What is a good distance for Proximity Alerts?

FWIW, mine are set at 5,000 feet... Good question thou..

i set mine up with e poi loader "manuall" setting as follows

. MILE = Ft.
BEACH : 1 = 5300
OUTLET MALLS : 1.5 = 7500
CAMERAS : 0.3 = 1320
REST AREA : 2 = 10500
TOURS : 1 = 5300
GA : 0.5 = 2600
HOTELS : 0.25 = 1300
WIFI : 0.2 = 1000
SAM'S : 1.5 = 7500

My proximity alert distances are simple - I have experimented over the past 2 years and come up with the following:

Rest Areas Combined file 5500 ft
Travel Centers (Love's , TA etc) 7000 ft
Most Restaurants 2500 ft
Cracker Barrel 4000 ft
Sam's & Walmart 2500 ft
Time Zones 1500 ft
I-95 Speed Traps 5500 ft
Motels 2500 ft

Since I don't use the Red Light or Speed Cameras files - no comment

Nothing too scientific - just what works for me !

I used 1320 for redlight/speed cameras and 5000 for Rest Areas. THose are the only poi that I have set to alert me.

How do you set up the distance for prox alerts? Could somebody point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

When loading the pois with poi-loader

When you click that you want to Install new custom POIs, it ask where is the file you are looking for, Units of measure to be used Feet and MPH or Meters and KPH mine is defaulted to F & Ms then is what you are looking for the Setting box click the drop down arrow to manual and click next.

Thanks marnoldi, MrKenFL, bluestring, and everyone else for the ideas!

I'm starting to think that perhaps 1 mile (perhaps 2 when you want to think it over before acting such as rest stops) is good on the freeway (high speed) for things you WANT to make sure you take note of, and 1/4 mile is good for city (slow speed) where you definitely want to be notified.

It seems that you dont want it going off every day on normal things you dont intend to act on, for a daily normal route, so perhaps not notifying for Costcos or Restaurants might be appropriate. However, then if you want to find one of these things while traveling (which is usually where GPS is probably the most useful), alerting makes sense at around 1/2 mile it seems.

Any other considerations when setting proximity alerts?

Anyone who would like to share THEIR list of what they use (like marnoldi, MrKenFL posted above), please feel free! Im interested to see more. Thanks.

- ACougar

My proximities are almost exactly the same, except my travel centers are 5000 feet.

You can set up proximity alerts for each custom poiu? easy to do? I have 2 right now... E85 and Walgreens.

I use 10600ft which is two miles for the RestAreaCombined file. This gives you enough time to get to the proper lane if you need a pit stop

i set my redlight camera at 1200 feet .

How do you set up proximity alerts to individual cuctom poi's?

[Following Excerpt taken from a post from Motorcycle Mama:]

Regular POIs do not alert by default. You must SET an alert. This can be done in a variety of ways. If you run POI Loader in Manual Mode instead of Express Mode, you can set alerts.

Check out Phil's great explanation of setting alerts for more info about alerts.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6764

If you want Proximity alerts, on a per-POI basis, then you have to use .gpx input to POILoader.
(Per POI Speed alerts are possible in either csv or gpx format).

[I'm taking your query to mean, you want some POIs in the file to alert, and others not - or you want different alerts on different POIs in the file. This may not be what you meant ]

Does anyone have any opinions about how far away to set Alerts for things like Radio towers?

For instance, I'll be driving through 3 states next week, and would enjoy hearing some radio, but its hard to get good reception and find stations that work, especially through the desert and mountains.

I could set it for just 2600 or half mile, but perhaps the towers arent within half mile of a freeway offramp?

So setting to 1 or 2 miles could work, but then if the Garmin units continue to alert the entire time im within 2 miles, that could get annoying, right? Does anyone know if the alert repeats or is sustained?

Any suggestions? Thanks.

- ACougar

I'm not familiar with how the file is composed but if its by physical location, one finds very few towers on or immediately adjacent to the highway. (so the alert setting would be of limited use)

Wouldn't it be enough that you have them in your unit and if reception starts to fade you can get it to list the closest ones and then you tune the radio accordingly.

Now that sounds pretty interesting.

So you are saying that there is some way that i could "find" the closest station to where i am at, without any alert?

I guess im still too new with my GPS. Once I load POIs, do they magically reorder themselves depending upon which is closest to my current location or something?? I'm unfamiliar with this idea.

- ACougar

Just went out to my car to double check before I made myself look foolish.

My Custom POI's get their own menu item.

Selecting Custom POI's lists all the various files that I've loaded.

When I select a file, the unit displays the closest 50 locations in the file and shows the compass direction and the "as the crow flies" distance for each location.

You don't have to do a simulate to check the above sort of thing.

A variation of the above is to select where to and put in the city you plan on going to (or any place you are interested in for that matter). Once that is done the menu items such as attractions, hotels, fuel, etc. will all be for that destination, not your current location.

Thanks for the Verification Jqua.

I just tried what you said, and it worked on mine. Great news!

Re-ordering is automatic, and able to be simulated by using the 'near' feature to change the base location of the device temporarily. Thanks for the explanation.

- ACougar

I use 2640 for speed cameras (and speed traps) just because on speed traps which is merged with my speed cameras, a quarter mile may not be enough.

School zones, I use 1320

I use 2640 for speed cameras (and speed traps) just because on speed traps which is merged with my speed cameras, a quarter mile may not be enough.

School zones, I use 1320

I use 666 for red-light cameras (the work of some devils) and 11111 for rest stops (2.1 miles). Like asianfire, I use 2640 for speed traps as I had come to the same conclusion as he about needing a half-mile notification. I also use 2640 for gluten-free restaurants and important attractions.

I was being coy about the red-light camera setting although I do find it disgusting behaviour when they reduce the time for the amber when they install the camera in some places. I experimented and found that 500 feet was not enough notice and 800 seemed too much. I do set it at 666.

I update frequently with the POI Loader and therefore try to make it as easy as possible. Many settings are for half a mile and I put 2640 into the clipboard and hit Cntl-V to insert. I use 1320 (quarter mile) for shops I like; they also tend to appear on the screen that way (this is on a 4.3-inch screen). As this thread is making me think about it, I realise I should use 1321 instead.

I like this thread and hope to learn some good ideas and new shortcuts.

david

I'll make a comment then, if you going to be perfectly legit, get rid of the I-95 speed traps also, and drive the speed limit on that lawless road way, otherwise your statement above doesn't work.

with that said I agree with the above but add 1300 feet for Speed and red light cameras.

Bob

[quote=dog_poopI'll make a comment then, if you going to be perfectly legit, get rid of the I-95 speed traps also, and drive the speed limit on that lawless road way, otherwise your statement above doesn't work.
Bob

davidwynyard,

You gave me some good insights there. Thanks for participating in thread. Its a topic I find useful. Once I finish setting up my first GPS POI list with Alerts, ill post it to this thread too.

Then probably again after I edit it from my two trips coming up this month.

I find it interesting that you found a range from 500-800ft that worked for Red Light Cameras, which is about half the default. And I find it interesting that a lot of people here are suggesting doubling the Speed Traps to about 1/2 mile. And its a near collective agreement, it seems, that Rest Areas should be around 2 miles. All good, and I'm learning from people with experience....

Thanks everyone!
- ACougar (74346)

Dear AC,

Tastes will differ. What is comfortable for me may be different for someone else.

When it comes to a rest area, I want to have enough time to move in an unhurried way into the correct lane. After my next trip upstate I may change it to 15555 feet.

I noted that many liked a much greater distance for red-light notification but that did not feel right for me. It is not true that I "found a range from 500-800 that worked for Red Light Cameras": I found that 500 was too short and 800 was too long. Please understand that this may be flavoured by the fact that I mostly drive in Brooklyn, the Inner Borough of New York City.

You have to find what feels right for you. After all, my own taste runs to Lagavulin but some folks would hate it for the reason I love it -- intensely peaty and smoky -- very much like Lapsang Souchong tea (which I love to combine with other teas, especially Earl Grey). And then there is scotch tea but I would never mix a single malt with anything -- white label (Dewers) is good for making that tea.

Finally, we come to my laziness. I try to make the tedious task of entering the data using POI Loader as user friendly as possible, which is why I opt for 11111 feet (2.1 miles) instead of 10560 feet (2 miles) for alerting me to a rest area.

david

P.S. I do not know why everything went to BOLD in this posting. I tried to remove all the STRONG coding in the quoted part after I saw the result but that did not help.

I have it fixed.

Miss POI

Dear Miss POI,

Thank you.

david

It's really a nice post

Pre Xmas bump

This string has been very insightful. As I am new to setting alerts myself. I will have to try some of the recommendations posted here.

I'm not 'at my GPS' now, but I don't think there is the option for setting miles or fractions thereof for the proximity alerts. Sure is far fewer keystrokes to enter '1' rather than '5300', especially for lots of PAs....

I have learned the hard way to be careful how you set these up. I loaded the Starbucks POI, WHOLLY COW did you realize there is one on every freakin corner and some corners there are two of them? Dang thing would not shut up, I'd be broke if I stopped everytime the alert went off, not to mention would NEVER get any sleep.

Thank you for the warning. I was planning on setting mine for CO-OP ATMs but they're probably just as bad.

My Nuvi 880 pop up speed alert on every rest areas during the trip from Seattle to LA on I-5 and Las Vegas. Any idea how?

Thanks and happy holidays

You have a number in the file name.

The file needs to be loaded using the manual option so you can set a distance alert. Popular distances for the alert range from 5300 feet (1 mile) to 2650 (1/2 mile).

Oh, and Happy Holidays to you as well

I set red-light camera for 1500 feet which may be a little too much. I set speed cameras for 5000' because I want plenty of time to recognize the alert and get slowed down. Same thing for speed traps. I got a ticket once where the officer testified he got me with laser from a distance of 2200 feet! I don't really set the alerts for ither areas. I don't need my GPS sounding for every Starbucks, rest area, Sams Club and Winery I pass.

Even though I have red-light cameras set to 1500, it would work well to keep it short, to around 500-1000' If the light is green, there is no issue. If it is red, then you don't need that much of a warning. For the most part I assume none of us intend to blow the light. I think where they get almost everyone is not coming to a COMPLETE STOP when turning red, and a smaller number of folks who cut the yellow likght pretty close. You know...when yellow is more kinda orange..ish..red.

A city block - 1/8 of a mile is only 660 feet. If you set the alert to something greater than that, it will go off at lights before the actual light with the camera and you may end up ignoring the correct light.

I have a Nuvi 750 and finally got my alerts to work thanks to this thread and a couple others on this site. Yesterday I had a situation where I was getting the "ding" noise but the gray bar didn't drop down with any info. Earlier that day, the gray bar dropped down with restaurant info so I know my unit works properly. What would cause a "ding" without the gray bar?