Love/Hate my new Nuvi 660. It won't route me onto the Freeway???

Have you tried changing your settings in either in route preference and avoidances. This usually will correct your issues.

Looking at those settings, I don't see any choices that would cause the 660 to route me on the Freeway. As I said, the only related choice seems to be the "exclusion" of Freeways (highways).

If there's something I've missed, please let me know.

Thanks for your thoughts,

GeneL

What route navigation preference to you have set? Fastest or Shortest?

make sure you haven't selected pedestrian or bicycle .... be sure the have car as your select mode of transportation

If you are set to quickest route, and not set to pedestrian or bicycle it has to keep you on the highway once you are there.

As the above stated, check the following...

1) Fastest Route
2) car/motorcycle
3) Don't have any of the advoidances turn on

I know that I have forgotten to turn my tolls back on, or had it in pedestrian mode and it was really whacky.

Typically with any consumer products, unless a majority of the users are experiencing a same problem, it's usually an operator error.

Also, with the 'flaw' like this, GPS Magazine and Consumer Reports would not have awarded Nuvi 660 their Editor's choice award.

Don't understand why your unit wouldn't route you to the freeway as my 660 routinely routes me on the freeway. It even routes me on to the reversible freeway express lanes in the Seattle area when they are available. Perhaps you should check all of your settings as it's more likely that is the problem.

Scan the GPS magazine postings for the review of the North America NT 2008 updates. In this article the author comments (favorably) that during drive time, the routing algorithm avoided congested routes. I would think that major freeways and arterial streets are included in the assumptive routing process (otherwise how does it know?).

....another possibility.

I have had just the opposite sitation. My 660 wants be go out of the way to get to an expressway. Once I keep going it recalculates properly for the route that I know is shorter and quicker. It seems to favor expressways over 2 lane state highways that are shorter in distance.

I have also noticed it seems to also plot routes with fewer turns even though by making a couple of turns the arrival time is shorter. I have watched the arrival time and when I take the route I know is quicker it recalculates and shows a new arrival time that is quicker.

It may not be perfect or work as well in an area you are familiar with but in an area that you don't know, it is great. My wife even got through New York City without a problem.

I second l050606, my 660 also seems to go out of it's way looking for an expressway.

If you have it in "fastest" mode, then it does look for interstates/expressways.

GPS magazine July 25, 2007
Authors comments:

"Garmin's new 2008 (v9) Maps vs. v8 Maps:

"Conclusion:
...Having recently taken a long road trip with both an older nuvi and one with the new maps (ref.2008(V9)) installed, I also noticed the newer maps' preference for surface road over highways during peak traffic hours - a welcome addition to the Garmin routing logic.

&t

That would explain my dilemma. I was describing problematic routing that took place during the rush hours.

I haven't had a chance to test this theory, but I did call Garmin about it and was told to try unchecking all avoidance's. This seemed to do the trick, at least so far.

The more I use it the more I like my Nuvi.

Jim is right. The system will minimize turns if it can.

My office is over 50 miles to my home and it only takes the quicker "back way" if I tell it to avoid traffic or if half way home I cancel the destination and then tell it to find home again.
Because it has fewer turns now because the first half of the route is completed it will take the "back way" home.

Remember the purpose of GPS is to get to where we need to go when we don't know the way. It DOES that. It isn't perfect but is beats the heck out of a map!

Agreed! Also, better then being lost!!!!!!

It sorta iritates me a tiny winy bit, but not really, so I guess it really doesn't irriate me when people say that it doesn't take the best route. If you know a better route, then take it. Otherwise, just let it take you to where ever with no stress (at least stress from not knowing where you are.)

Exactly! The GPS receiver is nothing more than a computer using statistics (map,lat,long in this case) to compute an answer. The results are a suggestion, not the only option.

Well, my GPSr is much better then the clients' directions to places. I use to go by their directions which would be something like,

"Turn right at the hotdog stand, then left where the broken down green car is"

The hotdog stand wasn't in business and there was no signage. They moved the broken down car...real story! Took me 1.5 hrs to find the school, when it should have taken me about 30 minutes to get there.

I have also noticed with my 360 that it will avoid "smaller" residential roads and prefers to take the main roads even though the smaller road parallels the other.

My 660 did the same thing to me on a particular route.

I just put in a "Via" on a freeway that got me oging in the direction I wanted to go & on the fwy's I wanted to take. Works fine.

If you got it @ Costco, return it & get the 760. Looks like significantly better routing choices.

I've noticed more than a few times where my nuvi 650 will try to route me in such a way as to make the last few turns always right-turns. It will even suggest that I drive past my destination and make a u-turn so that a right turn is the final choice.

dd

have you check to see if they've updated the on ramps? there's a freeway by my office that they've redone recently (few months ago) and all the on ramps have been moved. It's very possible that the on ramps moved and no one has cared to update these maps. I've figured that since this is fairly recent on my end, I won't see any changes for a few years. Actually, my gps still shows that I need to go through this round about before getting on the freeway, but that has been taken away years ago. (old type round about, u-turn type on ramp)

I'm in texas and the freeway i've just mentioned is in Kingwood (59N)

It's a plot...

...the vast Right-Turn Conspiracy

You crack me up, you have a quirky sense of humor of my co-worker which I enjoy every day.

But I wonder if it does right turns more cause it is easier to do right turns the left in heavy traffic.

It think it's probably that, and, which side of the street the GPS thinks your destination is on - I've noticed mine wants me to pull up with the destination on the right more often than not.

I was also having problems with my Nuvi 350 avoiding freeways, and sent an email to the Garmin Support folks. This is what they said:

"I would try putting your unit in truck mode. .... This will allow you to stay on larger roads such as highways and interstates. "

Give it a try before you give up.

That is a great suggestion about Hwys. I am going to do that on my next trip where I want to take the interstates vs back country roads.

I have no complaints on routing via Freeway. Has always worked well for me.

My 370 goes out of its way to make sure I end up on the same side of the street as my destination, i.e. just turn right and there you are.

it all has to do with the settings. croser route, best route and truck routeand whatever avoidance you have turned on.

this thread has helped me understand some of the routing issues I was having.

Where I live, most roads are shown as thick gray lines, but some are shown as thin gray lines. For some reason the Garmin went out of its way to avoid the thin gray lined roads.

Apparently the Garmin thinks that thin gray lined roads are "unpaved" and I had the routing set to avoid unpaved roads.

unchecking "unpaved" in avoidances fixed my issue. thanks all!

of course, it would have helped a lot if the garmin web site would update its "map legend" page to have all road types listed.

Yes, that would be helpful, the legend that is.