Mapquest API Route Matrix time and day options do nothing

Question

I am writing a simple application in Java to get time and drive distance data from the MapQuest API using their Route Matrix. I can get regular data just fine, but it appears that the date and time parameters (explained here) do not change anything.

My two request bodies are:

{"locations": ["55455","55113"],"options": {"allToAll": true,
"dateType": 0,"date": "12/17/2016","timeType": 2,"localTime": "12:00"}}

and

{"locations": ["55455","55113"],"options": {"allToAll": true,
"dateType": 0,"date": "12/13/2016","timeType": 2,"localTime": "16:30"}}

I get the same response for both requests:

{
  "allToAll": true,
  "time": [
    [
      0,
      573
    ],
    [
      562,
      0
    ]
  ],
  "distance": [
    [
      0,
      7.485
    ],
    [
      6.764,
      0
    ]
  ],
  "locations": [
    {
      "latLng": {
        "lng": -93.234543,
        "lat": 44.975052
      },
      "adminArea4": "Hennepin County",
      "adminArea5Type": "City",
      "adminArea4Type": "County",
      "adminArea5": "Minneapolis",
      "street": "",
      "adminArea1": "US",
      "adminArea3": "MN",
      "type": "s",
      "displayLatLng": {
        "lng": -93.234543,
        "lat": 44.975052
      },
      "linkId": 286290952,
      "postalCode": "55455",
      "dragPoint": false,
      "sideOfStreet": "N",
      "adminArea1Type": "Country",
      "geocodeQuality": "ZIP",
      "geocodeQualityCode": "Z1XAA",
      "adminArea3Type": "State"
    },
    {
      "latLng": {
        "lng": -93.15676,
        "lat": 45.012234
      },
      "adminArea4": "Ramsey County",
      "adminArea5Type": "City",
      "adminArea4Type": "County",
      "adminArea5": "St Paul",
      "street": "",
      "adminArea1": "US",
      "adminArea3": "MN",
      "type": "s",
      "displayLatLng": {
        "lng": -93.15676,
        "lat": 45.012234
      },
      "linkId": 286290770,
      "postalCode": "55113",
      "dragPoint": false,
      "sideOfStreet": "N",
      "adminArea1Type": "Country",
      "geocodeQuality": "ZIP",
      "geocodeQualityCode": "Z1XAA",
      "adminArea3Type": "State"
    }
  ],
  "manyToOne": false,
  "info": {
    "copyright": {
      "text": "© 2016 MapQuest, Inc.",
      "imageUrl": "http://api.mqcdn.com/res/mqlogo.gif",
      "imageAltText": "© 2016 MapQuest, Inc."
    },
    "statuscode": 0,
    "messages": []
  }
}

So for some reason, Saturday at noon has the same travel times as Tuesday at 16:30. Is there something wrong with my request, or does MapQuest not actually have this capability for the Route Matrix? The API documentation leads me to believe that the date/time options should work on any package in the Directions API, so could someone clear this up? Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I've made sure to try a route that I know for sure has HOV lanes that are restricted during the rush hour and not on the Saturday. I also tried enabling MapQuest's useTraffic parameter. Neither of these had any effect on the data. MapQuest states that useTraffic depends on availability of information, so I think I can only assume that it can't find information (which is strange, since I know that there is tons of data for this area). If anyone has any other ideas or explanations I'd be happy to hear.

Answer 1

MapQuest's Transit & Date/Time Routing "gives the user the ability to specify the time and date of a route, thus compensating for lanes that are HOV at specific times, timed-turned restrictions, and seasonal or specific day of the week closures." It does not account for specific time and date historic traffic. It works great for timed traffic restrictions though.