GPRS traffic - does it check original route?

jimbo_hippo · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 444

I've slipped this question into a few related threads but didn't get a reply (teach me to hi-jack threads!).

I'm now reluctant to accept a Traffic re-route because I tend to do long distances and accepting the new route seems to have me stuck on that re-route with udates only modifying the new direction. (hope that makes sense).

So if I set Newcastle as my destination from London and it decides to send me across country because of an incident at, say East Midlands, which could be up to 2 hours away, will it put me back up the M1 if the incident clears? I find it doesn't but I don't know that for sure.

Can anyone clarify that?
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Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

MrT · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:35 pm Post subject:

It has been discussed here before and the original route is not automatically rechecked unless something changes on the current route, and then any suitable route from where you are at that point to your destination is considered.
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Drivelux

zzr1200 · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:13 pm Post subject:

Although not answering your question, when I get delays on a route and it offers an alternative, I do accept it and look at the new route.

From this I can determine how much of the orginal route I can use before the new route kicks in. It is often many miles on a long journey.

I then recalculate to the original route and watch to see if the delay is getting longer or shorter. If longer, I accept the new route just before I actually need it.

If the delay is getting shorter or disappears, I stay on the original route.

Hope that makes sense.

jimbo_hippo · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 444

zzr
Thats pretty much what I used to do until I decided I was doing the work that Tom Tom should do and that all that pressing and staring at stats was a bit of a hazard, especially in a motorhome on the M1. It would just be useful if you knew that every now and then it looked back to the original route to see if it was clear and if you hadn't arrived at a breakoff point in the journey where it became more efficient to continue than revert I'd be confident in saying yes.

Another reason is that most holdups turn out to be phantoms anyway but that's awhole other issue.

On the way up the M1 a few weeks ago I got a warning of the M1 being closed and didn't accept it. The gantries said delay but never a closure so I kept on but did eventually accept the route because the radio said there was a delay. But was never sure that a) TT would check to see if it was clear and keep me on the M1 and b) if the incident had now cleared.

As a subscription service I really do wish I could grow to trust it but as MikeAlder said in another thread, it's hard to have faith in any of the current GPS traffic implementations since they seem to prove themselves wrong so many times.

I'm off to Germany on Saturday. My experiences in mainland Europe are usually better re traffic so I'll see how I get on over there.

Anyway I've singlehandedly created yet another thread about traffic which I've taken off topic a wee bit so thanks for the input regarding recalculation.
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Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

DennisN · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:02 am Post subject:

It was explained to me that provided you set Traffic to automatically avoid traffic holdups, it will re-route you, but will recalculate you back to the original if the holdup clears.

The guy who told me was 100% confident it does revisit the original route and will take you back if possible provided you have it set to automatically re-route. I'm afraid I have never summed up enough nerve to try it. Bit of a big ask when I'm doing a 300 mile journey and it calculates me a traffic-free alternative which is "only" 47 minutes longer than the original clear route!

I tried it once, but I got so scared of where it was sending me that I reverted back to the original route and cleared the auto re-route option. The traffic holdup cleared before I got there so it should have recalculated, but would it have done?

I have the advantage of more than one TomTom device, so the ones without Traffic are showing me the undiverted route with a much earlier ETA - hard to resist them if Radio 5 is not warning of traffic ahead.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

PaulB2005 · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:07 am Post subject:

I wait until i'm 10-15 miles from the "incident" (or whatever) and then ask it to "Avoid" it, if it's still there. Bit premature to ask it to "Avoid" an issue when you are 105 miles away from it...

I'm not bothered if the the original route clears in the mean time as long as i keep moving that's all that really matters. Worked the other day from Sunderland to London.

DennisN · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 8:19 am Post subject:

I think it's judgement (which I'd prefer to exercise myself rather than leave it up to an inflexible machine). There are some cases where early diversion would be better than as late as 10-15 miles - Bristol to Edinburgh is either M1 or M6, Birmingham to Cardiff either M5 or M50. Once you pass the "Y" junction for them, the subsequent diversion could be noticeable.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

PaulB2005 · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:07 am Post subject:

True, but, i think, only if you are after the "perfect" route from the outset.

Let's just say a journey is either M1 or A1, with the preference being the M1. If you had advanced warning of an incident on the M1 you might just go A1 all the way, but if you started up the M1 and were then notified of an accident there are plenty of A roads (and the M18) you can use from the M1 to get to the A1. Yes it might add 20 minutes but it'll be shorter than waiting in the congestion.

Same if your choice was M1 or M6, M5 or M50....

TonyD · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 08, 2005 Posts: 412

What would be nice would be when TT offers a reroute due to traffic, is a very large and visible while driving, display of distance to the hold up. Particularly at rush hour I know I can totally ignore something happening 100 miles away.
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Tony
(TT940)

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:21 pm Post subject:

Whilst not large does the side bar not show the distance to the incident on yours? Also you can guess roughly fro how far down the side bar the icon is...

More than you get with Garmin - you only get the delay time with no idea of how far.

TonyD · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 08, 2005 Posts: 412

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:39 pm Post subject:

It is very small but the scale of the bar is the distance from you to the destination so if you have 100 miles to go, and an icon appears halfway down, at a glance it's ~50 miles away

TonyD · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 08, 2005 Posts: 412

twotonemark · Regular Visitor Joined: Jun 10, 2004 Posts: 85

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