Road speeds - again (TT2)

[RoyC]

I am getting seriously off with TT2 routing. Generally I use the default road speeds and things work , more or less , OK. However, I also drive a largeish Motor Caravan and when using it I have tried many times to adjust the road speed settings to more realistically reflect reality. For example I simply don't want to know about Unnamed roads except as a last possible alternative. B roads are generally acceptable but I haven't got a clue what a Connecting road its.

I have tried doing the changes in the Porperties page but have never found a satisfactory setting. The problem stems from the fact that it isn't at all clear to me exactly how our UK roads map ( in the computer sense) to the categories defined by , presumably , Teleatlas.

For example TT has nice categories like Local Road, Connecting Road etc but which road types do these descriptions apply?

I can guess at what an International Road is and even a Motorway, Major roads should be A roads I imagine but after that I am lost. My initial feelings were that Secondary roads might equate to B roads but this does not appear to be the case.

I have just got back from a short trip to the Lleyn Peninsula and after visiting Llandaron wanted to go to Nefyn. The route is obvious in that it is a B road all the way, there being no Motorways, International roads or Major roads to speak of in those parts so there can be no doubt of the best (quickest) route. However, I had programmed some of the roads to reduced speeds in line with what I imagined would be the appropriate thing and the route it forced me onto avoided everything except the most crazy road imaginable - I quickly recognised that the route was ridiculous so abandoned it in favour of 'my nose' but it could have been really dangerous had I taken the route.
Since returning I have done some experimentation which seems to indicate that 'Connecting Roads' are actually B roads ( in that case) but then again this isn't actually definite.

Does anyone have a correlation list which identifies which TT roads map to which UK type roads? or even a better description of what those roads actually are? Has anyone actually written a decent handbook on the product which might explain this and other issues?

This problem isn't helped when TT refers in the Instructions for a route to 'Unnamed Road'. Surely it would be much more helpful if it said 'Important Local Road' or whatever, indeed some kind of debug utility built into TT which allows us to analyse the route taken and why might be a useful feature.

I hear that the TomTom Palm version and 'Go' have a new Routing engine - is this also in TT3 - is TT3 any better?

I must confess that I am not likely to upgrade until I can see improvements in this area and hearing on other threads about address lookup/postcode problems in TT3 I will be holding onto my money for a while.
Are the alternatives any better?

[lbendlin]

TomTom Palm and Go have a new RENDERING engine, not routing engine

You have hit one of the two big mysteries of street navigation (the other one being "why don't they allow map maipulation"). No matter how often we ask the folks at TomTom and TeleAtlas are mum when it comes to the question "So, which road type is this particular road actually?"

Yes, a debug mode would be nice, but it is highly unlikely... To much IP involved probably, or NDAs with TeleAtlas.

Other programs have better knobs for RV traffic - avoid sharp turns, avoid small roads. But TomTom is pretty unique in actually allowing the end user to tinker with the speeds.

Not much of a help, I fear :-(
_________________
Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!