Traffic Service Neutered

I agree completely with you.

How did you contact Garmin: email, phone or otherwise?

Good Morning,

There have been many discussions here regarding the new interface. I see some good and bad in it and am slowly getting used to it.

my thoughts:

good:
- alerts now actually state what you are coming up to and when as opposed to only saying, "traffic ahead" and the icon on main navigation shows what kind of incident as well rather than only a yellow diamond
- approximate time delay when in routing mode appears when there is traffic in your path.
- main traffic map (not navigation map) shows all incidents at once.

bad:
- as everyone says, no listing on the incidents to pick and choose from, it would be good to still have that function in addition to the other changes made

- traffic severity colors have disappeared from the navigation map. no more red or yellow overlaying the route you are on to indicate when traffic might end.

-the incident "signs" still appear as you get within range of the traffic, but now only if they are your current road and the system has alerted you rather than all of them showing.

I guess there is good and bad in every firmware 'upgrade.' I too have expressed concern to Garmin, especially in regards to the main navigation map. I received the response:

"Thank you for contacting Garmin International!

I have not got any updates for you regarding the traffic subscription"

standard of course...

This seems crazy. I just bought the c550 particularly for this feature. My pet peeve is being stuck in traffic and was looking forward to this giving me the warning as I drive. If this feature is out, I will definitely try and return or sell and get a cheaper model without traffic.

How do I tell if I have the new firmware and is there a way to go back and restore?
thanks

sorry.. hit post twice.

the warnings still occur, only the method of listing traffic advisories has changed. The warnings are actually better than they were before as they give you why and how far, as opposed to just 'traffic ahead.'

The problem people are having is that the previous version provided a LIST of incidents by distance and you could select the one you wanted to see and was relevant to your route of travel. New version shows you a MAP of all incidents in the area and as you scroll through will detail them by distance from you.

Mind you that the traffic warnings are only as good as the people that add them to the system, but it is still worth it to have.

so you still get warnings, don't worry about that.

To see what version you have go to the system menu and press "about".

I agree with craig470, I think the warnings are better than before. I like the time of delay feature as well.
I don't necessarily like scrolling through all the traffic problems listed. But I can tell from the traffic map page what's in my route and what's not, so I really don't have to go through them all.

Initially, I absolutely hated the new interface because I liked the list of problems all at once. However, after giving this some thought and thinking of an upcoming trip cross country, the new way might actually be better.
For my day to day commute I know all the roadways, numbers and names used for them in my area and which general direction they go.
If I'm in a State or part of my own State that I'm not familiar with, I may not know each roads name/number etc. So, if I'm traveling I only need to be concerned with problems on my route.

Actually, I just renewed my subscription about an hour ago. You can do it all from your computer. You don't need to plug it into the car's 12v. Just have the receiver plugged into the unit and use the internal battery.

I'll have to double check my c550 on my next trip out, but I didn't get any warnings at all and I was in Atlanta which is one huge traffic problem.

I know when I checked the detail page as I was sitting in traffic, I was in what should have been a warning zone. However, no warnings either verbal or visual came to me on the main navigation page.

As far as the detail interface goes, I do like it better than the previous version.

For me, the list at the beginning was the best part. I left it on that screen most of the time (since I do most of my travel in areas I know very well). The option to see a map of all traffic incidents was already available at the bottom of the list view. They should have left both views available, even if Garmin would have had the map first, with a "List" button at the bottom.

One other thing I don't like about the current traffic map. If I zoom in, the map resets itself often, and I have to zoom again. The level of zoom (for lack of the proper term) should not change during the reset.

And the car icon should change sizes based on the zoom level. Your car should not be bigger than the map when you zoom out.

Hi, everyone! I don't have a "reply" to this thread, I have a question. I live in an area classified as more or less rural. I'm situated within 120 miles from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC and Norfolk, VA. My travels to these metro areas is only occasional, so I really wasn't considering renewing my introductory traffic service subscription on my Nuvi 660. I'm assuming that during my intro trial period, the traffic alerts will work no matter where I'm at. My question is this: When you renew a traffic service subscription, is it only good for one area, such as Baltimore, or for any and all? Obviously, you can't be but in one place at a time.

Thanks, Miki

It's my understanding that if you have a valid subscription, it's good for wherever you travel.
In other words you don't purchase a location specific traffic subscription.

You must have looked at the renewal page, with the different areas where reception is available.

https://shop.garmin.com/fmtraffic/select_service_plan.asp?L=...

you can select Philly, Baltimore and DC, to see the area of coverage, which will show up as the green areas. When you renew, you don't actually select a specific area. The fm traffic reception isn't 100 percent in all areas. Even within the "green" spots there may be pockets where there is no reception.
I'd suggest looking over the maps and see how much of the green area you actually travel in. That may help you in your decision.

You can always subscribe at a later date too.

Well I called Garmin this morning to ask the same question again. Does the system still show the slow down and will it offer to reroute me.

Answer: Yes... if it's possible. The only change is the viewing format.

I thank him and hang up. I havn't seen the little icon pop up in the lower corner since I upgaded from ver. 2.80. I'm now thinking I flushed $65.00.

I'm out today and Ta Da it works! The icon appeared and stated a 9 minute delay was coming up. I chose to reroute and it then told me that the 9 minute delay would still be faster than rerouting. "Do I still want to reroute"? Well thank you very much and yes let's reroute. After the reroute I stopped guidance mode and left it in view map mode. At the 0.5 mile view it showed several accidents on the map. Good enough for me.

I'm in love again!

Speaking of the delay:

I was wondering if this concerns all units or just the 5xx series. Once you get the diamond in the lower right corner with the amount of delay, then press the diamond, you get the map page with the yellow bar at the top...on my 550 (since the last traffic update) The info in the yellow bar would read "9minmin delay" for a 9 minute delay.
Anyone else get the "minmin" thing?

I've upgraded, but since I upgraded, I dont really like the new traffic interface as well as the old one.
With the new map of all the traffic, I can't really see exactly which road its on unless I zoom in which gets to be a real PITA. I rather it listed so I can easily see which roads they are. It might be different for other people if theres not that many roads all together, but I live in the city.

With that said, I'm not planning to renew the subscription after the free trial

That's some nice info here since I'm contemplating about signing up for traffic service.

Whether we buy the subscription or not, use the free trial when/if you can.
Updates will happen Changes will occur and if we like or dislike any particular version of the traffic interface, there is one thing to be sure of..... It's going to change.

I liked the version from two updates ago, but am accustomed to the current version.
I can tell from the traffic map page what incidents if any are on my route. If there isn't any, I don't worry about it. If there is one or two or three, then I check them out. Hold the "back" button and I'm back where I started from. Not a big deal. I don't need to check the one that's 39 miles away when my trip is 20 miles.
I could possibly see where the map might not show very well in NYC. Maybe I'll be able to confirm for myself in a couple of months.
But, I'm sure by then, there will be another version!
I'm satisfied with the subscription, it's not perfect by any means. However, any traffic info is better than none at all.