Google Maps has been updated to include traffic information for certain US cities. If you click on the “Traffic” button in the upper right hand side of the Maps interface you will be given traffic information if it is available where you are browsing. As the above screenshot shows, most major US cities are covered. Great if you live in a major US city, but not great if like me, you don’t.

Hit the jump to take a closer look at the feature.

[Via Google Maps]

When you zoom in to a city that supports the traffic feature you see a mass of jumbled lines. Each line is red, amber, green or grey and this gives you an indication of how heavy the traffic is on that particular road. Red being the most busy and grey being relatively quiet.

You can zoom in quite far on the cities to check the traffic. If you’re in New York right now I’d avoid those red roads. Use the grey ones. Thanks Google!

You can also combine the traffic information with the satellite images that are available in Google Maps. While this probably isn’t as informative as using it with the actual map overlay, it’s still a fun feature.

It’s not just New York that gets the treatment, either. The two major roads that exist in Las Vegas are quiet at the moment, probably because everybody has pawned their cars to buy gambling chips.

Check out the new features simply by visiting Google Maps.