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You guys are so funny, if you'll excuse me saying so. There has been so much road building and road modification over the last 10-15 years in the area you mention that all GPS's are out of date somewhere. Some roads were moved around when 540 was built. Some were closed/erased. Some were free then became tolled. For years I had to change my route to and from RTP about once a year just to avoid 'work zones'. Welcome to a fast growing community.
If you have a smartphone, check out Waze for navigation. The maps are continuously updated. If you input an address and ask for a route, it'll indicate if there's a toll road on the route or not. If you want to see the other options that may be take a bit longer, you hit the Routes button to see if you want to take an alternate route instead.
no, but what I find odd about my GPS is that it will take me one way to go somewhere and another route to come back. It's bizarre. When we come back from NY, once we get off I85 onto 70, it always tries to take us through these back country roads, one time it was dark and we were like, is this thing possessed, where the hell is it taking us?! Now we just shut it off at that point.
Is there a setting for "fastest route" like on a regular GPS? Maybe that's it?
I was just saying to DH that mine not only does this, but doesn't even always take me the same way to get somewhere!
I've been here a year, still can't find my way around (lived in the same city my WHOLE life) and I have yet to pay a toll, and I don't set it to avoid them.
Not with the always up to date Google Maps based navigation being asked about.
This was my thought too. My maps are always (almost always) up to date. I can't imagine why anyone would buy a dedicated GPS anymore (at least not for navigation, maybe for sports training, or something).
Anyway, I guess others don't experience the same thing I do, and that was my question, so thanks for the responses. Maybe it's just specifically where i live, and where I'm going to. (From Cary, near Old Apex and Cary Pkwy) to Durham Freeway, specifically. Trips are never during rush hour, and it's very specifically getting from and to the destinations above. (the other funny thing is that when I ignore the GPS, and it recalculates, the time to destination often decreases, as if it is agreeing with me.)
Whatever, I think the response where I was told to lose the foil hat (LMAO) is likely most accurate. There are many algorythms going into this, and it just figures I'd be "better off" going that way.
Not a life-changer, I was just curious. Now I'm not.
Well, if it is not the lack of updating on your end that is the problem, perhaps the maps themselves are not getting updated quickly enough on the GPS websites. BTW, I have a TomTom that has a setting for 'avoid toll roads'.
But the areas you mention, 540-around-RTP, and the Durham freeway, are roads where first the routes were free and then they became toll roads.
<snip about GPS maps age> You need to go online and download new maps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDJ
If you have a smartphone, check out Waze for navigation. The maps are continuously updated. <snip>
First the TomTom and then Garmen GPS'es I have used all had settings to prefer Fastest Trip or Shortest Trip (based on map info on trip segment distances and average anticipated speeds).
Next, as noted above, the off-line GPS maps will be 3+ years out-of-date. It just takes that much time to process the map updates and then distribute them. And that's assuming you pay the cash to update them!
This is the reason my Garman is in the trunk as a back-up, and I use my Android Smartphone's gNav app, (Google's Map Navigation).
Google Maps is NOT like Street View or the TomTom / Garman maps, that are reviewed and corrected every few years. gMaps are updated (and verified) by the users, in a very short time cycle. I watched the last three openings of NC-540 and each one took only about 2-3 WEEKS for the streets listed as Under Construction to get reconfigured as roads shown as Open and usable by the routing software. Also, you can go on-line to Google Maps and make additions / corrections yourself. I have. Those took about a month to be reviewed and implemented.
Even better, gNav's routing software can not only choose the Shortest or Fastest, it can also be told to use current traffic conditions when evaluating routing duration choices. the FREE overlay app Waze, will do all the above, AND have even more data, (police and traffic cam locations), that are even less out of date.
If you have a smartphone, get a mount to hold it up in-view, and a cable so it stays charged, and you'll never use a stand-alone GPS again.
First the TomTom and then Garmen GPS'es I have used all had settings to prefer Fastest Trip or Shortest Trip (based on map info on trip segment distances and average anticipated speeds).
Next, as noted above, the off-line GPS maps will be 3+ years out-of-date. It just takes that much time to process the map updates and then distribute them. And that's assuming you pay the cash to update them!
This is the reason my Garman is in the trunk as a back-up, and I use my Android Smartphone's gNav app, (Google's Map Navigation).
Google Maps is NOT like Street View or the TomTom / Garman maps, that are reviewed and corrected every few years. gMaps are updated (and verified) by the users, in a very short time cycle. I watched the last three openings of NC-540 and each one took only about 2-3 WEEKS for the streets listed as Under Construction to get reconfigured as roads shown as Open and usable by the routing software. Also, you can go on-line to Google Maps and make additions / corrections yourself. I have. Those took about a month to be reviewed and implemented.
Even better, gNav's routing software can not only choose the Shortest or Fastest, it can also be told to use current traffic conditions when evaluating routing duration choices. the FREE overlay app Waze, will do all the above, AND have even more data, (police and traffic cam locations), that are even less out of date.
If you have a smartphone, get a mount to hold it up in-view, and a cable so it stays charged, and you'll never use a stand-alone GPS again.
Entire post is excellent, and I agree with all. The last statement is my experience as well.
I'll take a look at Waze, maybe it will give me a little bit more customization capability than what I currently have... Reps coming your way, thanks!
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