Thanks, It all started when I got asked whether I could build a simple way to download specific areas of google maps. The following day a college asked whether it was possible to just get the traffic layer and download it for further analysis. So map-dl was born :-)
I wonder if there is a reason for the high cost. In Australia some of the infrastructure is being upgraded for the NBN, maybe that's part of it? I don't know but I'm curious to find out.