Avoiding Toll Roads

Weeelll, dunno about the 760, but on my 660, I just hit the "wrench" icon then hit the "navigation" icon then hit "avoidances". On that menu whatever is checked/selected gets avoided and "Toll Roads" is one of the options. Be aware, however, people here and on other GPS forums have gotten screwy routings when avoiding "toll roads" that took them hundreds of miles out of the way. Especially in the New England/NYC area. With gas prices these days, it's better to just pay the toll!

Tools - Settings - Navigation - Avoidances

And I agree about the routing problem. When I was visiting Florida a couple of years ago I set my Garmin to avoid toll roads when travelling from Orlando to Cape Kennedy. On the trip back I turned that avoidance off and the trip time was cut in half. Well worth the couple of dollars in tolls.

I'd be a little careful with that. The upper East coast is LOADED with toll roads. If you set an avoidance for toll roads, you may have to add a couple days on to your travel! If you travel up I-95, you'll be paying tolls about every 3 miles, but it's still the best way to get from point A to point B. I avoided toll roads trying to get into NYC, and I ended up in some neighborhoods I hope I never visit again!!

Cheers........ Joel

I thought I'd turn off toll roads when I was nearing Chicago on my recent trip to Michigan. When I got into town it directed me to get off an exit, which put me driving slowly through the south side on a busy city street.

After that, I figured I'll just pay the $1.00 or however much the toll is from now on.

I'm doing a similar trip and I quickly realized the toll avoidance also includes toll bridges (makes sense really) on some of the major routes that made it unacceptable to use. What I did, given the abilities of the 7xx series, was to add a few extra waypoints to my route so it followed the non-toll roads I wanted to take, as well as completely avoiding NYC to get up to New England.

be careful avoiding toll roads, last time I did that, I was about 40 minles from home, it took me all the way around, when I hit to see the next step and the next it showed that I was going to get home in 2 days.
Be careful

I was thinking about going to Boston from Richmond, VA and I had the "Avoid Tolls" on (which I didn't realize it) and took me all the way up through Ohio and along the Canadian boarder! I am not sure why it couldn't find the little back roads, I am sure that it wasn't the fastest time!!!!!

you can drive from FL to NH on major Interstates, except for a 40 mile stretch of Rt 17 in VA, and only pay 50 cents in tolls one way and $3.50 the other way. And you only add about 1 hour of driving time !

I don't care much about avoiding tolls unless it is worth my time to avoid them. What I really wish Garmin had was a "Limited Access Highway" avoidance. Limited access roads are fast when clear but you are stuck when they are clogged. Having the GPS doesn't help when you have no access to a detour.

It is also nice to take trips that avoid the limited access highways. You see more of the country that way. When Charles Kuralt of CBS traveled around the USA he never used a limited access highway.

The Garmin toll road avoidance is too limited.

I set my NUVI to avoid ferries, unpaved roads and u-turns.
since I pull a camper a lot, then u-turns are a problem.
I don't want gravel beating up my truck and camper.
And I don't want to sink on the ferry that might go down.

Traffic notices I don't have... so I don't see that one really works for me unless Garmin estimates when heavy traffic is.
I need the highways.... and don't mind the toll roads.

What's other's choices?

I just do the "unpaved roads"

I had an in-dash Pioneer Avic-D1 in my last car. One nice feature that I wish the Garmin had is that if a route was created that crossed a toll road or toll bridge, a little icon appear in the bottom left of the display with a dollar sign just notifying you that there is a toll on route. It had the typical advoidances just like Garmin, but those little icons were nice ... it had icons if you were going to be on a major freeway, ferry, toll road, etc. I found it quite handy.

Thank you for the advice and input. It does seem with gas prices going the way they are that it may be in most cases better to just pay the tolls rather than reroute and pay higher costs in mileage than the toll would have cost.

I agree. Sometime it's better and cheaper to just pay the toll not to mention that will also get you to your destination faster.

You really need to know what to expect before you turn on the toll-road avoidance.

In the NYC area, a lot of the major thoroughfares have tolls, and some can be rather pricey- but become necessary evils to get from point A to B.

When I go to the Orlando, FL area to visit my sister, there are roads which have tolls every few miles or so, with fifty or seventy-five cents here and there. To save a dollar or two and avoid these roads would probably cost more than that in gas- let alone time.

At least ask the GPS to generate a route with the toll avoidance on and then off before you undertake the journey and see what is what. Finding out en route can become costly, even if it means not paying the tolls.

Be well,
Rob

Yeap, sorta like going across town to get gas for 5 cents cheaper when you have to go 20 miles and burn up 3/4 of a gallon.

However, if you have no cash (which is often my case), you may want to avoid the tolls and get gas with credit card.

I guess it depends on the roads and knowledge of the area. When I have a long trip, I check the route with toll avoidance, and then again with tolls. If the difference is not much in terms of distance, I usually avoid the tolls. The estimated time of arrival I do not rely on so much because once traffic lights set in, the ETA is almost meaningless.
If you take the Skyway here in Chicago to Indiana (I-90), the first toll is $2.50 for a stretch of road which is about 5 miles. Once you cross the bridge, another toll waits on the Indiana side. The skyway toll is much higher for buses and trucks. For trucks, the rate is higher depending on when it pass the skyway. Without a GPSr, I did not know the way around those points. Now I know and I avoid them, saving myself some money. I generally go to Indiana now without tolls, with about 10 minutes added to the trip, saving about $10 on a return trip. That allows me to buy some cheaper Indiana gas on the way. I should add that trucks may have little choice is they take I-90 to enter Chicago. I-94 is toll-less up to some point, until you get to I-294 onwards when the tolls start. Sometimes, they are endless. One would be glad to avoid them.

Totally Agree. I too turned off the avoidance when traveling through several states and got to the destination quicker. Sometime the old fashion method is better.