FM traffic

Check this out:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/26413

From what I read here on POI Factory, most folks prefer Clear Channel over Navteq.

My 775T with the GTM-21 came with free lifetime traffic services. Not sure who is used (Navteq, I think), but I don't live in the 'Big City', so I don't get reports until I travel.

dminz,
Garmin uses NAVTEQ mapping services, since NAVTEQ also supplies traffic reports, you don't get much of a choice. Even though Clear channel is the choice of many. You can however have both the subscription to clear channel and the free NAVTEQ

Read more:
Free NAVTEQ lifetime TMC traffic
http://www8.garmin.com/traffic/fm/navteq.html

Subscription Clear Channel lifetime TMC traffic
http://www8.garmin.com/traffic/fm/clearchannel.html

I'm not sure what you are saying. I'm probably getting the 760, which does not have free traffic service. So I have a choice.

From your link, it appears that I get a free trial period with Clear Channel.

From my experience with the traffic, none of these are accurate enough to justify the $50~$60 subscription.

I find the traffic on the garmin is more current than the 15 seconds of a traffic report I get when the radio station cycles through all the other roads and gets back to the parking lot I'm on every 40 minutes or so.

EDIT:
Yes, they give at least 60 seconds of traffic every 10 minutes.

You are correct, you do have a choice, since your not buying a T unit. Clear Channel does come with a trial period. once it is over you would need to but a subscription for lifetime service. I'm not sure if you can also get a NAVTEQ trial as well.

I have pruchased both Clear Channel and NAVTEQ and use a GTM 20. The GTM 20 can be moved between GPSr's that it is compatable with.

When I boot up the GPSr if decides on the best FM Traffic signal at that time and decides on either Clear Channel or NAVTEQ, you can only use one service at a time, but you can switch between them.

One more thing, if your looking to se the free NAVTEQ service with ads take note that there are two different GTM 20's. The older is a receiver with it indicator lights built into the cigarette light plug, The newer that you need for free traffic from NAVTEQ has the receiver built into a box half way up the power cord.

Be careful when buying the receiver you get the one you need, either will take dual subsciptions, but only the newer has the free NAVTEQ traffic. Be sure to ask which your buying if buying online.

I mostly use Clear channel, when not available I use NAVTEQ. The older Receiver has a longer trail period!
I find the traffic reports good in Cleveland and good to poor during travel it just depends.

Ebay has some good deals on GTM20's jst ask which they stock.

Again, no free traffic with the 760. I have to take the receiver that's included with it in the box.

What's in the box is not much help, sorry. but it does say you get a 3 month traffic trial.

What's in the Box:

* nüvi 760
* Preloaded City Navigator® NT for North America or Europe (full coverage) or other country (click versions tab to view all)
* FM traffic receiver with vehicle power cable
* Real-time traffic services*
* Vehicle suction cup mount**
* USB cable
* Dashboard disc
* Quick start manual

* Real-time traffic services include

* United States : 3-month free trial subscription included in North American version.

And why is this not much help:
* FM traffic receiver with vehicle power cable * Real-time traffic services?

And why are you writing about which receiver I should buy in your previous post?

It sounds like maybe you will get an older style receiver that is not compatible with the newer traffic services.

To get clear channel may require you to buy a different cable to use the service.

I am not in an area that has traffic, so I don't worry about it. I tried MSN for a year here in wichita, and they only provided weather and movies. Not worth paying for IMO. Now they are going to shut down the MSN service in a couple years.

Daniel

I didn't realize you could switch between subscriptions. I have a 770 and I'll have to figure out how to do that. I thought the GPSr choice on boot-up was final until it is powered down.

Time to RTFM I guess.

I've always found the idea of traffic stuff intriguing, but you have to remember to take it's reports with a grain of salt - they're wrong as often as right in terms of minutes of delay. Generally I find if it says 4-5 minutes, it's nothing. If it says 20, then there's an issue on the road for real.

BobDee is correct, it will actually switch service provider on it's own if you have both subscriptions during any one operation cycle depending on which has the better signal at the time. You cannot actually make the choice yourself as to which one to use.

If you go into the hidden test menu and go to the GPS section you can actually see which FM stations are available for each individual service for the area you are in and you will see it change from 4 to 7 on the service being used at that moment. As I recall Clear Channel is 4 and Navteq is 7.

So once I've subscribed to both, I can't really choose which one I want to use. The GPSr does it on its own. That's a negative in my view.

Kind of how you look at it.May be in a area for example no signal for fm traffic but clear channel does or the other way around.

That is the case on trips from the NYC area to Toronto. TTN has traffic coverage in Binghamton, NY and Syracuse, NY but not in Buffalo. NAVTEQ has coverage in Buffalo but does not have Binghamton or Syracuse. Both have coverage in Rochester, NY.

I am curious as to why the second largest city in New York State is not covered by TTN. I did write to them about 1 1/2 years ago and they said they did want cover Buffalo but they did not expect it any time soon. Either they cannot get a data feed or they cannot find a station willing to carry their signal which I would find odd considering there are quite a few FM stations in and around Buffalo.

Check and see who owns the radio stations in the cities you mentioned, lately in the last few years a certain company gobbled up and monopolized the stations in cities. I would bet that has something to due with why a city has a service or does not.

Check and see who owns the radio stations in the cities you mentioned, lately in the last few years a certain company gobbled up and monopolized the stations in cities. I would bet that has something to due with why a city has a specific traffic service or does not.

When TTN first started, they were exclusively on Clear Channel stations for obvious reasons. Clear Channel does not have any FM properties in Buffalo, only AM, so it was understandable. However, over the last two-plus years, they have signed agreements with other station owners to carry their traffic data. Atlantic City, NJ TTN service is carried on WSRS (TTN-AC) and WCHR (TTN-AC2) and they are not Clear Channel owned stations. I would think they could find some station in Buffalo willing to accept money for their service. According to the NAVTEQ RDS maps, they appear to have Buffalo and the Golden Horseshoe area of Ontario pretty well covered. The closest TTN service is out of Toronto on CHIN and CIRV

So when you travel from Buffalo to Syracuse, do you have to restart your GPSr or does it switch automatically to the available service?

I never used NAVTEQ on that trip yet. Until March, all I had was C550 with TTN service. I now have a a new 765T which has NAVTEQ. I may bring both GTM 20 cables and switch to the NAVTEQ cable after I pass through Binghamton. I would be curious to know if the cable is smart enough to switch between services but I don't want to pay $50 to find out

When I got mine it had the Navteq Free Traffic with the built in antenna in the power cord. Where I live , SW Florida, I had trouble receiving the traffic reports. I went ahead and got the Clear Channel Total Traffic, which I had on a previous unit and everytime I turn my unit on I instantly have traffic information. My advice - get a T Unit - the traffic antenna comes in the power cord - last I checked - to buy one it costs about 60 bucks, then spend the money on the additional traffic subscription unless you are in an area that Navteq works.

FM traffic doesn't help when you're living in a city like LA. All the roads are gaurenteed to be clogged up.

With my nuvi 760 I am running FM traffic with the GTM-20 traffic receiver and Total Traffic Network ClearChannel lifetime subscription.

In this morning's rush hour everything was going fine with light traffic going fast on a four-lane state road. I was getting close to an area up ahead where there is a bridge over a harbor and you can't turn around or get out to an alternate route, when Jill says, "Traffic Alert - Road closed 4 miles ahead." I was able to turn off on the last street before being committed to the closed road, and went over to the interstate several miles away. Everything worked out okay.

No info about this had been on the radio station I was listening to. I was shocked because I had no idea that ClearChannel had traffic content for this road - they say they only cover the interstate or limited-access roads. Later I heard that there was Fire Department activity and they closed the road. A slam-dunk for Jill and ClearChannel!

dobs108 Nassau County Long Island New York

Great report. Thanks. I don't get to use my traffic too often--mostly, it's used when I drive down to Phoenix.

On some message thread here, it was suggested not to have "Avoid Traffic" enabled and I gave that a try on my last trip to The Valley. Traffic did alert me that my route had a closed freeway ramp about a dozen miles ahead. With traffic not enabled, Karen continued to direct me to the closed ramp. Only after I switched to "Enable traffic" did Karen recalculate and take me on a couple surface streets to avoid being told to use the closed ramp. From then on, I made sure that I will keep traffic avoidance enabled!

I agree with you.Keep avoid traffic set to avoid unless you plan to look at the screen and push buttons a lot.

The avoid traffic feature did not come into play because I was not navigating at the time, but if I did not know the area, it definitely would have.

dobs108

on my 765 until recently when I was driving through San Francisco. A new symbol popped up and upon examination it said there was a 10 min delay 42 miles ahead. Never seen it before, so I'm assuming it will only be useful in large urban areas...

mpan, we live in a suburb 28 miles east of Manhattan, New York City. I use traffic every day, and it is better than expected. I hope when we drive through areas we are not familiar with it will be just as good!

dobs108

While far from ideal, the TTN service has saved me many hours of time over the past couple of years, primarily in the Baltimore area. Updated warnings can be slow to come in, but for now, I'm pleased.

I would eventually like to see options for more frequent updates via cellular service - should be wider coverage (depending on the cellular network of course).

i don't belive any traffic receivers

I had to send my cable into Garmin on Friday. I miss my traffic already

java007, cellular service should give us 100% coverage in receiving the traffic signal. The question is, where will the content come from?

There are gaps in the coverage of FM traffic due to poor reception, even inside the claimed area, so it does fall short. But the traffic content provided by TTN ClearChannel seems very good in my area. ClearChannel owns the FM radio stations which distribute traffic info using voice broadcast, and the same content is broadcast on FM digitally to traffic GPS receivers.

Ideally, the ClearChannel content could be distributed using cellular service, but I have not heard that this is a possibility.

dobs108

I probably should have made a new topic, BUT.....

Hats off to Garmin for FAST service. I did an exchange (not a cross-ship) of my bad traffic cable.

I called Garmin and RMAed the cable on Friday. My mail carrier picked it up Saturday morning via Priority Mail. Garmin got it Monday, and on Tuesday (yesterday) the new one was out the door on its way to me. It should be here by Friday according to the tracking.

Less than 1 week for an exchange is excellent. The only way it could have been faster is if I lived closer!

As mentioned earlier, the GTM can switch between the two brands of traffic services if the stations of the service it is currently using drop out due to inadequate signal strength. Then the GTM will scan and choose the strongest station of the two services. Thereafter it will stay using stations of that service until none are available and rescanning occurs. You can force this scan to happen by resetting the FM table, which tosses out its memory of available stations. When driving between LA and SF, eventually most of the LA stations get kicked out of the FM table and are replaced by other CA stations, ending up with mostly SF stations. I think the max number of entries in the table is 12. Resetting the FM table changes it to 0 and the scanning commences.

Too bad there isn't an option to choose which service to use. If I should end up with Navteq (and ads) and since Clear Channel is better overall in the SF area, often times I will reset the FM table until the Clear Channel system is selected.

One more note on the ads.I just drove over 800 miles and only notice the ads two times.Until I went to the settings to look at all the ads in a read out.Had no idea that I had grand total of 6.Maybe I just don't look at the screen that much.

I have had a Nuvi 660 for a few years. My traffic subscription has lapsed. Are they now offering a lifetime subscription? Before it was year-to-year.

See http://www8.garmin.com/traffic/fm/ for traffic info and price.

Any idea which is better? Navteq or Clear Channel? I'm traveling NYC to Philadelphia mostly.

I feel a little ripped off, I've paid the $60 twice for the TTN service and only gotten a year at time, now they're doing lifetime.

nuvi 760 is a discontinued product. Better get a real good deal on it.

Lifetime maps and traffic are not that costly but watchout for MSN because it is being discontinued sometime in 2012. I have the unit and it's nice although bluetooth isn't used on mine and WiFi looks like the standard in the future.

Seems like a lot of users prefer Clear channel.You need to check the maps for the areas you travel most to see which ones gives the best coverage.Some users have both.

Reports Lag behind the real traffic.

I can get Google Traffic on my mobile phone, it just doesn't integrate into the GPS unit. I'm still having a hard time bringing myself to buy another traffic subscription.

I use both. it depends on the city your traveling through as to best to use, also you will find the reliability of the real time reporting aspect to differ from city to city.

Had a negative experience with the TTN subscription on the Nuvi yesterday. No traffic signal picked up prior to entering I-95 traffic; luckily the large roadway information sign provided a warning about 3 lanes being blocked a few miles ahead. Traffic was backed up by the time I hit the next exit, but I was able to avoid the major delay on I-95.

Even after reaching my destination, traffic was not picked up on the Nuvi. The return trip was the same. Disappointing.

I have the FM Free Traffic and experience the same thing.Heading Noth from FL no traffic icon for Georgia,South Carolina and most parts of North Carolina.You would think I95 would have coverage from one end to the other.Same thing going down I10 west never got coverage all the way to FT Walton Beach.I emailed and asked if we could expect some better coverage in the future.They hope to improve coverage area.What ever that means.

I've got a Nuvi 780 with MSN Direct and I LOVE the traffic service. I'm really bummed it is going away. I've heard nothing but good reports about the nuLink service.

You should be aware that the info supplied to your traffic receiver comes from a sub-carrier of a local FM station.

The FM station does not do this for free. They want money. So, the service provider has to finagle the best deal they can for the best coverage. This means that they have to analyze the signal strength patterns of the FM stations and then decide on the best deal. They want the best bang for their buck, just like you do.

One thing that helps is to get as much of the power cord as high as possible (the FM antenna is in the cord). I drape mine over the mirror and that has doubled the receiving range for traffic.

"Traffic" has very good info about DC when you are in Richmond, VA. On a trip last weekend, I was being informed about delays on the DC beltway as soon as I got off the Richmond beltway and got on I-95 North.

I am aware of putting the power cord over the mirror to get a better signal.Which may not be a good idea in VA.When in central FL get excellent coverage even on 19.There is just no coverage on the areas stated above for I95 or I10.