Traffic POIs

 

Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but has anyone thought of putting together a list of POIs of common traffic areas.

For example, I have a new Nuvi 660 with the FM Traffic receiver. I also happen to live in the Philadelphia area where traffic is nothing short of horrible. The unit knows how to avoid traffic that it knows about, but often times its avoidance routes are ones that I know from experience aren't even worth trying.

In my mind, a list of common traffic POIs could potentially help others from getting stuck on routes that look good to a computer algorithm, but aren't so hot if you drive the routes daily.

Any thoughts?

not sure how that would help?

jjwgps wrote:

Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but has anyone thought of putting together a list of POIs of common traffic areas.

For example, I have a new Nuvi 660 with the FM Traffic receiver. I also happen to live in the Philadelphia area where traffic is nothing short of horrible. The unit knows how to avoid traffic that it knows about, but often times its avoidance routes are ones that I know from experience aren't even worth trying.

In my mind, a list of common traffic POIs could potentially help others from getting stuck on routes that look good to a computer algorithm, but aren't so hot if you drive the routes daily.

Any thoughts?

If we made a poi file of points to avoid, how would you use the gpsr to avoid those areas?

Perhaps a "TourGuide" type file could be used for alternate routes. For example, Bypass Philly to Points North (s,e,w as well). Or alternate routes to/from Downtown Philly to/from PIA.

Your basic idea is a good one I think. Refine it and you have a winner!

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........Garmin StreetPilot c550 / Nüvi 765...........

in the nuvi line theres an

in the nuvi line theres an avoid option

avoid.....?

Avoid what...please expound.

Avoid points - ?
Avoid particular intersections - ?
Avoid identified stretches of roadway - ?

The Avoid Traffic option will only avoid traffic that has been identified by the traffic receiver.
As the original poster states, the suggested route to avoid traffic is sometimes not an effective route around said traffic. I think this is why jjwgps is suggesting an alternate method around known traffic issues utilizing his/her local knowledge of the area.

My thoughts would be a TourGuide type file around known problem areas. Or a "route" that could be followed, perhaps best used on the new 7xx's.

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........Garmin StreetPilot c550 / Nüvi 765...........

.

Yeah, the avoid option does not allow you to avoid POIs.

Live traffic

This sounds like something where a live traffic linkage would be more effective since areas to be avoided are sometimes the fastest roads when there is no traffic.

NYC would be one place to avoid! But it really depends on what the current conditions are for a particular road.

Sunday mornings, and I can get from my house to Chelsea in 20 min. At 5:30pm on weekdays, I wouldn't even bother.

NYC traffic

Atangel wrote:

This sounds like something where a live traffic linkage would be more effective since areas to be avoided are sometimes the fastest roads when there is no traffic.

NYC would be one place to avoid! But it really depends on what the current conditions are for a particular road.

Sunday mornings, and I can get from my house to Chelsea in 20 min. At 5:30pm on weekdays, I wouldn't even bother.

In such a big city as NYC, it will be difficult to get a clear picture of the best routes to take at an given point of time.

So many things can happen that can snarl up traffic in an instant in NYC. Things such as a fender bender, a police escorted motorcade, a police barricade, a traffic accident, movie shooting, double-triple parked cars/trucks,garbage pickup, snow plowing, etc, etc. Any of these can cause grid-lock.

What is striking though is that, a police car can sometimes use its light and siren to get through the messed up traffic and then just drive away casually, ignoring the problem. It seems like regular NYC cops feel that traffic issues are beneath them and they cannot be bothered. They let the Traffic people (used to be called brownies) take care of the mess.

If you are caught in a situation like this, I do not think a GPS with traffic linkage would be very much help.

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vvitug

NYC? Chi-town? All the same.

vvitug wrote:

What is striking though is that, a police car can sometimes use its light and siren to get through the messed up traffic and then just drive away casually, ignoring the problem. It seems like regular NYC cops feel that traffic issues are beneath them and they cannot be bothered.

Just a note to let you know, that NYCPD isn't the only ones. LoL

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Rodney.. oditius.htc@gmail.com BMW Zumo 550 HTC Touch Pro - Garmin XT

Brown No More

And the Brownies are brown no more. They wear police colors so they are harder to tell apart from real cops at a distance.

They also wanted, if I remeber correctly, Guns too at one point, but thankfully that didn't happen!

With the new units I have

With the new units I have noticed that you can put POI warnings that activate over a certain speed. Can you do the inverse, that is activate when under a certain speed? While not a solution to the traffic problem, it could be one step in the right direction.