yet available in France.

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