i3 Routing

[homeslice]

Anybody with US maps want to chime in? I havenalt heard anything negative about the routes in the US on any Garmin units. Now the Tom Tom reviewers have complained about it's US maps, but always praised the Garmin. Do any of you have any experience in the States?

Thanks.

[cantgetlost]

Uusing the I3 to route me from thr centre of Leeds to a store in Bradford. It took me to the motorway via loop road and around the motorway to Bradford. It was set to "Fastest Route" and the roads obviously had HIGHER speed limits but the distance was fer less direct than using "shortest route" setting.
Having to repeat the route a number of times, I found that the fastest route took about the same time as the shortest route but more distance was offset against stopping and starting. Doing the route in evening rush hour was a toss up of city traffic versus possibility of Motor Way hold ups.
We were lucky twice and using fastest route we got to our Bradford destination far fastwer than through the shortest route.
Using the I3 set to shortest route from Woking area to IKEA at Neasden on Saturday it took me via 1/2 a million or so traffic lights and it took an age to get there.Fastet Route option would have had me on the M25 and M4 or M3. Living near to these roads I wouldn't be sure that I could have got there quicker but I could have crawled along the motorways in traffic without all the stop starting and in Rush hour I would have had to contend with endless queues at lights.
Unless Garmin ,Tom Tom or any other sat nav manufacturer can factor in traffic flow and rush hour problems I will continue to swap between fastest and shortest route options during trips to other cities depending on time of day and traffic flow. It is not difficult to scroll out and see destination and gamble with the options.

[BERT_UK]

To be honest I think there's 2 sides to this:

1) Why do people assume that their known routes are the best? Perhaps the GPS has found a better way?

2) It's only a machine. It has a list of stat's about roads. Country roads are generally rated at "national speed limit". A main dual carriage way can often be lower than this (40 or 50 mph). Therefore on a purely number's basis the country road may offer the faster route. (It doesn't know that you may need to slow down more for bends, etc). A country road may also "cut across" country to the destination and this would offer the shortest route. In its simplest form a road is a road, the i3 doesn't take into account personal preferences about what roads its owner feels comfortable driving on.


Personally for me I don't mind country roads and I think that as long as the route picked by the i3 isn't wrong then I can't fault it. :D

I think it needs to be remembered that the i3 is excellent at doing its one task - making routes from a list of known data. Us humans are more versatile and can take into account all of the different factors (peak traffic, road works,...) and preferences (narrow country lanes,...) in determining a route. I love computers, but remember we are better than the machine! :D

[cantgetlost]

Right on Bert. It is only a machine. I use the unit to remend me of my speed as well as routing. The Speed camera database boinging keeps me in order. The I3 has taught me some short cut/ faster routes on roads and routes I would never have thought of. If I know a beter option bacause traffic or road works I just let the old girl recalculate! Not a problem, and she doesn't amser back if you question her wisdom.

[homeslice]

I know this is primarily a UK site, but isn't there anyone who can comment on whether the i3's ecentric routing also occurs in th US?

Thanks!

[RODTROTTER]

i know its some time away but iam going to the usa on holiday in may 2006 got the cityselect north america from ebay £50 unused so i have unlocked the lot put on a trand flash card all working fine anyway i will let you kmow how the i3 gets on when i get back hope its better than me this year got lost coming back from epcot ended up in tamper 50 miles the wrong way

[Skippy]

[Steve_S]

Just got my i3 today and been out for the first time on a short route I know.

First impression: good, up until the point where it took me sailing past the turning I thought it would take and up a dead-end! It quickly recalculated then took me back and down another road. I certainly agree that it seems to like the quiet country lanes. At one point it tried to take me down a track I would only consider on my mountain bike!

My other gripe was that I couldn't get the power connector into the lighter socket. I pushed so hard I thought I'd break it so I gave up and relied upon the AA's. I just examined the power connector and it looks roughly the same as another connector so it should be OK...guess I just need to give it a bit more ooomph! I suppose the sockets are all a standard size??

Also loaded the latest speed camera database. Very simple to do.

Overall, I'm pretty happy so far, after all, if I take the odd country excursion it's not the end of the world! At least I know I'll get there in the end....

[NoLCD]

Like Steve_S I got my i3 today from Comet (V7 but oh well) and covered 380 miles Shropshire to Heathrow to Gatwick and back.
Used very much in anger to route me around the M25 J13-17 hold up.
Took me around Datchett down all kinds of roads but seemed direct and popped me out on the M4. I had turned off the M25 after selecting detour which just recalculated a route to the next junction, but hey she didn't know there was a 'Queue after next junction...' so I headed away and let her find the way across country.

One question though I had no CD of any kind in the box? I returned to the store in Kidderminster to enquire and the rest were the same - am I missing something?

My problem with the cigar lead is the LED is SO bright!

I'm very pleased with it and will start loading up the POIs soon.
Thanks to MaFt. I will follow his dummies kind.

[ixion]

[NoLCD]

Phew, had wondered if I had missed out. Drivers downloaded and all ok.
Thanks

[Lester_Burnham]

[MaFt]

[Lester_Burnham]

[gcb]

After using my I3 on a couple of longish journeys now, Im not so impressed with its routing ability.

Seem to be some very odd anomolies like:

Turning off a major road onto a minor one then back onto the same major road again 2-3 miles ahead having definitely taken a longer route.

Calculating a rout from A to B which happens to be via C. When at C the route that would be calculated would be completely diferent from the remainder of the journey from A?

Route calculation seems better in some areas of country than others. Around Coventry where I live its reasonable. Around Cardiff seems pretty damned awful. I would put some of the problems down to the map data. maybe some minor roads are flagged as major and vice versa. maybe some of the distance vectors on some of the roads are wrong.

You ignore a stupid direction given you by the I3 and continue the right way when you know what your doing. It recalculates and imediately reduces your estimated Time of Arrival by 15 minutes.
At ( I think J24 M4) heading to Barry area (West Cardiff) area. I3 wants me to take scenic no motorway route whatever settings Whether I am mid route or cancel route and recalculate from there. Turn onto M4, recalculating route time reduces substancially?

Some of the problems though must be due to the way the unit calculates its routes. These type of problems no doubt also effect Toom Toms and other GPS. However the problems are easier to get around with something like a Tom Tom with touch screen. If your I3 decides to routed you through the centre of Newport on your way back from Cardiff and all you want the I3 to do is get you on the M4 a.s.a.p you are pretty damned stuck. You dont realise you are being routed the wrong way until its too late. With a touch screen unit you can pan out and examine a route before you start. You can also just touch the screen at the motorway junction closest to your indicated position and head there. With I3 youd need to consult a map then re program a via point.

Thing is, with this route planning, if you have a decent computer and decent map data behind the calculations the route generated should always be excelent. I can only imaginr that the limited computing powere of the I3 leads to some fuzzy logic estimation of routes which is less than ideal.

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