Severe Traffic Ahead ... Recalculating Route - Does it tell you soon enough?

I don't think it's possible to get the warnings out quickly enough. It's kind of like a tornado warning: once they get the word out on the television or sound the sirens, it's already long gone.

The exception would be, as in your case, something that doesn't change for three hours.

Yes, I also question how frequent and "current" the Traffic Alerts are.

My current Nuvi doesn't do these alerts, though I would consider them a like-to-have feature (as opposed to a must-have feature) for my next GPS. But I've observed exactly the same thing as you, akapauan, with traffic reports on AM radio stations. Usually, by the time you get the message, it's not timely; either you're already caught up in the traffic jam, or it's already cleared.

Even though GPS units can function a little better in the sense that they can update quickly and not every ten minutes as a radio traffic report does, or at least they can ideally if not in reality, alerts will still often be untimely and the feature will only rarely pay off. Of course, it may only have to pay off once or a few times to make it worth getting.

In my area, Total Traffic Network Clear Channel has the best traffic content.

One morning I was on a four-lane state highway with intersections which I thought was not one of the roads they provide traffic content for, but I was wrong.

While I was driving at 55 mph, Jill says, "Traffic Alert! Road closed 4 miles ahead." I was approaching a part of the road where I would be committed to go ahead without being able to turn off on an alternate route or make a u-turn, because there was a bridge over a harbor ahead, but Jill had warned me a quarter mile before the last turnoff, which I took! I went several miles out of the way to the interstate and it worked out okay.

10 minutes after Jill's traffic warning I heard on the local radio traffic report that the road was closed by the Fire Department all day because of a fire, and the traffic on the bridge over the harbor was completely stopped and people were trapped for hours. Jill really did a good job that day!

dobs108 Nassau County NY - a suburb of NYC
nuvi 760 - GTM20 FM traffic receiver

I came upon a bottleneck in just enough time to take a major Interstate division in my local area. Nuvi 660 then rerouted me in a way I never would have thought of, and I only lost 5 min. in the reroute.

The traffic updtaes are nice but situations can develop so quickly you may find yourself upon one that is still developing and already a headache.

Cannot wait for a trip where I can see how the traffic system works. Hopefully I will not need it to avoid future delays, but nice to think it is there.

The traffic is correct most of the time. Yesterday I was driving home and my 1490 popped up a RED traffic circle and I ignored since it was Sunday and I thought there wouldn't be traffic on a Sunday. Wow was I wrong. I ran into a parking lot and was stuck there for more than 30 minutes. On other occasions I didn't ignored the warning and there was no traffic. Someday traffic reporting will be perfect. tip: Try Waze for the iPhone. It's a community of users that report events live on their iphone's and you get instant reports while using their program. The directions are not the greatest but the live feeds are awesome.

In the chicago area, it can be hit or miss. It will usually giuve enough time to abort your current routing directions and reroute you. My Garmin 265 gives me plenty of time to change my route, but i have only traveled major streets and I know the areas that are usually jammed up. I am going west through the rockies on a two week trip, so ill repost after i come back and let you know how it works elsewhere. Ciao!

The traffic alert and re-routing really saved me a multi-hour interstate parking lot delay once. It made me love this feature for ever.

99% of the other times I've gotten them, the traffic delay has been less than 15 minutes and before I get to the "problem" the delay has clicked down to 1-2 minutes or nothing and the problem is gone. For these, Garmin usually hasn't tried to re-route me.

While my experiences do not form the basis for a scientific analysis, it would seem to me that the alerts do come up soon enough most of the time and the driver can then make a decision whether the cure (re-routing) is worse than the disease.

For me, where I am, most of the time re-routing isn't necessary. When it is necessary, I am happy my Nuvi is there to re-route me.

Yeah - normally she's telling me about traffic just as I'm slowing to about 15 MPH.

I live in the suburbs of Chicago, and it's really a crap shoot on traffic.
I actually wonder if they took down the transmitters during construction,
because a lot of the work that's being done near where I live doesn't even
register. I have a 755T with the default ad supported service.

I've thought about getting the Clear Channel one, but I keep hearing mixed
reviews. I figure, I'll just go with what I've got for now.

-Jeff

Maybe Jill is caught in the traffic jam as well. LOL. Backup to Traffic Alert - CB, don't talk on it hardly at all but do monitor for just that kind of thing.

A Big Maybe, when I approach traffic that's slowing down usually I'm by the next exit and maybe even follow the locals.

Nuvi765T

the last time I got one of these, it asked me to take the freeway offramp that had the burning car on it... No, I think I'll stick to the left lanes for a while!

You have to admit though that a Burning Car IS a point of interest.

In my experience, it is quite hit or miss. It is nice when it tells you in time though.

My experience with my nuvi 760, not different from radio reports, is that the info can be out of date and cause you to go far out of your way.

Too many times to count, I have continued on a certain route that I prefer, after being warned by my GPS, only to find no issue.

I also agree most of the time the delays noted are not very accurate and it is very rare that it catches a severe problem in time.

Some areas you are at you get good results.When in central FL the alerts work quite well.In Va not so great.This last cross country trip went through lots of areas with no coverage.Still like having it.Sometimes it does help out.Hopefully the service will get better.