traffic feature

Most of the Nuvi's use an older system where traffic data is broadcast from the audio of FM radio stations. It is very low bandwidth so the information is not very complete or timely. In addition, the available stations may not be that plentiful in certain areas so you may not get any traffic reporting at all. Personally, we spend the winter in the Phoenix area and for the most part the traffic feature is OK.

The good news is that whether the traffic reporting is good or not it doesn't really affect navigation on the 1490, unless of course, you tell the Nuvi to detour you around a reported traffic slow down that isn't really there or has already been cleared up.

I live in a city where we have "rush minutes" instead of rush hour so even though I have seen about two alerts, they didn't slow me down.
In a recent trip to CA, as I crossed the AZ-CA border I got an alert but I drove at 75mph until LA with no traffic stops or slowdowns. I once drove through St. Louis with a traffic alert and I did have to slow down from 65mph to 30mph but it was nothing to get worried about.
If you get tired of it I suggest getting a regular power cord without the antenna. To me it only tells me that I might slow down ahead "or not".

i live in Chicago land, and so far all my driving has traffic coverage. only once did it mark part of my rush hour highway ride home as "slow", as for detour, it told me staying on the route was still faster.

of note: it usually doesn't keep up with 'realtime' traffic. same trip as above once i cleared the 'slow' part (according to my nuvi) a mile later i hit stopped traffic. that nuvi knew nothing about. This is a bit aggravating... imagine if i had rerouted earlier just to run into this when i came back on the road...

hope this made sense.

I have the traffic coverage in my area with my 1450 and find it to be fairly accurate. However, as someone else mentioned, make sure you do not have traffic as an avoidance.

I also have traffic coverage on my 1490T and it is pretty accurate where I live.

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