At a CES 2011 keynote, Ford announced its electric vehicle, as well as our partnership with them on the new MyFord Mobile app, which will allow Focus Electric drivers to make safe and smart-trip planning decisions. Using the features powered by MapQuest, drivers of the new vehicles will be able to:

• Locate charging stations and get the destination sent to the vehicle
• Know if the vehicle can reach a specific charge station with the current charge level, and if not, it will make recommendations on how to drive more efficiently to get there
• Create a journey or itinerary with multiple stops — and be informed of the likelihood the car has adequate charge for the full trip
• Find the car by creating a route from a mobile phone to the vehicle.

Service is expected in conjunction with Ford’s electric vehicle (EV) launch in late 2011.

The MyFord Mobile app uses MapQuest to find charging stations.  (Credit: Ford)

It’s not your imagination. Traffic patterns can change towards the end of December. To give you an idea of what to expect, we asked INRIX (the company that provides live traffic reports for MapQuest.com) to share their holiday traffic forecast for some of the nation’s busiest travel spots.

Plan ahead.
It’s expected to take you a little longer to get where you’re going in these already-congested areas, now until the end of the year. Here’s how much more time you can expect to spend in the car:

• Chicago-Naperville-Joliet IL-IN-WI – 14.2%
• Boston-Cambridge-Quincy MA-NH – 12.4%
• Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington TX - 7.8%
• New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island NY-NJ-PA - 6.4%
• Detroit-Warren-Livonia MI - 4.8%
• Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario CA - 4.8%
• St. Louis MO-IL - 4.8%
• Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana CA - 4.2%

Watch out.
The roads in some areas are pretty much guaranteed to be slow-going — even with good weather. Several of the worst trouble spots are forecast for the Northeast, as people travel between New York and the rest of New England.

Check out our map of the biggest holiday bottlenecks from coast-to-coast.

Get traffic.
To make your holiday travels a little more sane, look up your destination on MapQuest.com for live traffic reports, updated every five minutes. If you see heavy traffic ahead, it’s easy to change your path by “dragging” your route to alternate roads.

If you weren’t able to talk the relatives into coming to see YOU this year, never fear. We’ve got some time-tested, parent-approved tips for keeping the kids happy and occupied during your holiday drive.

Tip #1: PACK SNACKS + WIPES
Bring a cooler with snacks to keep you out of the drive-thru — like fruit, nuts, string cheese, granola bars, water, juice and chocolate milk. And don’t forget baby wipes for the inevitable clean-ups.

Tip #2: BRING MUSIC
Let everyone in the car take turns playing their favorite music. Bring along some holiday tunes and you just might find yourselves in a classic family sing-a-long.

Tip #3: PLAY GAMES
Challenge the whole car to a friendly game of “I Spy,” “The License Plate Game” or “Name That Tune.” Plus, bring cards and travel-sized versions of games like bingo and Scrabble.

Tip #4: GO ELECTRONIC
Modern gadgets can be lifesavers on long trips: from handheld electronic games, to educational systems like LeapFrog, to portable DVD players with headphones.

Tip #5: TAKE A BREAK
Stop every two or three hours so everyone can stretch their legs and use the restroom. For a quick burst of fun and energy, toss around a football or Frisbee.

Tip #6: PLAY FAMILY TRIVIA
Stump (and impress) your kids with answers to questions like “Where was Dad born?”, “What’s grandma’s middle name?” and “How many cousins do you have?”

Tip #7: BRING TOYS + BOOKS
Bring things that challenge your kids’ imaginations, like action figures, toy cars, an Etch-A-Sketch, pop-up books and Mad Libs. And consider bringing small gifts to give during the ride.

Tip #8: GET CRAFTY
Pack up craft supplies like pipe cleaners and felt scraps, plus paper, crayons and colored pencils. A cookie sheet with raised edges makes a great travel tray.

Tip #9: SHARE THE MAP
Bring an atlas and printed maps from MapQuest.com to show the kids where you’re headed and what landmarks you’ll pass. Track where you’ve been with a highlighter.

Tip #10: PACK PILLOWS
Kids will snooze more easily with creature comforts like pillows, favorite blankets and stuffed animals. Wearing PJs and earplugs can help them relax and fall fast asleep even faster.

Since you’re hitting the road for the holidays, you might find these other MapQuest tools helpful as well:

• Win Free Gas for a Year
• Check Live Traffic in your Area
• Find the Cheapest Gas in Town

Safe travels and happy holidays!

We don’t have David Letterman on staff at MapQuest or an office house band, but with a December of daily giveaways, we’ve definitely been thinking of the top 10 ways we would use free gas for a year. Our ideas may not make the list of most PRACTICAL ways to travel 12,000 miles (average miles driven annually), but they do a good job of showing just how far free gas for a year can go!

10. Tired of your friend with the Toyota Prius telling you how much they save on gas every year? Turn the tables and have you behind the wheel by winning free gas for a year.

9. There is a 50 percent chance you live within 50 miles of where you grew up. Dust off those childhood memories by driving back to where you grew up … some 240 times next year.

8. Stressed about driving that gas-guzzling SUV to the mountains for a day of skiing? Drive worry-free from San Francisco to Tahoe 60 times.

7. You’re never too old for Disney World®. Take a road trip with your friends or family across the southern U.S., driving from Disneyland® (Calif.) to Disney World (Fla.) nearly six times. High-fiving Mickey has never been this easy.

6. No amount of gas can send you back in time unless you mean reliving the ‘60s and ‘70s by driving from Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco to the phoenix of CBGB in New York City, twice in 2011. Rock on!

5. From Yellowstone to Acadia, the U.S. proudly protects 58 national parks. Spend your year of free gas driving to see them all.

4. Road Trip of Dreams. Start at the famous 1988 Hollywood movie site of Field of Dreams and travel to the five most popular baseball stadiums: Fenway, Yankee, Target, Wrigley and Camden Yards. Wasn’t enough the first time? If you win free gas, you can go five more!

3. On average, houses in the U.S. are 20 feet apart. This means you could drive from your garage to your neighbor’s 3 million times or, for those weekend warriors, maybe use the trips to the home-improvement store instead.

2. The farthest distance between two McDonald’s restaurants in the contiguous 48 states is 145 driving miles. With 12,000 miles of free gas you could drive between the two more than 80 times.  McRib® is calling!

1. A mailman walks more than six miles daily and the average UPS® truck driver covers 500 miles a day.  Help your local delivery people carpool when delivering holiday packages for the rest of the year! That is a ton of mail.  Literally.

Do you have a way you can use free gas for a year? Share it with us on our Facebook page or on Twitter using the hashtag #FreeGas.

*NOTE: Sources used for the above information include Dumbfacts.com, Examiner.com and Chacha.com.

The holidays are a time for gift-giving and well-wishing, so this holiday season MapQuest wants to make wishes at    St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® come true with your help.

Today only, MapQuest is matching $1 for every click we receive on the St. Jude promo on the top right of our homepage (up to $5,000). This donation will go towards finding a cure for cancer and improving the quality of life for the children at St. Jude. The giving doesn’t stop at $5,000 though! The promo will be there the entire day and we encourage you to contribute to our donation if you would like to further support their cause.

Together we can help children like Haley have their holiday wishes come true.

From everybody here at MapQuest, where we are so grateful, we hope you spread the joy to those less fortunate this holiday season.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Jude and pledge your support to their cause, please click here.

Happy Holidays!

Listen up road trippers, commuters, adventure seekers, and all you other road warriors! MapQuest is giving away gas for a year to 31 lucky people in December. One person, each day, everyday.

So there we said it, free gas for a year. Now get over to freegas.mapquest.com and complete the “Gas for a Year” form with name, email address, street address, and birthday. Each day at 3:00pm Eastern Time we will be choosing a winner and announcing it at freegas.mapquest.com. Remember to enter everyday but like everything else, good things must come to an end, so the final day to enter the sweepstakes is December 31 at 5:00 Eastern Time.

One more thing… if you tell your friends and they enter, you will receive up to 25 extra entries. So increase you chances by sharing – remember it is the holidays!

With November comes the beginning of the holiday season and, for most people, that means gift buying, road trips back home and endless holiday parties.  With all that going on, who has time to think about planning a vacation?  Well, as a matter of fact, we do!  MapQuest is all about helping you discover new places and getting you there so we decided to start this season with a sweepstakes to win a Ski Trip to Colorado for you and three of your favorite people. Head over to the MapQuest Facebook page and enter yourself to win a trip for four to Copper Mountain, a premier ski resort in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.  If you haven’t skied the Rockies before, it deserves all the hype it gets and even more (believe us, we live here).

Best part? We have you covered from the tarmac to the ski slopes. Trip includes: a flight out to Colorado, a rental car to transport you from Denver International Airport to Copper Mountain, 3 nights of lodging that’s minutes from the slopes, lift tickets and even ski rentals.

So you are probably asking, how do you enter to win?

1.    Go to the MapQuest Facebook page
2.    Click the “Snow Day Sweeps” tab
3.    Click “Enter to Win” and then follow the quick steps from there

And there you have it; you and three of your favorite people are entered to win! Share with your friends and family - maybe they’ll even choose to take you along. Good luck!

We’re off to Austin tomorrow for SXSW and with that comes a lot of big news, some we’ve already told you about such as the iPhone™ app (my.SXSW), the BBQ we’re having at The Salt Lick on Sunday and the panel MapQuest is participating in. But now, the drum roll…during the Interactive Festival we will also have a sweepstakes where three lucky winners will receive an Apple® iPad™!

YOUR MISSION?: Find as many MapQuest Star buttons as you can.

WHAT IS IT?: Play MapQuest ButtonQuest and earn entries to win one of three Apple iPads!

HOW DO YOU ENTER?: MapQuest will be handing out 15 unique MapQuest star buttons over the three days of the SXSW Interactive Festival. Once you have five different buttons, go to our booth (Booth #401) and fill out an entry form. If you get 10 different buttons, we’ll give you two entries. Find all 15 buttons and you’ll get three entries!

WHEN IS IT?: During the SXSW Interactive Conference from Saturday, March 13 – Monday, March 15. Drawing will be held for all three iPads at 3:00 pm on Monday, March 15. As a heads-up, you must be an attendee of the SXSW Interactive conference in order to play.

WHERE ARE THE BUTTONS?: They’re everywhere! Find the MapQuest team, dressed in red shirts and red hats, at various locations around Austin throughout the three days of the Interactive conference. To get you going, we’ll have a different button offered each day in the MapQuest booth – so stop by!

HOW DO I FIND THE MAPQUEST TEAM?: We’ll be tweeting real time letting you know where we’ll be next. To help you out we’ve created a schedule and map of our button handout locations but there will be SEVERAL other handouts you’ll only find out about via Twitter. We also have secret button carriers – so make sure to keep tuned in by following us: @MapQuestTech and @MapQuest. We’ll be using the hashtag #buttonquest to announce all the locations throughout the Interactive Festival.

So, if you’re headed to SXSW this weekend, take a stab at ButtonQuest for a chance to win an Apple iPad!

You’ve probably heard of South by Southwest (SXSW) if you’re into music and film festivals or if you’re totally into technology, i.e. a tech geek. The MapQuest team is both so we’re really excited to be a part of this year’s SXSW conference in Austin, TX! For those of you who aren’t familiar with SXSW, it’s a very unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Not only are there five days dedicated to technology, but there is also a five-day music festival and a nine-day film festival.

For those of you attending, check out the new SXSW iPhone app – my.SXSW iPhone – which allows you to view and build your event schedule as well as search for events/venues from your iPhone. The app includes MapQuest maps, helping you navigate to the next concert, premiere party or tech forum. You can also use the new SXSW maps online. The maps are easily filtered by category, venue and date.

During the SXSW Interactive Trade Show, attendees can stop by our booth (#401) to talk to MapQuest Developers about making their applications location enabled. For attendees who will be at SXSW Sunday, March 14th – and who are hungry – we’d like to invite you to join us for free beer and free BBQ at The Salt Lick. It’s seriously the best (in our opinion) BBQ in all of Texas (and quite possibly the world). It’s first come first serve, though, so check out the details on our dev blog to see how to join in the fun.