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x40/HD Traffic/TMC in use
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Gary_W
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Joined: Jul 23, 2006
Posts: 12

PostPosted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My experience of HD traffic has been highly varied so far. It always seems to be reporting LOADS of incidents around me (during rush-hours in the week, it can be up to 600+ miles of delays!) so it is certainly far-reaching and this bodes very well.

On certain roads local to me (A52, A38, M1) the traffic so far has been reported with stunning accuracy and is indeed very impressive. It seems to know where the end of the queue is which is stageringly good. It needs to as IQ routes still has work to do IMO, but if the traffic reports everything then this is less of a problem.

Yesterday, however, I was driving along the A617 in Lincolnshire. I hit 4 miles of queuing traffic due to roadworks which the AA roadwatch mobile phone call told me all about (when I was in it!) but the 740 live didn't mention. 25 mins added to the journey and it was none the wiser; it still thought I was happily going along. Other local roads it can't cope with locally are the A61 and A6; this is a problem as IQ routes claims that rush hours add about 2-3 mins to these routes when it's typically 20 mins. Traffic never, ever reports problems on these roads even when they are gridlocked. Can anyone explain this? The only thing I can say is that the roads it never reports on locally are all single carriageways; the duals / motorways are spot on. Is this my imagination on the single vs dual accuracy or can others here confirm / deny it?

To add insult to injury, whilst in the queue yesterday I checked the google weather for Lincoln (my destination). It told me there was a 10% chance of light precipitation. When I got to Lincoln an hour later, it hurled it down with freezing ferocity.

So, in all, a promissing start but work to do. If they can get the kind of accuracy I know it is capable of applied to all A roads and trunk roads (as the website claims) then it will be a wonderful, wonderful thing indeed.
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ziro
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Joined: Nov 05, 2008
Posts: 30

PostPosted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 11:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I drove up to manchester on friday - M62 traffic was reported flawlessly. Very accurate.
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ricchop
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Joined: Jun 24, 2007
Posts: 18
Location: Milton Keynes

PostPosted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 11:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Now that HD Traffic seems to be working better than at its launch is it now working in conjuction with IQ Routing? Not only to route away from traffic congestion, but as orginally advertised not to route all traffic on to the same minor roads? My experiece of HD Traffic has been so far yes it is better than at its launch, but no it is not correctly working in conjuction with IQ Routing to reroute on to faster traffic free routes.

I use motorways and A roads all day Monday to Friday and I must say with GPRS Traffic I never waited in a traffic queue. I was always automatically diverted without even knowing. If I ignored the TomTom and carried on with my own orginal route I would get stuck in traffic.

When I travel on the main motorways ie M1, M11 and M25 HD Traffic is now excellant and shows everything from small queues to just happening slowing traffic, but further away from London ie Bedford not all queues are shown. All last week the Crawley Road in Woburn was closed for preplaned roadworks, however, every day HD Traffic showed the road as open.

Central London seems to be well covered by HD Traffic, but I still think it needs to work better with IQ Routing to find the best routes. Also the delay times need to be more in line with the delays, at the moment one minute per mile seems to be the standard delay time for stationary traffic.

If Milton Keynes HD Traffic was as good as Central London HD Traffic then I would be very happy. The main A5 at Bletchley each morning and evening can be queuing for up to a mile, but does not show on HD Traffic. However given the improvements to HD Traffic during the past two weeks Milton Keynes may show up quite soon.
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Flashyphotos
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Joined: Nov 14, 2003
Posts: 306
Location: All Over The UK

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I wanted to get 5 or 6 thousand miles under my belt on HD before I started to comment on how I felt about it.

You may know my feelings on TomToms TMC Unit Rolling Eyes after pulling it to bits and making every effort possible to just about get it working 50% of the time to then find that the firmware changes again made the data useless.

So I bit the bullet and subscribed to GPRS Traffic through TomTom, paid up tyhe £35 quid or whatever it was for a year, and paid the £5 a month for unlimited data on my "3" Nokia Phone. Well it worked, the data arrived without fail. Sometimes more out of date than the bible and often after you were sat in the jam for 30 mins, but as a combination with Radio reports and overhead signs it was about useable.

Anyway along came the 540 so thought I would give it a go (Got my 720 Cheap when the 9 series came out). So by selling that the 540 still worked out cheaper than a map upgrade.

Costings.

TMC Free (But Useless)
GPRS £35 PA + £5 Month for Unlimited data. So annual cost of £95
HD Traffic £7.99 PM £95.88 PA

So costs wise HD is costing me the same as GPRS but with extra features.

Traffic Wise, so far it has been between Very Good and Excellent (And this is based on the fact I am a VERY hard to please person)., On Occasions it has had me stunned with its quick and accurate response.

Fuel Prices - Brilliant. I am out of home area a lot so finding cheap fuel or working out if its worth ducking over to a local Tesco to use a 5p fuel coupon is a real plus point

Google - I really thought this was going to be a non starter. But finding that annoying POI or other item you need every now and then because you forgot to load the data before you left home is a godsend. Again very suprised its a useful service.

So the HD side of the unit so far has made the purchase for me anyway a real positive one (And I have not always been happy with tomtom and have been vocal on the point!)

Maps are still hit and miss - M1 Jnc 29a missing after it has been open 6 months. And the New Ilkeston Link Road on the map even though the metal work for the river bridge is still going in and opening is 6 months away.

SO HD works and is one less thing to worry about.

Comments based on solid daily use for 18 days.
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magicdave
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Joined: Feb 15, 2005
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

HD Traffic still refusing to work here in Reading...although other Plus services like weather work fine, so connection to server is working no problem.

Starting to have nightmares of the little yellow triangle. Sad Sad Sad
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ricchop
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Joined: Jun 24, 2007
Posts: 18
Location: Milton Keynes

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

HD Traffic still refusing to work here in Reading...although other Plus services like weather work fine, so connection to server is working no problem.

Starting to have nightmares of the little yellow triangle.

Sometimes I get the Yellow Triangle on the blue side traffic bar. When I do I tap the blue side traffic bar which seems to force a traffic update and the Yellow Triangle disapears. I suppose you have tried that though.
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ricchop
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Joined: Jun 24, 2007
Posts: 18
Location: Milton Keynes

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote="magicdave"]HD Traffic still refusing to work here in Reading...although other Plus services like weather work fine, so connection to server is working no problem.

Sometimes I get the Yellow Triangle on the blue side traffic bar. When I do I tap the blue side traffic bar which seems to force a traffic update and the Yellow Triangle disapears. I suppose you have tried that though.
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Guinness2702
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Joined: Oct 23, 2008
Posts: 156

PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gary_W wrote:
the traffic so far has been reported with stunning accuracy and is indeed very impressive.


It's still far from perfect. It doesn't seem to know about the contraflow on the M1 at J13, which has been there since at least Weds night.
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ricchop
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Joined: Jun 24, 2007
Posts: 18
Location: Milton Keynes

PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Guinness2702 wrote:
Gary_W wrote:
the traffic so far has been reported with stunning accuracy and is indeed very impressive.


It's still far from perfect. It doesn't seem to know about the contraflow on the M1 at J13, which has been there since at least Weds night.


I was wondering why this was not shown, but thought it was because there are no cameras no one really slows down for it and there is not really a problem there with traffic, at least not when I drive through it each day.
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Guinness2702
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Joined: Oct 23, 2008
Posts: 156

PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ricchop wrote:
I was wondering why this was not shown, but thought it was because there are no cameras no one really slows down for it and there is not really a problem there with traffic, at least not when I drive through it each day.


It was definitely slow today - The one time I checked the speed on the TT it said 45, and my speed didn't really vary through it - it's only a few miles, and probably only a minute or two of total delay, but delays that short are reported in other places.
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ricchop
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Joined: Jun 24, 2007
Posts: 18
Location: Milton Keynes

PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have I glismped how HD Traffic should be? I was driving along STANDON ROAD towards LITTLE HADHAM, HERTFORDSHIRE at about 18:35 hours this evening (Monday 24th November 2008) when my TT540 told me to turn right. I have never turned right before so I just carried on.

After I drove past the named right hand turn and continued along the STANDON ROAD my 540 showed a delay time of 4 minutes for the traffic lights in LITTLE HADHAM village.

For those of you who do not know the area there is a set of traffic lights each side of LITTLE HADHAM causing traffic to single file along the narrow road through LITTLE HADHAM.

I stopped at the end of the waiting queue at 18:38 hours almost on the exact spot shown on my 540 and was out the other side at 18:42 hours a total of 4 minutes!! I drove this route all last week and not once did the queue appear on the 540 even though the queue at that time of the evening is always about a 4 minute wait.

Is this the area of HD coverage expanding and a glimpse of how every road will soon look? I hope so!
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ziro
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Joined: Nov 05, 2008
Posts: 30

PostPosted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Same story as usual on my commute - Predicted 49 minutes, took 65 minutes, no reported traffic.
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ricchop
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Joined: Jun 24, 2007
Posts: 18
Location: Milton Keynes

PostPosted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ziro wrote:
Same story as usual on my commute - Predicted 49 minutes, took 65 minutes, no reported traffic.


Ziro which area are you travelling through?
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Navman Pin to TomTom Go to Go 300 to Go 720 to Go 730 to Go 540 Application 8.024 (9718/081105)OS:232962 GPS v1.20, Boot 5.5106 United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland Map.
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ziro
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Joined: Nov 05, 2008
Posts: 30

PostPosted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 3:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ricchop wrote:
ziro wrote:
Same story as usual on my commute - Predicted 49 minutes, took 65 minutes, no reported traffic.


Ziro which area are you travelling through?


Peterborough - Cambridge
A1(M) - A14 - M11
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Guinness2702
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Joined: Oct 23, 2008
Posts: 156

PostPosted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 3:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ziro wrote:
Peterborough - Cambridge
A1(M) - A14 - M11


I vaguely recall an area around the south/east midlands being highlighed as a dubious coverage area in the press launch video. I could be wrong, but perhaps it includes those roads.
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