Set Traffic Advoidances or Not?

For driving to where I know where I am going, I keep traffic avoidances turned on. However after a drive accross country over Thanksgiving, I learned to turn it on in that instance. In the middle of Noth Carolina, the GPS (nuvi 660), took me off the interstate and wanted to keep on on a secondary hwy for 40 miles. Just to join back up to the same interstate. Well, after a short drive on the secondary hwy, I decided to turn arround and get back on the interstate. I stayed on the interstate till I got to where I wanted to go (VA).

I find avoidances don't always give me the most efficient solution. Often times it has me take an off-ramp and immediately re-enter the freeway only to take the next off-ramp thus making my trip take longer. You will have to use your own discretion as well as other tools (i.e. radio traffic reports) to determine whether or not it is worthwhile to reroute based upon your GPS recommendations.
Just remember, your Nuvi is just a guide, not the absolute last word on what you should do. Use it as a tool in addition to other tools and you'll be happy.

I would leave the AVOIDANCE SETTING in the OFF position. I just completed a roundtrip from Chicago to Orlando and every time I drove through a major city my Nuvi 1490t kept telling me to detour of the main interstate due to traffic but I ignored the warnings and never found any traffic.
As stated previously by another user; no GPS device is perfect when trying to avoid traffic but a Nuvi is one of many tools that you have to use to evaluate traffic and then you must use your best judgement. I thought that the DASH device had a great concept for traffic but they went under.

The GPS will take you on some weired routes. Many times, the traffic info isn't even correct.

The problem with traffic avoidance in big cities is that it does not know that during rush hour, ALL the streets are congested. But since traffic info is only provided for the interstates and major highways, it assumes that the secondary roads are clear while the interstate is congested. So it will usually route you on secondary roads during rush hour "slow traffic".

If you are using it during a regular commute to work, you know the road and where it typically slows down and can ignore warnings about that because it's ALWAYS slow there.

I've tried it both ways, and it's much better to leave the avoid option off. It will alert you to slow traffic and a screen tap will tell you why it's alerting you. If it just says slow traffic, you might want to ignore it if it's rush hour, since traffic will be slow everywhere. If it says there was an accident, you might want to let it route you around it.

I find the traffic feature useful as an informational service but let the primary processor make the decisions about what to do with that information. (brain)

I think its best to leave off on a long trip but for short trips around your own town or city turn it on.

Excellent point.

Yesterday / this AM I did what many suggested - leave it off, but check to see why it is alerting. Think that's the best way to go.

Thanks for all the advice and tips!

Living in Cleveland also, I found that Traffic is actually very good here and pretty accurate. I do leave avoid off here in the city only because when I get the traffic warning I usually know what I have to do to get around the problem.

With That said, when I leave Cleveland I turn them on, hoping Navteq has a better idea of how to get around a snarl than I do. It will always bring back to your road and yes sometimes they are weird maneuvers.

All in all, I am Glad I paid the one time extra bucks and don't get the stupid adsl that we all know are just starting.
I hope that helps.

I leave mine OFF.

I have been caught a few times by a surprise routing and did not realize what was happening until it dawned on me that I have my unit to automatrically avoid traffic.

I'd rather be able to make my own judgement call based on my experience and gut feeling about the traffic situation.

You still get a warning from the Traffic device and you can then hit the avoid button if you want.

I leave traffic alert on for advisory purposes only. As mentioned in earlier posts, the suggested alternate route is frequently snafu'd

I just got a Nuvi 765 and am new to the traffic avoidance issue. I haven't been in an area where the traffic information was available yet. However, I appreciate the input. Now I know that I can keep it off in my town and get the alert and use my own discretion. Thanks you for all your helpful comments..

Another vote to leave it off. The traffic info a lot of time are old and once you get there, the congestion is already gone.

Jeff

I have mine off as well. Going by the accuracy of the reported traffic info and it's tendancy to be late or inaccurate, I'd rather just use my own judgement.

I have the nuvi 255W, I have the traffic avoidance option on. I drove home earlier today and was sitting in traffic for 15 minutes just to move .8 of a mile so i could make a right onto another street. I didnt have my radio on a fm station as i was playing my mp3 player instead. My question is, If i had my radio on an FM station and i was in an area that supports fm traffic, should my 255W have detoured me away from the traffic?

The two are not connected.

So then the traffic avoidance option should work regardless then no matter what?

Phaser77, you said you have a 255W which doesn't come with a traffic receiver. The traffic receiver is built into the power plug and comes with 2x5 models that have a "T" in them (255WT). So unless you purchased a traffic receiver separately, you would not have traffic service. Setting the traffic avoid on without a connected receiver would have no effect.

It's a separate radio that's connected to the input of your unit. As one station here in the DC area famous for its "Traffic on the 8s" states; "Your favorite station doesn't play songs..."

But the point is, you need a traffic receiver power cord in order to receive traffic reports, but it's not connected to your car radio.

Wow, it seems pretty unanimous - leave traffic avoidance off! I've found that since many of the alternate routes suggested have no traffic monitoring (off freeways onto secondary roads), they may very well be as backed up as the one you're on but you don’t know until you’re in the middle of it. So like others here, I use the alert as an advisory and choose alternates cautiously.

avoiding traffic is sort of like trying to swim out of quicksand.

I have been using the traffic feature on my 265WT for a couple of weeks now and like the feature but I use it only as an advisory. Most times it is not worth re routing just to get stuck in another jam.
I leave the traffic avoidances off.