Garmin Nav Traffic

[Freebird]

Do any of you use the Nav Traffic on your Garmin? I'm thinking about canceling it because it seems to be totally useless to me.

 

Here is a typical scenario. A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were headed north on 71 between Columbus and Cleveland. It was a construction zone and there was some kind of little accident ahead of us. We hardly move for almost 2 hours. Nav Traffic never showed a problem...never a peep out of it. We finally got moving and were almost home. Turned off highway 58 onto 303 and there was not a car anywhere in site. That was when it said "TRAFFIC AHEAD". Didn't see a single car between then and the time we pulled into the driveway.

 

This is not the only time it has happened. It is a regular thing.

[etcswjoe]

I used mine on a trip and I found it pretty much useless.

[MiCarl]

I use a different brand GPS that has traffic, but I suspect the information source for all of them is the same.

 

It seems to receive information about long term construction but nothing about traffic incidents. I turned off the functionality years ago because it caused more problems than it solved, especially on the motorcycle.

[Freebird]

Well I just cancelled it. To me it was a 7.00 a month waste of money.

[alwrmcusn]

That feature is dependent upon the information being provided to the GPS "powers that be". Basically it take longer to have the info sent, evaluated, confirmed and put into the system than it takes to clear many of the accidents. Also many times (I hesitate to say "most times") the information is never provided at all.

So I really believe that it is a waste of money to pay for the "service".

[videoarizona]

I use Google maps on my droid phone...real time traffic seems pretty good.

 

david

[djh3]

On my 765t it is "lifetime" traffic. So I dont pay, but if I did it would be gone. I can only think of 1 time it has helped me out. Most times it will show red and say 5 min delay. But to actually figure out where the delay is so you can decide what you want to do is a whole new can of worms, and on the bike.......fa geta bout it.

Not all city's and regions play the game either. Charlotte NC does, but Jacksonville Fla dont from what I remember. So its hit an miss at best.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

I have the 'lifetime' traffic on the Garmin I use in the work vehicle and it works well, assuming that I'm in a larger city where the traffic updates are broadcast. Sometimes I will reroute based on the traffic delay indicated. In smaller cities and rural areas, if there is a traffic tie-up, the unit will have no clue.

 

In metro areas like Dallas, Ft Worth, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Albuquerque, Austin, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City, it seems pretty accurate. In mid-sized cities like Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, Abilene, Lubbock, Tyler, San Angelo, Las Cruces, and the vast stretches between larger cities, there are no GPS traffic updates at all.

 

I would probably not pay the monthly fee unless I lived and/or worked in a larger city where the traffic updates worked well most of the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[djh3]

LOL Midland/Odessa mid-sized:rotf: Unless they changed a ton from when I had to drive thru there. But I will say I never had to get off the expressway either. We always joked about them being 900 miles from anything.