Fastest or Shortest

...I always use 'Fastest'. As pointed out in a different thread, shortest most of the time leads me through a lot of stop signs/ lights. I did find this out the hard way a couple of times.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15730
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/8551

sometimes for me, as long as i get to my destination in one piece then im good with that. but yes, i wish 'fastest' route really means that. because sometimes i do question 'fastest' route.

Like another user, I always use "fastest", but even then it still misses some obvious (to me) routes that would be faster AND shorter. If you use "shorter", you'll prpbably get hung up on slow speed limits, red lights, etc

If I'm on a trip I use fastest. If I'm in my home state and 100 or so miles from home, heading back home, I'll pick shortest just to run some of the back roads and maybe see some photo ops.

I've found issues with the shortest route option on my Nuvi 200 SW V4.40 and 2009 maps.

In one case that I've reported to Garmin involving only one turn, it routes past the turn to the next road and comes up with a longer route than the fastest option. I'll post it on the forum when I get a chance to get some screen shots online.

In a few other cases I've found, it fails to find the shortest route although the Mapsource routing does. Puttting in a reasonably well chosen via point on the actual shortest route can get me the true shortest route though.

I was a beta tester for the Street Pilot 3 which was Garmin's first auto routing unit and after not using any auto routing Garmin units since then, I'm pretty disappointed how little progress they've made. In some ways, they've gone backwards. That said, I really like my Nuvi 200 but after only paying $100 with the reent Best Buy deal, it's hard not to like...

fastest uses more highways

I have fasted on my NUVI 760

I have used the shortest and found myself gettin off and then getting back on the freeway because the road bent and it save maybe a couple hundred feet.

I use fastest. It uses more highway. Shortest needs to stop more.

I mostly use fastest.

Every now and then, I'll switch to shortest when I am driving locally since I sometimes discover hidden routes on the back roads.

Only to add another data point to the survey... Comments above seem to capture the subject well. I set the GPSr to Fastest but realize that the GPSr "Fastest" is not always the true "fastest" so sometimes I will take an alternative known-to-be "faster" route.

I use faster for the same reasons mentioned above. I usually end up on side streets with a ton of stop signs.

I use fastest and find that it's really not much longer than shortest route and generally saves a bunch of time.

I have mine set as "Fastest", however, I think my 760 is in love with the highway that's about a mile to the east of my house. There are 3 ways of getting to the major interstate freeway in my area, and for some reason it loves to direct me to go on the highway...I end up saying, "Nah, I don't want to go that way." and I drive down the street that directly intersects with the freeway.

Most of the time my starting location is my home, and I know the surrounding area like the back of my hand, so I don't really need the GPS to tell me how to navigate the beginning part of the trip.

It's too bad there isn't a Fastest/Shortest route setting.

lol

I usually put mine in fastest mode and for 90% of the time, it works fine. It's not perfect, but I like Garmin's logistic the best thus far.

gives me some measure of control over my routing by changing the preference of minor roads over highways. I'm not certain of where the 750 has this set but if I select Shortest to get to Toronto from Ottawa it'll use hwy 7 (my preferred route) and will take 350km about 3:50. Using the Fastest setting it'll take hwy 417/416/401 taking 400km about 3:50. Note the double gas saving from traveling a shorter distance at slower speed in the same amount of time.

When I'm traveling in unfamiliar territory I prefer to use the fastest setting because it'll use more major highways giving less chance to get lost. However an experience last week has shown me that even that isn't true. A recent trip to Toronto had me going through town even though I had selected fastest route. Fortunately I used to live there and knew better so there was no problem but it was curious to say the least.

When taking the motorcycle I turn on Avoid Highways and then take either shortest distance or fastest time. Either way should be a fun ride.

I almost never use Shortest. The one time I did, thinking it would save some fuel, I ended up crossing Houston via backroads, neighborhood streets and even across a parking lot. When I realized what was happening I reset to Fastest and it routed me to the nearest freeway and on to my destination.

You can compare them by picking a destination and tapping Go, then tap the green bar at the top of the map to get the step by step directions, and tap Show Map at the bottom of the screen. That will show you the distance and estimated duration of the route. Switch navigation settings and after the recalculation, repeat the above. For short trips, I have noticed that Fastest sometimes adds several miles to the route to save only a few seconds. But with fewer stops and starts, Fastest is probably more fuel efficient in most cases.

I also use the Off Road setting quite frequently.

If there are obvious interstates or a major route i use fastest, however if the major road aren't heading in that general direction i frequently use shortest and compare the two.

Shortest is the absolute shortest distance, regardless of what kind of road. You have to be brave to drive some of the shortest routes as they can get pretty interesting.

Fastest computes time and distance at the posted speed limits to arrive at the fastest route. The problem I've had with fastest is for example: if I am near a road that is a 10 mile straight shot north to my destination, speed limits around 45 MPH, this may compute as the fastest route IF you could drive 45 the whole way.

It will not take into account that this road has 20-30 stoplights and the best route is a highway that runs parallel, but is 3 miles to the west with a 55 mph speed limit. Going to the highway is a little longer but may be 30 minutes faster if I can avoid the many stop lights.

For city driving, I would like to have a "less urban" setting, or maybe "safest" route that avoids some of the more intersting streets I have driven by following my GPS.

I recently took a trip from Los Angeles to Pollac Pines, CA. I used the shortest route which took me on some unexpected country roads. To make a long story short, it took more time than if I would have taken the longer route with major freeways.

But would you have seen as much?

Quickest is my preference but for some strange reason on a recent trip to NJ my 2730 strangely routed me through town picking up the GWB at 179th ST. Didn't recall any traffic on the route or setting any detours. Good thing about it was that I got to test out the red light alerts.

Fastest

I ALWAYS use "fastest" and for a very good reason. When driving around in the mountains the "shortest" route is often over a rutted dirt road. It might be a shorter distance but it could well be 3 hours longer and you might not even make it all the way. Even if it's a really good dirt or gravel road it can be extremely longer time-wise to drive. I found this out when I was geocaching and learned the lesson well. For me, "fastest" is the way to route.

I'm not complaining since it was a beautiful drive, but I'm just pointing out a difference between the shortest and fastest route.

My wife and I do that on trips. We don't let the GPS route though. We use Mapsource to ensure we take the route WE want to take and often avoid the boring freeway driving for a more scenic route.

I'm not satisfied with either fastest or shortest. As good as these machines are, I'm really hoping for significant work in routing.

I'm disappointed that when I select fastest, I can sometimes get a faster route manually using Garmin's own algorithms. It seems faster, is usually much longer and tries to find interstates and roads it thinks are fast highways (which sometimes includes way too many lights).

Shortest is also frequently a disappointment. It generally finds the shortest route, but the trade-off in time/distance in not logical. I'm convinced it would extend a trip an hour to save 50 feet.

The next big improvement to GPS for me, would be a third choice in routing - the blended route - where the machine will look for compromise between speed and distance.

I've left my sub-division where Emily directs me to make a right and go to the interstate, and gives me a calculated time to arrival of 45 min. I know to make a right and take surface streets. As soon as she gives up on the interstate, she'll recalculate time to destination of 40 min (taking into account it takes 1-2 min to convince her to go this way).

Why is the interstate route of 45 min considered faster than the surface street route of 40 min - all based on her own calculations, not actual time on the road?

i always use fastest, shortest takes you through some crazy streets and stopsigns sometimes

As truck driver I run both to see witch one is best

i use the fastest setting all the time . seems to work the best for me . i have been using my c 330 for 3 to 4 years .

Wow!!!
If I was to worry about all the little quirks that are listed in the above post. I would be spending my retirement on useless stuff. I just use MapSource to plan my routes for those that I know about in advance. That way I control my destiny. For those routes that I have to do on the fly I just input the start-end and maybe a via or two and leave it up to the Garmin gods to do the rest. Then I just sit back and enjoy my trips without trying to second guess myself or the GPS. And wondering if I could have saved a quarter mile here or 1 minute there.

Lighten up and sit back and enjoy life!!! Life is tooooooo short to do anything else.

I set my 250W to fastest, it will direct me to the road's that I can use the maximum speed but with more kilometer's. To go to work if I use shortest I will get all the stop and red light, let say a 100 light and stop and drive 50 kmh, and the fastest I get 1 light and 5 stop and drive 110 kmh.

I completely agree.

david

I have mine set to fastest for no special reasons, but, I know of an instance where fastest was a big mistake.
I live in western Va. surrounded by mountains. There is a world class resort (The Homestead) about thirty miles from here. There are two primary ways to get there from the airport which is 60 miles away: 1)Highway, 2) a rural road which snakes its way up a mountain.
The GPS sends travelers up the mountain as the fastest way which is indeed faster if.... you have a vehicle capable of taking the hairpin turns.
I'm am a member of our local Fire Department and we got a call a few months ago for a BUS stuck on the mountain. The driver told us that the GPS sent him that way.
Bus pics:
http://img361.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0506071026a640x480k...

http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0506071025640x480mi...

http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0506071026640x480ak...

I use the faster route exclusively I tried the shortest a few times and it seem to be slow. If I know the vacinity where I am going I will take I will second guess the GPS and have it recaulculate. This has worked but other times I have found faster routes. One thing that I noticed last time I went camping is the route it selected on the way back was different. How does it determine the fastest route if it has the way out different from the way home?

I drive for a living and have tried both and I find that I make much better time on my routes using faster setting then shortest and yes shortest takes you on some weird routes.

This has been my experience as well, although if I'm making two deliveries in the same subdivision, Shorter will sometimes provide a better route, esp. if Faster wants to take you back out of the neighborhood to re-enter elsewhere.

Off road is still my favorite setting, but not usually while I'm working