Traffic Receiver

The most common issue I hear is that reports are not always reliable. Sometimes you get a warning of slow traffic ahead and sail through at 70 MPH. Other times you find yourself in 20-30 MPH traffic and it says the road is clear.

Still, people seem to like the feature. It's only been an option on GPS for about a year, and I suspect data gathering will get better over time.

JM

It's pretty nice - and pretty accurate in DC - BUT it seems to be for the big arteries - so if you detour, you might detour from a big jam to a smaller one...

I like the wreck note best tho

IMO..
This can be great for avoiding traffic accidents that pretty much stops traffic especially before you enter a toll charge roads where there are minimal amount of exits.

But if you are trying to use this for general traffic congestion avoidance, it is not worth the subscription. You will have mixed results.

Having lived in Chicago and currenly living in Atlanta, the traffic changes by the minute and everyone will be using alternate roads to avoid any delays on their way to work or home.

Has anyone looked at the XM Navtraffic which is only an option on few Garmins?

Thanks.

I am curious as well...

I have XM Radio - and while a bit better than the Garmin GTM 20 etc, it's not visual, AND it is in no way more expedient than the Garmin product... at least XM voice.... You can call in traffic issuesto M Radio and supposedly that will get the word out quickly, but I have found in the last 6 months that XM Radio voice is no better than Garmin for expedianecy (as you note DC traffic changes in a flash too, as the worlds worst traffic what a great distinction...), and they cover more roads, sometimes with less detail... and the Garmn's huge plus over voice is a pictoral display (need not wait for them to get to "my route")...

I dunno if XM Navtraffic is any better than voice - but I would worry about its update responsiveness if it gets the same feeds as XM Voice....

And if we go nuts, would love to find if Garmin could put NEXRAD weather on Garmons using a GTM like signal rather than buying the fancy/pricey Garmin with special NEXRAD...

Paul

I'm on the road all day every day.

In the Boston area, I've relied on WBZ's traffic on the threes for years. It's fairly accurate most of the time. For the past three months, I've had FM traffic on my Garmin C550 and I find it helpful, athough somewhat less accurate than WBZ. It is good enough that I renewed the subscription for the coming year.

My Zumo 550 arrived a few days ago, and while it's intended for the motorcycle, it's been getting a workout in the car as well. I'm very happy that my one FM Traffic cable also plugs into the Zumo car mount and the traffic subscription works on both GPS receivers.

I had an alert and saw clear traffic on 495. I don't know what the heck was happening.

On the other hand, it showed congestion accurately off of the 270 / 495 split.

I will give more feedback when I take it on my commute to Baltimore, MD.

From the DC Metro region,
Titanium, MD

UPDATE:

This system is working very well. The whole region is shown if I zoom out. The Beltway is now back to normal after the holidays have ended. I found the Traffic system to be very useful.