Avoid part of route: How?

How can I tell my TT to avoid a section of a road? For example, there may be roadwork or an accident, etc. I don't wish to rule out the whole road, just the trouble area.

My XXL 540 TM does this when it gets a traffic report showing a problem on part of a road. But I can't figure out how to mark an area to avoid.

Thanks

PS This is a follow on to my earlier, unanswered, post on "roadblocks"

...TomTom should then create a new route.

I appreciate your reply Rick.

I don't wish to remove an entire road from the route. I want to remove just a section of road. For example, there might be traffic due to an accident, or construction, etc. on a small section of a long road. I want to route, or reroute, around it by telling the Tomtom to avoid that section.

In a sense, it is the opposite of a "Via". I'm puzzled because I would have thought this would be a very common use for the GPS. What do you do when you are driving along and you see a traffic jam ahead? Do you turn off at the next intersection? Turn left or right? I would have hoped the GPS would help with that sort of thing.

The Roadblock choices do not appear to work because they assume that the road I am on is immediately and totally blocked. So they do not consider taking a turnoff just a short distance ahead.

Am I missing something basic about how to work this thing?

Thanks,

Harry

Apart from Rick's suggestion to "avoid part of route", I can think of only one other approach. And I understand the problem you're seeing - sometimes you are trying to avoid a small section of a road that represents a long stretch of your route, not the whole thing - but the selection available to avoid is for a long run of that road. Sometimes you get lucky and that stretch is broken into segments for some reason, but often it's not.

If I encounter something like that in territory with which I'm not familiar, I'll wander off to the surface streets or parallel streets for a bit and then tell my TomTom to navigate to the location (done quickly by Navigate to > Recent destination) again. It typically puts me back on the original road, and since I've driven in the correct direction for a bit, somewhere further down that original road than when I left it.

Thanks for the note Canderson.

I'm surprised that my Tomtom lacks a way to detour around a traffic jam I can see ahead. It does exactly that when it gets info from the traffic receiver. But it appears there is no way for me to manually tell it about a traffic jam ahead. That's unfortunate.

As you suggest, I can head off onto a side street and hope for the best when the TT brings me back to the route. Sometimes that might work well. Other times it might make things worse.

Instead of "roadblock" I think a "Traffic jam" icon followed by a few choices would be much better. For example:

1. Traffic is: A. blocked, or B. slow?

2. Jam Begins: A. Immediately, B. 50 yards C. 200 Yards, D. 1/4 mile away

3. Jam length: A. 10 yards, B. 100 yards C. 1000 yards, D. indefinite

Or do graphic choices - touching the screen to indicate the area to avoid, and choosing either roadblock or road slow.

Are you sure you did "avoid roadblock"? That feature should do what you want. After you do "avoid roadblock" the Tomtom should ask how far ahead you want avoided, and should avoid the road only up to the distance you select.

The problem is you can't easily avoid an area 50 or 100 miles ahead.

In the UK, for example, the M25 motorway is often called the UK's longest car park, because of routine heavy congestion, and most drivers who didn't have to use it would avoid it. But not TT.

IQ routes has overcome many of these types of problems, and Live Traffic even more but there can still be occasions when roadside message boards inform you of traffic delays of which TT is unaware.

Being able to Avoid M1, J 8-10, for example would be a useful feature.

However, the best way around the problem at the moment is to look at the map, manually decide on an alternative, and Travel Via... Not the easiest thing to do whilst driving in heavy traffic at 70mph!

Thanks so much for your note. Part of the problem may be that I am confused about how the "road block" algorithm works.

For example, if I do the Roadblock command, then choose 1 mile, what will the program do?

It highlights the next mile of my route, beginning from the spot where I've issued the command. Then what does it do?


Thanks again...

It will, where possible, plot a route which avoids the next mile. On a single carriageway road, it will tell you to turn around and take you around the blockage. If you're on a dual carriageway or motorway, it will tell you to leave at the next exit.

This is a fairly crude way of getting around an obstruction you come across en route. It's of no use when you learn of a problem via radio or display boards of a blockage many miles ahead.

I have done this by using the (Un)block street option in Map Corrections. This allows you to temporarily (or permanently) block a specific point on a road. Worked well for me.