More tales of strange routings
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  15 years
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My wife & I took an overnight trip to Flagstaff to visit old friends.
On the trip home to Tucson I napped while she drove. I inserted two points to the active routing, one on Loop 101 and the second on Loop 202 to insure that the unit routed us around downtown Phoenix. I made sure these points were well beyond the interchanges between the roads we were to use. to get us on to I-10.
For some strange reason when you do this you cannot review the entire routing the unit is using to the destination, only the routing to the "via point". As we approached the interchange I awoke to hearing the unit stating to take Loop 202 EAST when we most definitely wanted to take it WEST to reach I-10.
It was too late to correct this error and my wife followed the directions from the unit. I immediately checked the unit and it was routing us one exit east, then reentering Loop 202 WEST and then to the point I had placed on the westbound lanes!
I confirmed I had placed the point on the westbound lane and about a mile west of the entrance ramp on to Loop 202 from Loop 101. I have not yet rerun this routing in simulator mode, but my impression from the real world routing was that the unit/map does not understand that one can take a ramp from southbound Loop 101 to westbound Loop 202.
While this was annoying, I'm much more unhappy that you can't check the entire route to your destination if you add via points to an active route. This is a real programming failure for this unit that should be corrected.
Simulator results
OK,
I just simulated the route and before I added the via point on Loop 202 the routing was correct. When I added the via point the unit then showed AND stated to take Loop 202 EAST until I "entered" the interchange. At that point the written routing changed to "Loop 202 WEST" and the spoken directions changed to the same. All the while the magenta route line showed taking 202 westbound.
During the real world event I wrote about above, the magenta route line clearly showed an eastbound routing and the written and spoken directions did not change as we entered the interchange...
Unfortunately, just as with the real world, you can't check the entire routing the unit is using if you add a via point, even though it is calculating the route to determine time and distance to the final destination. A huge flaw as you should always check the entire routing before trusting the unit's routing.
Drivesmart 66, Nuvi 2595LMT (Died), Nuvi 1490T (Died), Nuvi 260 (Died), GPSMAP 195
Which
2595 or the 1490?
1490LMT 1450LMT 295w
Which One?
Which among your units did you use? I have 2 of yours--2595 and 1490.
See entire route
I have a Nuvi 2450 and have found a way to see the route.
After you tell the gps to go and the route is ready to go press the upper right hand corner.
This will bring up the turn by turn directions.
On this screen press the three bars in the upper left hand corner. This will bring up a box with the words Map and Cancel in it.
Press Map and you can see your entire route.
Press the + sign and zoom in to where you want to check.
Don't know if your unit works like this but worth a try.
Mary, Nuvi 2450, Garmin Viago, Honda Navigation, Nuvi 750 (gave to son)
Thanks
I'll have to give that a try. Checking the routing before departure is standard in aviation. I'm surprised Garmin pooched this capability and made things hard on this unit.
I'm using my 2595LMT exclusively. The 1490 was too problematic and is in permanent storage. The 260 is our long term back up.
Drivesmart 66, Nuvi 2595LMT (Died), Nuvi 1490T (Died), Nuvi 260 (Died), GPSMAP 195
via points can be tricky
Car GPS is not similar at all to aviation. So don't apply this same amount of faith to directions as you do for aviation maps.
And be careful with via points. If it will be added in wrong place it can screw up routing and give you headache. Keep in mind that if you set via point GPS will try to reach this exact point. If you will pass near it will try to make you turn back to pass through via point. Often you set via point on road and it will be set on other side than one you are driving. In this case you will be directed so you will get on other side of the road to pass via point.
And you can see whole route and single turns probably on every GPS. Usually it will be available when on "map" screen you will tap bar on top with road/turn direction. As it may differ from unit to unit check manual for your GPS how to do it.
Passing a Via Point
If I do make a mistake and place a via point too far off the road for the Nuvi to decide that I passed "through" it, I can usually recover by stopping the route navigation and starting it again. I get asked the question "Do you want to start at the beginning?" or something like that. Answer no, and it picks up from where I am.