A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to identify a lane level traffic surprise. In the context of a method, historical lane level traffic information is received including a representation of a speed of travel along a respective lane of a link. The method also receives recent lane level traffic information including a representation of a speed of travel along the respective lane of the link. The recent lane level traffic information is indicative of more recent traffic conditions, than the traffic conditions represented by at least some of the historical lane level traffic information. The method further includes determining a representation of a difference between representations of the speed of travel provided by the historical lane level traffic information and the recent lane level traffic information, and identifying the lane level traffic surprise based upon representation of the difference.