TTN2 inconsistent re-routing

[russgunn]

Travelling back home from Newcastle on the A1 southbound today I came to a complete halt when the traffic built up approaching some road works. I thought fine, no problem, I'll re-route using the 'avoid roadblock' option and told TTN2 that the next 5 miles was blocked. It did it's usual calculations and informed me that no other routes were available. I thought this was strange given that the next instruction was a full 17 miles away and that there must have been a road off the A1 at some point along this stretch. I tried the 'avoid roadblock' option a further 5 times using the 'next 2 miles blocked' and 'next 5 miles blocked' options but no alternative routes were available everytime. While doing this I'd only travelled about 100 feet.

My frustration was compounded when I flipped to map view to see if I could see a route manually (which I shouldn't have to do!) and could quite clearly see a route off the A1 300 yards in front of me which rejoined some 6 miles south of my position. There were no traffic restrictions on this route that I could see, including one ways. I tried the 'avoid roadblock' option twice more and on the final try it managed to see what I'd seen and then calculate the re-route.

WTF is going on here?!!!!!!!!!

[Dave]

What I would have tried here if you already had your destination setup as a favourite or POI would be to tap on the map shortly after the junction and create a destination off the junction into the next town and see if TomTom would route you off that junction. I suspect you would find that it wouldn't, and there may be a map issue with being able to exit on that junction, perhaps TeleAtlas hasn't coded the junction correctly and it thinks it's only an entrance to the motorway and not an exit, even though you see an up-sliproad.

[MrT]

I had the same on Finchley Road, Northbound in Golders Green. Traffic was at a stop and my original route was up Finchley Road and to turn right onto the A406 North Circular(/A1). It would not find another route, when there were many roads it could have taken.

I was wondering on the avoid road block option if you tell it the next X000 yards are blocked if it assumes the road in front is blocked and you cannot get past the block to the exit. As an example the alternative exit is 500 yards ahead, you tell TomTom the road is blocked for the next 1000 yards, but it thinks you cannot get the first 500 yards to the next alternative exit.

In this situation just leave at the next exit and it will tell you to do a U turn several times then it will work out an alternative route on its own.

[jaguar]

I agree that the rerouting portion of the artificial intelligence of Tomtom is poor. I was stuck on the M4 coming back from Bath a couple of weeks ago and hit stationary traffic which stretched for miles.

I tapped the 'avoid blockage 200yds' option and was pleased to see that it immediately instructed me to leave at the next exit. Blow me down if what it then did was direct me to do what we Londoners call an 'up and under', going up the slip, and then immediately rejoin the mess again. Yes, I gained 300 yards more quickly than everyone else but I could not, under any circumstances, get it to route me around the problem.

To say 'avoid the M4' (which is what I tried eventually) gets Tomtom to avoid the entire motorway - a calculation that took it over 5 minutes to perform and routed me God knows where.

What is needed is 'avoid M4 for x miles' where x is a pickable number.

Jaguar

[TonyP]

It does indeed assume that the road is blocked in front of you and that the next exit is inaccessible unless it is right next to you. If the exit is right next to you it takes so long to recalculate that you have passed it before it finishes. If you take the exit anyway, it means sitting on the hard shoulder while it works out what to do

It ought to assume that on a motorway you can still take the next exit. If the road really is blocked you are stuck anyway. Also there should be options for longer distances of blockages.

In most cases the traffic is still moving slowly and you want to see what sort of alternative there is.

[RichardS]

I have had similar frustrations with the Avoid Roadblock feature. Often, due to map error or "no entry", I cannot go the way TomTom wants me to and so I try to use the avoid roadblock and it never works properly. So I normally resort to going to map view, clearing the route, inserting "avoid areas", and then replanning. At least it is more understandable what is happening and works more often. But difficult to do if you are in a difficult traffic situation!

Another thing that is not clear is what the distance means in "avoid roadblock". For example, does "avoid next distance x" mean (a) that from the exact spot you are at, the next distance x is impassable; or (b) from your exact spot, you are able to pass freely up to distance x, but at that point thereafter the road is blocked.

By definition, if the answer is (a) then you are stuck - ie it means that your only option is to go backwards - there is no route forwards that is possible. I am therefore beginning to think that the answer is (b), but again that doesn't seem right.

For clarity, what we need is an option "in distance x there is a road block that lasts for a duration of distance y". Then TomTom can re-route you sensibly, and not try and bring you back to the same road if that is blocked.

Richard

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