How long should it take for traffic data to load?

You might want to consider filling in the details in your profile. Doing so might encourage someone else in your area to report their experience on the same freeways. I'll be surprised if anyone here has truly accurate info on the frequency with which a given unknown freeway's traffic is updated.

If you are seeing an orange light for the first 15 minutes, you are not receiving any signal for that portion of the trip. What I'm not clear on is where the actual antenna is located -- is it in the plug itself, or does it use the entire length of the power cord as an antenna. Either way, you might want to experiment in the parking lot of your office with the placement of the antenna to see if there is any hope for receiving a signal during the first part of your trip. Note, the plug does not need to be plugged in for the antenna to receive.

I just tested my unit and I get the green status light within 20 seconds of turning the unit on, and I have a pretty full screen of delays within a minute. Sounds like you may be in an area with marginal reception -- or something is broken.

Thanks, that helps, especially the part about it not having to be plugged in to receive.

I’m talking about the 405 freeway in South Orange County.

At lunch, I left work (from the same parking lot as last night), and within a couple of minutes, there was a significant amount of traffic data on the traffic map. Nothing changed except the time of day. I don’t know how to explain this.

I know what you mean about poor reception. I live in a hilly area, and I get poor FM reception there. I always lose the traffic signal near home, but I seem to lose it far sooner than I lose regular FM reception. On the other hand, where I work is flat and urban, and should have no problems receiving the signal.

Thanks again.

I trust you understood that I meant the cord doesn't need to be plugged into the cigarette lighter -- it does need to be plugged into the unit.

Yes, I know about our hills down here, and I don't know where the traffic transmitting antenna is located, but I'm guessing Mt Wilson or that area.

Depending on where the transmitter is, you may be hitting some dead spots due to hills, etc. Check out http://realtimetraffic.net/ for coverage maps. Los Angeles and San Diego are the main areas. Since South Orange County lies in between you may be losing reception.

Yes, just the cig lighter part, thanks. I suppose it uses more juice from the battery this way, but I can deal with that. I’m driving into LAX this evening. I think I’ll go turn on the Nuvi and let it download all the traffic data a half hour or so before I leave.

I was thinking Mt Wilson myself, or perhaps Santiago Peak on OC. In either case, I shouldn’t have any problems receiving the signal in central OC.

Thanks for that link. My work is in central OC, and that’s well within the coverage area. I should get good coverage there. My house, in the hills, is at the fringe.

which is a better traffic set up msn or the other traffic reciever? ive got a nuvi 780 with msn it picks no signal till im nearly downtown any city like chicago or lousiville indianapolis.. i was hoping for better service but it seems a waste to have if the traffic dont load. my 780 is always on for nearly 11 hrs a day. question also does my am/fm radio need to be on i listen to xm all the time thnks nuvi 780

I live on the outskirts of the Philadelphia region and find that I need to raise the cord to get traffic data reception. I loop the cord up over the sun visor and quickly see the indicator light turn green. Usually within 5 minutes the receiver has gotten the latest information. As I get closer to the city the cord can be most anyplace and reception stays strong.

I have gtm12 for my c340. Usually, It will take about 10 to 15 seconds to load.

I have the MSN cable. I was under the impression the reciever was actually in the cable (the plug, actually). I leave the cable plugged into the cig lighter (which is not powered when my car is off) but not into the GPS. I have the cable looped over the mirror and to the cradle for my Nuvi 750, but take the Nuvi out when the car is parked. I always have traffic info within 30 seconds or so. However, I have not had to drive through any traffic areas yet so the traffic info has not been useful for me yet.

The gas prices, OTOH, are pretty useful as long as I stay in my coverage area. When I travel west into another coverage area, it takes a long time before I get gas prices for that area. I figure I might travel halfway through the area before I get prices for that area.

Well, on my trip to LAX yesterday, the traffic info was, at best, 50/50. Sometimes it was right on, and sometimes it was completely off. I’d be stuck in stop and go traffic, and nothing was reported on my Nuvi. Or the reverse: the highway would show red on the traffic map, but I’d be zooming along at 65 MPH. In fact, on the return trip, it wanted to route me on some crazy circuitous route through all kinds of freeways and highways, attempting to avoid traffic. I trusted my general knowledge of traffic patterns and ignored the reroute. I got home about ½ hour sooner than I would have if I had followed the Nuvi’s advice. There were several spots it was routing me around that had no traffic on them at all.

I don’t know if this is a general problem with TMC/FM traffic or if my receiver is on the fritz and is having problems receiving the data. I was well within the coverage area, so that’s not the issue. But right now, I have no confidence in it. Do I trust that there is traffic ahead and follow some crazy new route, or is the data bad, so I should ignore it and stay on my original route?

Living in Northern O.C area commute to Burbank everyday.(40+ miles one trip) I've been using C580 with MSN direct for half year and switched to nuvi 680 recently; the traffic via MSN direct worked fine for me. Sorry, never used FM receiver for traffic,(it costs more than MSN, right?) I would say the traffic has 80-90% accuracy. The receiver actually has an internal battery inside, therefore, when I get into the car after work, it has the current traffic information inside already, which allow it loads the traffic info when calculating the routes, giving the sufficient route choice. You may want to try MSN direct out.

With C550 and the FM Traffic Reciever, I have noticed that despite having a solid green light, it often takes several minutes to get all of the traffic data. I am not sure if there is a limit to the amount of data that can be downloaded/recived in each cycle. I have found it useful to reselect the destination as I notice that more traffic data has populated the receiver.

I tried hanging the cord over the passenger sun visor. That does improve reception. The data loads much faster, and I even get more coverage in the hills near where I live.

However, the accuracy of the data is so bad that I feel I can no longer trust it. Late last night, I was driving on I-5 through LA. It told me there was a 24 minute delay ahead, and routed me around it. I didn’t trust it and stayed on I-5. Sure enough, there was no traffic, and I arrived home far sooner than I would have if I had tried to drive around the traffic. And this morning, on the 405, I was stuck in traffic, while the traffic map showed the freeway to be clear.

It would be interesting to have some accurate comparisons between the standard FM traffic service and the MSN service. I suspect they both get the data from the same place, but I am not sure. Does anyone know?

On another note, does anyone know how this data gets reported in the first place? If more people know who to call to report it, it might end up being more accurate and timely.

I have yet to go with a traffic receiver. It it worth it or am I still better to just turn on the AM radio for the continous traffic updates?

This morning on a rainy day in Philadelphia, with a major shutdown of the interstate through the city, there were over 50 traffic alerts on my nuvi. No radio report could come close to informing me about all the problems.

I travel to a different city every week. For me, I wouldn't know what radio station to tune to, nor would I likely know what roads they were talking about anyway. I was in Seattle last week. Heading back to my hotel after a dinner meeting, I was directed by my GPS to get off the freeway WAY before my hotel. I had my doubts, but decided to go with it. A few minutes later I was cruising along the frontage road at 45 mph, as traffic on the freeway was crawling due to construction.

For me it's worth it.

Paul