Do you enable Traffic avoidence?

Does the nüvi avoid traffic if you don't have a receiver? I've heard they will take rush hour times into account and keep you away from metro areas if possible. Mine seems to know when the HOV lanes are open in my direction.

I just got a receiver but have not been rerouted yet. I guess the delays weren't bad enough.

This is the answer from Garmin.

Thank you for contacting Garmin International. Without a traffic receiver it does not matter if that preference is checked or not.
With Best Regards,
Michael C
PRoduct Support Specialist

I have avoid traffic unchecked, but I still take a look at what's going on up ahead when I see the traffic icon turn yellow or red.

It doesn't really avoid traffic; it just avoids roads that have traffic data, putting you in on roads that don’t have traffic data (but still have traffic)

The only time disabling traffic will have any effect on your GPS is if you have a traffic antennae or service connected to the GPS unit. Otherwise, it is just a "dead" box to check.

The GPS does not know rush hours, doesn't take any account of previous experience, and this only has an effect when you have a traffic service attached.

Hope this helps!

Have any one used the avoid car pool lane or HOV option in avoidance screens and successfully was detoured based on the hours of operation and regulation specifically in busy areas like DC..? Please share your experience, I am also interested to know if there was a way to modify the avoidance regulation table..

what's not realistic is, in older model like StreetPilot 2720 I had control over the traffic detour option, as when the GPS will actually recalculate based on the traffic severity I am setting. If traffic is moderate or minor, I will set the GPS to continue on current route otherwise detour. With recent Garmin models, all traffic options are gone!!!!

Well, here it is ten months later, with the latest Garmin map update in the Nuvi 760 and no traffic subscription, and Karen tried to do it again! Specifically, when heading South towards LA on the I-15 near Barstow, it will try to take you off the I-15 at STODDARD WELLS RD, which fronts the I-15 and ends in an on-ramp that brings you back onto the I-15 within a mile or two. Why does this happen? Has it happened to you? (I knew better this time and told Karen she was wrong.) (Odd to be writing a reply to an earlier posting of mine too!)

I tured mine off, I was better off just sitting in traffic.

If you measure the distance, the frontage road route will be shorter than the freeway. It may be a matter of just a few feet, but the unit was doing what it was told to do as it has the frontage road at the same speed as the freeway.

Do you have Mapsource? If so, examine that stretch of road at the highest magnification you can. Look at it all the way from the exit it wants you to get off to the exit it says to get back on. See if there is a gap in the line representing the road.

This is often a failure in the map itself. I was going to show you, but apparently NavTeq finally corrected an unjoined intersection that has existed for 100 years.

Anyway, often times when the cartographer is makinge the map, the lines for a road will have a break in them.

I used Garmin's RoadTrip (Mac program) to check this puzzle out. I created a route on I-15 South starting just above the Stoddard Wells Rd off-ramp and ending at offramp exit 153 just south of the Mojave River. Settings in RoadTrip for auto-routing were fastest time, Road Preference: No preference between scenic route and highways, and avoid U-turns, carpool lanes, and seasonal road closures. Sure enough it created a route that exited I-15 S on Stoddard Wells road and rejoined I-15 S where the road leads back to an on-ramp. Distance was 4.7 miles and time to drive was 9 minutes. I then set the program to prefer highways rather than no preference, and recalculated. It still kept the same routing. I then dragged the route over to snap it to the I-15 and then looked at the details, which now showed 4.4 miles (so shorter route) but time to drive was 13 minutes. Ah ha - it thinks you can save 4 minutes by exiting the Interstate, so it really was doing what I asked it to do...faster routing. (Although having driven this once before I don't believe it was really true. Perhaps the map was created when construction was happening on that stretch?)

Does your unit show speed limits on the screen? Simulate the route and see what speed limit it shows.

Edit: I got my 760 and simulated the route, just from above exit 157 to the other side of the next exit. Faster time got the Stoddard Well route and shorter distance got I 15. The speed limit on the interstate stayed at 70mph, and there was no break in the road.

Just an anomaly in either something in the data base accompanying the map, or something wrong with the routing engine.

I vote for the former.

In Baltimore - it works well.

Somewhat iffy but works.