How useful do you find the base traffic service on Garmin?

I think it really just depends on what city you live in. Some cities have agreements in which traffic data is sent real-time to the vendor and then published to your GPS unit. Most cities, however, don't subscribe.

Exactly, also if you live in the boonies don't expect much.

Varies accordingly, area by area.

Most of the time when I see a long delay, when I get to the area it's supposed to be there no delay. Too much of a lag.

I currently don't know what to believe about the traffic on my 2 Garmin Nuvi's, even on major highways with good reporting. Soemtimes it's spot-on, with the traffic starting and stopping almost exactly where it shows on the Nuvi. Other times, it will show bad (red) traffic ahead, there is nothing there, or it will show no traffic and there will be a bad traffic jam. Also, when there is a traffic jam or heavy traffic, it will report like a 3 or 4 minute delay, which realisticly turns out to about 15 to 20 minutes. When it works correctly it's great, but it's kind of a coin toss for me to take it seriously or not.

Your Garmin is only as good as the info it receives.

It does not have a Crystal Ball, nor does it get the info from a satellite.

Your Garmin gets it's info from a sub-carrier on a local FM radio station.

The radio station gets it's information from the Traffic Service, which in turn gets it's data from Local and/or State government(s).

The governments get their data from speed sensors embedded in the road and other sources like cameras and in some areas - random cell phones are tracked for location and speed.

The bottleneck, I'm sure, is the Government. Big surprise! It's a bureaucracy after all and most don't move very fast.

BTW, Google maps supplies less information about traffic than my 660 does. Many times when it Alerts and I pull up the Traffic map, I'll see heavy traffic displayed for some of the non-interstate hwys that Google does not display.

The traffic info on my 2460 (LMT) is pretty good. It didn't show traffic going to the Salt Mines this Monday morning (Fed holiday), but did this morning. It's shown some unusual accidents locally, with enough specificity for me to get around them.

It doesn't seem very accurate. It will reroute if I delete the destination and then reenter it as I travel, as if it is using the traffic information.
Also it will give different results for the same route on different days, but again, it isn't accurate.

I am still getting used to how the traffic works but so far it seems okay. In the Greater Toronto Area it seems to cover off well, haven't travelled city streets to see if it works there though. I would like it to expand into SouthWestern Ontario though.

I think I posted a thread on and noticed: if I am at the office or somewhere and route myself to home, I will always do a Traffic Search before I leave and a bit into my drive to see if anything pops up to give me advanced warning. If nothing is out of place I will continue. I have noticed that when I do hit Traffic while on route I have to Search Traffic to see the area involved. Thus taking my hands off the wheel. If I am just viewing the Map (assuming I do not need directions to where I am at) than the Traffic Area will appear on my Navigation Screen, not needing to take my hands off the wheel. I prefer this to be the way while on route as well if possible...reports are spot on though

Mine always works great for me.

good results with it, in large cities and on interstates. When it says to get off at a exit, I've found it to be correct.

... including in areas like Washington, DC & various metro areas along I-95 and I-4.

Quite useless in my opinion.

I used it on our first long trip after buying my 2460, for the first 1000 miles or so, which included Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, and Chicago. I purposely ignored the advice for traffic to see what I would be avoiding. Non of the areas that I was to avoid did the traffic speed drop more than 10mph from posted speed. Found a lot of spots just as bad or worse with no indication of problems. I then put the big clunky cord with the big receiver in the middle away and replaced it with a light weight USB cable and USB adapter for the rest of our trip and all trips since. I probably should give it another chance but wasn't impressed.

JIm...

cant get anything decent for free

My Lifetime traffic works just fine, when I listen to it. DFW Area

Because of the time lag, for reasons that have been mentioned, there are both false alarms and no alarms where there is an issue. So in that sense it is not accurate. It also provides an accurate warning when there is nothing you can do about it (waiting it out is the best option). I still see some value in that because I might want to take a meal break or something. There are also the rare times that it provides accurate information and there is a good route around it available. While this is the least frequent occurance in my experience, it is the highest value and quite welcome.

I have ClearChannel on one receiver and the free add based NavTeq on another. I don't see much difference where they both have signals. The ClearChannel works where I live and the NavTeq does not so I use the NavTeq on trips.

Jim

Often doesn't show the traffic. Also, too many taps to get info.

I've used my HD traffic on my Garmin 3490 in several large cities plus I've taken a trip from Chicago to Miami and it work pretty good. Very informative (traffic, construction, accidents) reliable and accurate. It's almost as good as the HD traffic on the TomTom's.

Works pretty well for me too - in Detroit.

I drive more than 100,000 miles a year and I wouldn't be without it. It has saved me many, many times from getting caught up in a long backup.

I don't believe there is any system that will be 100% accurate every time for everyone but if you use ALL the features of the traffic, I believe you will find it pretty darn good.

I live and use my GPS in the New York Metro area where there is always traffic. For me, the traffic feature is accurate but the rerouting is annoying. It usually takes just as long to get around the traffic jam using the side roads that it puts me on. I wish there was a way to get the traffic information but then have the GPS let me decide whether or not to reroute.

Just turn off Traffic under Avoidances. Instead of a re-route, you will see your expected delay time. You can then avoid, if you desire.

Works pretty well for me in San Diego and Los Angeles.

I eventually came to the conclusion that it's useless anywhere.

First there was "traffic" from ClearChannel. This wasn't traffic at all, but rather permanent construction and major incidents reported by state bureaucracy. For that reason, almost always outdated by several weeks (construction) or hours(incidents). Once I even actually counted its alerts when driving from Chicago to Florida. Out of total 9 real traffic congestions plus the alerts generated by the GPS, one was common, and 8 others were either not reported, or false alarms.

Then I also had Tomtom 1535TM with HD Traffic", which claims to provide "high-resolution" information based on Tomtom users reporting the situation. Somehow, despite all claims it also was inaccurate 3 times out of 4. The culmination was when I was driving on the interstate, half of the lanes of which were closed for construction for 15 miles, but Tomtom showed no worries at all. It was subsequently returned to the store.

Now I have Garmin with Navteq-based traffic; again, have yet to encounter the first occurrence of real alert that really makes sense.

So I'm under the impression that modern technology in this area hasn't yet reached the level when its traffic information could be relied upon. No doubt, the GPS will correctly predict the traffic every now and then, but in the total number of its predictions the percentage of the accurate ones is too low.

No complains in FL west coast and Miami area.

Pretty useless in the Montreal area.

Today I had occasion to travel I64 West through Louisville. The I64 bridge across the Ohio River into Indiana is closed. About 25 miles before I got to Louisville the traffic receiver on my 1450LMT alerted me to the closed bridge and modified the route to use the other bridge across the Ohio. It did the same thing on my trip back from the west. It also noted the congestion on the bridge on my return trip. Overall I'm pleased.

Just curious when the receiver alerted were there any roadway signs in the vicinity alerting to the bridge closure?

I've had hit and miss with the traffic service. Sometimes it re-routes you onto a side road but that side road is only 45 mph speed limit and the road has a traffic light every 2 miles. I rather stay in the traffic on the highway cause I'd get there quicker. Having a helicopter would be great. lol

My traffic reporting in the Pittsburgh area has been fine WHEN I am getting reception. With all of the hills/mountains reception drops off regularly.

It always shows where the backups are when I have reception but doesn't always remove them when they are gone. I go to the traffic screen and I see the top banner reading "Poor reception for the last xx minutes". With the snow during the day a week or so ago it showed all of the extra slowdowns and backups and had a very accurate Arrival Time. During the last year it had all of the construction zone backups though some of the delays were under estimated, but I didn't have reception while in the backups for it to update.

Because of the poor reception in the area I was thinking about getting the XM Traffic and Weather for the Zumo 665. The weather would be a great benefit on the motorcycle. In the cage, weather and traffic would be beneficial on all my work travels.

I am in the Philadelphia area. For the most part I find the traffic feature so inaccurate that I tend to ignore it. I find the best bet is to listen to a traffic report on a local radio.

Thanks, don't know how I missed that. Works great now.

I find it's as accurate as the traffic reports on the radio. If the radio says there is a 15 minute backup on a highway, the Garmin reports the same. Sounds like they get their information from the same sources.

What I really like is road closure information, I can route around a road closed for construction.

Larry

Bear007... Try looping the cord over the rear view mirror, it will improve reception a lot.

There were no signs that far from the bridge closing. The bridge has been closed for several months so I know it was closed. I'm pleased that it was in the traffic info received. I didn't know the unit would automatically reroute, that was a plesant surprise.

There were no signs that far from the bridge closing. The bridge has been closed for several months so I know it was closed. I'm pleased that it was in the traffic info received. I didn't know the unit would automatically reroute, that was a plesant surprise.

I was in the Atlanta area on I75 in September 2011 and got into stop and go traffic
north of Atlanta. I never got a warning before or
after it cleared up. Before I got 15 miles south of Atlanda I got a traffic warning to detour before getting to my off ramp for Forsyth, Ga.I stayed on my original route and the traffic never slowed
down.The traffic notice was still on.

I was in downtown San Dieigo, Ca in early
December and headed for I5. The garmin (2460LMT)immediately rerouted me around the backed up
traffic on I5. From my reroute, You could see that the traffic was backed up. The gps routed me to the
I5 where the traffice flow was okay.

The traffic is only as good as information
programed into it.

I had tried that in the past but up north of the city I never receive the FM signal until just south of the Cranberry area for a very short dostance. Then I don't get it again for about 7 miles when I'm already on I-279 heading towards Pitt.

If I head straight south on I-79 I don't pick reception up again until the Crafton area (exit 60).

If I head east on the Turnpike the reception is hit and miss the most of the way.

Like I stated in my earlier post, when you do have reception in the Pittsburgh area it is usually pretty accurate.

I found the service very helpful in the Denver area. Also, has been helpful on secondary roads in the St. Pete Florida area. When it's wrong, it's usually reporting a problem that either doesn't exist anymore or is not as serious as indicated. I use it as an advisory, like a weather report, then figure things out as I go.

I was in a restaurant when a wreck happened outside. I finished lunch and when I got back to my car, the gps reported an accident zero miles away. Not bad.

I estimate that using it in major cities there is no traffic data about 10% of the time. When there is traffic data, I estimate it is accurate about 25% of the time. As others have said, there's too much lag between clearing out old traffic, or reporting new traffic.

What I've gotten used to doing is, if I know there's a traffic problem and the GPS traffic is inaccurate, I will try my own detours using the birds-eye-view map, relying on the GPS to route me back if I get lost or take a wrong turn or two. I do this for short-cut hunting as well.

I find it useful to a certaiun degree. It prevents a huge surprize sometimes and lets me know i won't be getting anywhere fast.

Seems to work fine on my 2460LMT.

I can attest to this as here in the Dayton Ohio area it is hit and miss on real time; it depends on the day I guess. But while in Chicago two weeks ago, we did a test with Goggle traffic and the 3760 and they were spot on. I was instantly navigated around all of the freeway traffic to an entry point that was clear.

In short it worked perfectly.

My experience/opinion of the Standard Traffic Service?

In a word = Worthless !

Coming back today from Orlando to Tampa there was an alert about stop and go at malfunction junction, after continuing on I-4 I found that it was a true red alert, checked marked avoidance to avoid traffic and by the next exit the unit was routing me out of the mess.

in San Diego, California, we have traffic constantly, but it's fun to look at while you're stuck in it!!

... predicting stop and go traffic on I-4 .

I live in the northwestern suburbs, but go into Chicago on a regular basis. The traffic info, at least for me, has been surprisingly accurate as to where it starts, stops, and how congested. Having said that, I never get off the tollway or take another route because that will take a ton of time extra once you are on surface streets. So, for me, the traffic feature tells me when and if I will get delayed. Nice feature, but I really don't follow it.

I agree that it is not helpful. Sometimes it doesn't register that there is traffic until I am stuck in it - then I have no where to go.
I have also had instances where it shows traffic ahead and when I go that way, there is no traffic.

As someone stated previously, it really depends on what traffic scenario you live in and how you can improvise with the traffic info. given to you.