Tolls pay Garmin to use their Tolls?

Tom-Tom pays them in Magellan bucks

I doubt that happens. How does the toll authority know if the Garmin steered the customer to the toll road?... When I travel out of town I always turn off use toll roads. This way I save the hassle of paying the toll later in the mail because of unmanned toll booths.

I also heard Oswald didn’t act alone, the 9-11 was an inside job and Obama, well Obama is another story…

I also doubt that happens. But would not be too surprised if someone somewhere is now trying to figure out a way to make it work.
Thanks. Something else for me to worry about. LOL

Garmin wants you to save the toll money to buy more Garmins or at least subscribe to Lifetime Maps.

I'm just waiting for the paid advertising to pop up on the GPS's screen.
What'll make this even worse is that the only placed that could afford to do this are the big chains, which I never go to.

Unfortunately the fastest route is always a Toll Road .. and if you have fastest route setting for your route preference, the GPSr is always going to take you thru toll roads.

generally speaking, they are better maintained, in the north the snow removal start almost right away.

Especially if you account for your time...

But even if not, the $2.50 toll I paid (by mail, neat system... they used my out-of-state license plate and got it right.) to go entirely around Denver on the E-470, saved me more than $2.94 (including the stamp) in gas for the lesser distance traveled plus idling time on the I-25 to go through the city.

Not to mention it was hot hot hot and I wear full leathers. Stop and go traffic will wear you out.

I only avoid toll roads if the alternate is a nicely winding road in a shaded forest and I have nowhere to be at any particular time.

Yeah, I already have popup advertisements on my GPS. I have the 765T now and I'm always getting hotel and Olive Garden advertisements right on the map while I'm driving. It's small but it's still there.

I am aware of taking toll roads even when i use my Garmin.

I am aware of taking toll roads even when i use my Garmin.

is there any way to turn those Ads off or are they permanently on the screen?

Not for the free lifetime traffic unless you turn off the traffic.They don't stay permanently on the screen.They only appear when you are going very slow or stopped.

Can you just set your unit to avoid tolls? I have a 260W and that is in the menu. I never pay tolls

I'm not a fan of the ads either. Would be great to turn them off. I realize it's why the traffic is "Free" but still.

Proof again that nothing is truly free.

That's funny, because my garmin goes out of its way to avoid toll roads. I'd much rather take a toll road than cut through corn fields and go 55 on a two lane road at night.

I wish there was a setting where you could either avoid, or not avoid toll roads. I would definitely not set mine to avoid them.

From the main menu screen touch tools, settings,navigation, avoidances and make sure there isn't a check mark beside Toll Roads.

Cheers

Mine always seems to route me past Peet's Coffee.

The plot thickens!

Some of you are saying you like setting your GPS to Avoid Tolls when traveling so you don't get any surprises, but the surprise can be on you. Avoiding tolls in an unfamiliar area may mean you have ordered your GPS to route you around the only bridge or tunnel that makes sense to get from where you're coming from to where you need to be. You may go hours out of your way (burning extra gas) or end up on a less safe route, especially where crossing a large body of water is concerned, to save a two dollar toll. The GPS won't warn you or remind you of your setting--it will just plot the fastest route it can toll-free, and go.

This is one of those situations where, in an unfamiliar area, you really need to compare your GPS' planned route to a map to make it sure it makes sense before you just start driving, and you have to remember that tolls are set on the GPS to Avoid which might explain the cockamamie route selected (such as go 100 miles north, cross the river on the only free bridge around, then go back 100 miles south to get to a town 5 miles away from where you started).

And in answer to OP's question, assuming it was a serious inquiry, no, I really don't think toll roads pay GPS makers to prefer toll roads in routing. Basic GPS devices are programmed to just look at posted speed limits and calculate the fastest way to go. Basic GPS devices don't know about traffic lights, construction zones, accidents, or commuter schedules, so their interpretation of the fastest route and locals' interpretation of the fastest route at 4:30 on a workday afternoon may vary, as may your mileage following their planned route.

If my trips to Atlantic City were to avoid tolls it would take me 5-6 hours instead of the 3 it now takes, what to save $3.50 each way, I would spend that much more on gas (plue time).

Does that mean the Toll companies pay Mapquest, AAA, Yahoo, tom-Tom & Magellan too ??????????

I'm anti conspiracy theory. The algorithm probably just thinks it's quicker.

I agree. Toll Roads usually ARE quicker. Why else would I pay $1.60 each day to get to/from work if it wasn't getting me there quicker?

This thread brings up an ugly thought, though.

What's next after pop-up ads from companies who have paid Garmin to display their ads as part of the Traffic service?

How about businesses paying Garmin to give routing preference when you're in the area to send you by their front door? Why not? The Internet search engines all work this way. Advertisers pay extra to get their listings at the top of your search page. They could pay extra to have your POI search call up their names above non-advertisers who might actually be closer.

It could happen.... And it could be hard to prove.

The San Francisco area bridges are now up to $5 per round trip (paid going one way.)

More if you're multi-axled.

I hope this never happens - it would kill it's usefulness.

The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge (between Brooklyn and Staten Island in NYC) is $11.00 one way, 9.14 off-peak with E-ZPass from a New York State issuing authority (though there's no toll eastbound).

I wish the GPS makers would allow more fuzzy logic, instead of just a checkbox for the avoidances.

Instead of avoid toll roads (yes/no) would prefer avoid toll roads unless it adds more than ### minutes/miles to route.

Instead of Fastest Time, or Shortest Distance, would prefer Faster Time / Fewer Turns / Shorter Distance / More scenic, etc.

I assume most of us would prefer to think fuzzily instead of the absolute choices we are given.

I'll second that. I do not usually drive too far (fall asleep otherwise) so checking to avoid tolls is not a problem for me, but I would definitely pay for a toll road if the alternative would add significant time to the drive. "Significant time" here being subjective, so it should be defined by the user when entering it in the preferences.

Maybe if they also had the option of entering the price of the toll as a variable to consider too, if the distance/time is below the setting chosen and the cost in gas is higher/lower than the price of toll+gas in the toll route vs. the alternate "non-toll". I guess adding too many options would get complicated but I'd like to see more choices that are flexible or "fuzzy" as you said.

That's what I'm saying. I select Starbucks, and my GPS routes me to Peet's because it knows the coffee is better and the routes are equidistant, and apparently Starbucks isn't paying Garmin enough for California routing. I tried to route to the Japanese restaurant, but it sent me to the Mexican food place that pays Garmin a few cents more. By this time I said forget it, and told it to route me home, but it sent me to an immigrant mail-order bride's house that apparently paid Garmin a few bucks to lure in potential marriage candidates. I give up - now I just order everything from the Internet....

for the immigrant mail order bride locations!

Not another Conspiracy theory!

I had my street pilot set to avoid toll roads and take me from Columbus, OH to Merdith, NH. It routed me west to Minneapolis, then north of the Great Lakes, and then go south into NH: I seem to recall it was a 2000 mile trip. By letting it use toll roads, it calculated an 820 mile trip, through PA, NY, MA into NH.

Mine allows the choice of toll road or not..guess i need to look deeper if i can bill the toll road to someone else

I recently tried using my unit to route me from Florida to NYC. It came up with this weird route that took forever. (I think it routed me through Ohio, amoung other places.)

I had assumed that there was a glitch in routing to a city. I had never thought about the fact that I've got my unit to avoid tolls. (Here in Central Florida, tolls aren't useful. The time saved is small compared to the cost.)

It may not have been a glitch. It may have been operator error. I'm going to try it again, changing my toll settings and seeing the two alternatives.

(I do question why I'm going all over the place on interstates when I could have been routed on smaller roads much quicker.)

I rode the FL toll roads in August and have not received a bill for the tolls yet. Maybe Florida is too busy counting election ballots.

I wholeheartedly concur. Garmin needs all the extra Bucks they can get and so do I, so why don't I get a kickback fro the Tolls, SINCE IT IS ME that uses them?

If the difference is minor... look, based on my lifetime of experience in corporate America and corporate Europe, it's possible. Stranger agreements have happened.

All it takes is for a higherup at the GPS manufacturer and his higherup college buddy at a state government contractor to come to a friendly agreement. The contractor pays the GPS manufacturer, the routing is tweaked, the GPS manufacturer gets extra money and in return, the contractor gets a, uh, let's call it a "consulting fee", yeah, that's it. Entirely possible.

Or, another scenario is a higherup at the GPS manufacturer asks "How can we monetize our routing"?

It's about as likely as paying for an antivirus for your computer to prevent ad popups and unwanted toolbars being shoved at you, and then end up having your antivirus shove ad popups and unwanted toolbars at you... oh, wait, Avira's paid antivirus does that, so yeah, anything's possible.

Maybe someday our navigation systems will be able to tell us: 1) how much time we'll save, and 2) how much it will cost to take the toll route. I don't mind paying a couple of bucks to cross a bridge, but if I was to take the New York State Thruway (I-90) from I-81 to the PA state line in my 19' RV (2-axle van) the cash toll would be $19.10. Ouch.

My GM built-in nav unit gives 3 route options when I input a destination including a toll road route if available. It displays the 3 routes on the map and lists the route time and travel distance for each route. That way I can quickly decide if the toll road route is actually worth the toll cost to save the time and saved fuel cost. Really like this feature and wish my 3790LMT was that sophisticated.

The 3790, and most newer Nuvi's do what your GM Nav does. Just put the 3790 in Prompted Navigation mode (Tools - Settings - Navigation - Automobile - nuRoute - Calculation Mode - Prompted).

Once set, every time you enter a destination you will be taken to the GO screen as normal, and the Faster Time calculation will appear. Just tap the down arrow to see the Shorter Distance calculation, and press it again and you'll get the Less Fuel calculation. Just press GO on the calculation you want to use.

Note that each calculation map screen will show the arrival time and distance to the destination. That would be similar to the route time and travel distance you mention, although I suspect you'd have to calculate the "time" if you use the Nuvi as you get the arrival time which would have to be subtracted from the current time to get the travel time.

Also all three of these route choices would include Toll Roads, if applicable, unless you have the Toll Road Avoidance set on.

Obviously, while it's a step in the right direction, to be useful w.r.t. toll/no-toll decisions it would need to show "fastest route with tolls" vs. "fastest route without tolls". When I first read the earlier post I thought that's what they meant, but perhaps not.

not happening

Not heard that about toll roads. Guess that is because their aint no toll roads around these parts. I have heard that Garmin gets paid extra for sending drivers into buzy shopping areas, rather than bypasses.

some parts of the north east it is very very hard to get around in interstates without paying a toll

Yup, I take all the toll roads my Garmin tells me and with using all the fuel saving devices you can buy I actually make money driving my car and it costs me zero dollars to operate my car!

I got caught in a similar situation, I thought the unit was to bypass toll roads instead of sending me through them which in last minute I did not have enought time to switch lanes and got stuck in a toll which I did not want