How do I get my Garmin to take me on major highways?

Also, check your avoidances in the navigation settings. Make sure you don't have a check mark for "highways"

I had the same problem and I contacted Garmin. They suggested that I do a reset by turning your gps off then turning it back on while applying pressure on the lower right hand of the screen.

My 765T does the same blasted thing. It wants to route me on secondary roads with traffic lights instead of taking the major interstate (Long Island Expressway) or parkway. My C550 has no trouble sending me on a major highway. I reset the device once and nothing changed. Now I use a custom route, created with Mapsource, to route me. In those cases, I only use the GPS for traffic avoidance.

The Nuvi's definitely have odd routing behavior compared to the older StreetPilot's. I actually prefer my C550's routing.

Just another step backward for Garmin...

Did you by any chance enable eco-route? It refuses to select roads with speeds above 50 MPH.

Have you checked the fastest route?

Fred

The 1390T does the same thing, your crusing at 70 mile an hour on the highway, no traffic and it tells you to exit down a street with 20 traffic lights to get to the other Highway instead of staying on the road and picking up the other highway at the connector at 70 miles an hour.

Thats when I want to run the device over or take a hammer to it, THERE SEE IF YOU WANT TO TAKE ME OFF THE HIGHWAY NOW.....

Ditto....for me!

I had that same problem a while back and after several crazy attempts to correct the problem I noticed that it was giving me an unbelie4vable amount of time to get from point A to point B. I discovered that one of my "friends" had changed my vehicle from a car to bicycle. Check that out to see if you have the same thing. Just an idea.

When I read this quote:

I thought it would be nice to warn some of you, who may be thinking about trying this solution. If you, do not only will it re-set the Nuvi but, it will erase any saved addresses, or favorites, as well!

My daughter just found out the hard way

Next time have your daughter read this first

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/26136

((This is a post I posted on a different forum to the person who told me about how to fix my Garmin RE: Freeways / Highways / Interstates travel. I came here to post the answer, since this is one of the forums I first came to for answers, and I saw none here. THIS WILL WORK FOR YOU!! I PROMISE!!!))

THANK YOU MOE!!!

Thanks so much for your information that you posted on here - I am an EMT in a decent sized city and depend on my GPS to get me there fast! (We respond to 911 calls) Yes we use a map book, but 10 out of 10 times, I can find the address and get us there faster then my paramedic partner who uses the map book, every time. I just got a new Garmin and was horrified when it would not take freeways, highways, interstates AT ALL, and we had to go back to map books, everyone was quite upset about that. (They had started to rely on my GPS!!) After trying every single thing you can think of, following multiple ideas on forums, comment boards, blogs, NOTHING worked! (Even did the emergency vehicle and avoid highways trick, didnt work.) Finally MOE posted to use the 15 MPG CITY and 40 MPG HIGHWAY and select BEST FUEL option for routing and FASTEST WAY - IT WORKS!! EVERY SINGLE TIME - it will pick the interstates, highways, freeways, every time!! It uses the best routes for every situation, never fails! It uses our tried and true methods on how to get to hospitals using short cuts even - if its faster! ITS AMAZING! Its like my little Garmin all of a sudden grew a brain!!

I had to go in and set up a vehicle profile, telling it what my MPG is, I used unleaded gas and just threw in a random price for gas - but most of all, it needs that fuel difference for MPG and it will pick the right route every single time!!

Thank you again MOE for being a leader and blazing the path for us! Youve helped me get to my 911 calls SO MUCH FASTER!!!

Take care!
M

Currently using a c340, wouldn't even think of switching to a nuvi. If it breaks, I'll just get another one until they no longer exist After that I'll go back to the old school method of traveling.

That's how I feel about my 660. Simple and it just works. Never had a problem with it picking the highways, at least not that much of a convoluted procedure.

I noticed my 1350 would direct me to work by way of surface streets, which I thought was foolish but it directs me back home by way of the freeway. I guess it knows I am in no hurry to get there but hurry up on the way home. Heck, I don't know!

I have just tried this in simulation mode using different addressees and destinations and it seems to pick better routes via the highways. Its choosing routes I would use.
I’m going to have to try this for the next few days and report back. My current settings are 15mpg city and 40mpg highway. Route Preference is set for Less Fuel as a replacement for Faster Time. Avoidances is set to Disabled (everything is unchecked). Should be interesting.

I have a Garmin 1450 and you say 15 mpg city and 40 highway,I did that did the best fuel,but I can't do both best fuel and fastest unless you ment changing these items would take you the fastest route.

"I have a frustrating problem with my new Garmin 255W. It tries to direct me off the interstates and major highways onto backroads and smaller highways. I have changed the setting from "fastest" to "shortest" and back again and nothing seems to help. This is when I know where I'm going and the most direct way is the interstate. Please help!"

Try selecting "truck" as your vehicle. I have a 660 and it works for me.

I have that same problem!!!!!!!!!!!

1- Do a hard reset and clear all user data.

2- Be certain that the usage mode is automobile.

3- Set the route preference to faster time.

4- In the route avoidance menu check to see that there are no check marks beside motorways, traffic, car share lanes, car pool lanes, major roads, highways etc.

Note that this avoidance menu varies from one series to another.

5- If your unit has ecoROUTE do not program it.

6- Take a road test and let us know if the above solved the problem.

Back when I got my Nuvi 750, I did a side-by-side test with a c550 on a round trip of roughly 300 miles. Both units routed identically - there was very little difference between the function of the two other than speaking street names and a second or so in response time. And nearly all the driving was on interstates.

Driving between two to three hundred miles a day to various addresses using the setting provided by MKGill and Mow work. I have noticed routes that make more sense to me on both city streets and highway routes. Thank you!

I'm not sure driving on major freeways here in California is all that smart. Their current state of decay, might rate them as an off road experience.

I'll have to try the suggestion on fooling the Eco trip but wouldn't it be nice if Garmin would just add "Most use of Interstates" and "Major Highways" to the preferences?

Same results here.No selection on 265 for both.Have to select fastest time or less fuel.Done a simulation with the 15 and 40 and selected less fuel.No improvement noted.Fastest gave best results.

I have been trolling around the net trying to find an answer to this question and I finally figured it out at least for my nuvi 3790t.

I have no ecoroute setup and I am asking it to route me with the fastest time. In avoidance make sure to check unpaved roads and traffic, but nothing else. When I check any other option in avoidance the problem begins, and when I uncheck everything the problem begins as well. Just to reiterate: Make sure you check unpaved roads and traffic, and nothing else.

I am using the nuvi 3790t software version 4.30, firmware version 2.60, and map version 2012.20. I do not know if this will help anyone else, but this is what worked for mine so it might be worth a try.

Have you tried just unpaved roads? I have all my Nuvi's setup with only unpaved roads as an avoidance, including the 3790 and it seems to work fine.

Click on settings/navigation/avoidances/enabled and uncheck interstates/highways.

I know how to set it on or off. What I was asking is whether you'd get the same results if you had only unpaved roads set as an avoidance instead of unpaved roads and traffic.

I find that unpaved roads is the only avoidance needed to create correct routes but it maybe a product of the area(s) I drive in.

I have a 3790LMT. I had the same problem, I uncheck Traffic Trends and sames to be working correctly.

Agree, turning off Traffic Trends solves a lot of routing and routing calculation issues.

start buying Tom Toms Seriously!

But don't expect to be directed to a built in POI because it will usually be a half mile up the road on the other side of the street from where it directs you to. Seriously!

At least that's been my experience with two TomTom models I've owned.

On the other hand we are pretty much hijacking this thread.

Well, you're probably going to laugh, but I've been living with the same problem on my 765T for several years, and just forcing it to "recalculate" when I ignored it's direction to exit the highway. Finally, after trying everything else, I turned on "Toll Roads" under avoidances. Yes, you read that right. I turned it ON and it stopped taking me through side roads and congested towns. I know this makes no sense!

Lower right hand screen is a cold reset results described above. Before you try that hold the upper left corner and that will do a warm reset without losing everything.

Do Garmin not read these forums? Well they should. They have the most frustrating GPS on the market. Down load an app for your phone and use that....

I would suggest checking the traffic routing settings. When the traffic setting is configured to route you around traffic, what often happens is that the GPS "sees" traffic on the highway and decides to automatically re-route you onto secondary roads because it thinks those are clear simply because it may not have traffic data for those secondary roads. When in many cases in urban areas during rush hour, you may even be worse off taking secondary roads instead of just sitting on the highway crawling along slowly. I have a 2798LMT with camera and turned that setting to prompt instead of automatic so it will allow me to decide which way to go. Not sure if this is your issue but it's why mine used to route me off the highway.

As for Garmin reading these forums, who knows. However, I would suggest contacting them directly or go to their main page where it says "Have an idea?" and email them. They're pretty responsive generally speaking.

Very rarely will the GPS decide to take secondary roads when planning a route because of traffic. It routes to secondary roads because the distance is shorter, some times by mere feet but the travel times are much longer because of the average speeds and stop lights/signs. Always ALWAYS double check any route with a printed map for consistency.

Why was an ancient thread from 2010 resurrected?

Makes more sense to start a new one if newer Garmins are affected.

I had the same problem years ago and contacted Garmin.
The problem turned out to be bad coding in the routing algorithms. They corrected the problem in the following map release. I forget which version was bad.

can you tell me what Traffic Trends is? And how do you turn it off?

Is Traffic Trends the same as the Avoidance options where you can choose "traffic" to avoid?

The wackiest routing and biggest complaints tend to come from folks who don't understand the ramifications of setting avoidances. My niece is convinced that GPS's are worthless because the one time she tried to use one, it routed her way out of her way from Detroit to Canada. The bridge from Detroit to Windsor is a toll bridge. Yup, she was set for avoid Toll Roads. Garmin did what it was told.

The first time I used Google Navigation on my phone, it gave me a pretty strange route. I had either set an avoidance and forgot, or it defaulted to an avoidance that I did not need or want.

Here is Garmin's explanation of what Traffic Trends is:

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={9b48d480-abc6-11df-6dba-000000000000}

Traffic Trends are not the same as the Traffic avoidance and on Nuvi's that have this "feature" it can be turned off and on from Settings - Traffic - trafficTrends. I think by default it's turned off but it's easy enough to check and change if required.

OK, found my last post on this issue.
I believe the error occurred in two map versions (2013.10 & 2013.20)

Here it is:

Final Wacky routes update

Problem solved.
I loaded 2013.30 last week. My Nuvi 765T now took me on a straight run on the Staten Island Expressway, from the Goethals bridge to the Verrazano bridge, without suggesting any local road detours at all.

jolette wrote:

Here's the latest excerpt from my communication with Garmin regarding being routed off the Staten Island Expressway onto local routes for no reason (I re-posted this in other related thread):

We have the data which will be 2013.30 hosted now, and it has the attribution change I talked about before which changed routing behavior.
I just gave its early, rough self a test next to 2013.20 to be sure. What will make up 2013.30 does behave differently/better.
What makes up 2013.20 is the same there as 2013.10.
Even if I had caught my error, it couldn’t have been changed in time to get into 2013.20. By then, all of it was already in the hands of the paperwork gods.
Too many mapping windows & programs & versions open at once…
Best regards,
Loy
Garmin Cartography Administration
1200 E 151st Street
Olathe, KS 66062

Good info that is the same thing Garmin Reps told me what to do

Why would I want to buy a horse and buggy (Tom Tom) when I have the option of having a Garmin that's so much better?

Nuvi1300WTGPS

I believe your answer is the most common cause of issues like this.

Another thing to check is that your GPS is set for automobile (or truck) mode rather than pedestrian or bicycle.

@ Nuvi1300WTGPS

It offered more customization. Only thing I hated about it was the lack of auto-on at ignition.

Set to Fastest and make sure you check your Avoidances like U Turn, Highway etc. while

No Garmin does not. They have their own forums at https://forums.garmin.com/forum.php and there is an official presence there, sometimes.

Thank You about the speed limit limitations. Wasn't aware of that on one of my Garmins.