tom tom europe start 25 fastes route from London

[Unleashed]

hi all,

so I have that device as mentioned in the topic (tom tom europe start 25) and when coming home to Cambridge from kingston London, no matter what setting I chose it always wants to take me through the centre of London and even in the middle of London where it takes literally an hour to move 10 feet, while in my new BMW it uses google maps and after 5-10 minutes I was on the m25 and got back to cambridge much faster, why does tomtom hate motorways and want to take me through A roads and horrible roads? :/

fastes route? more like longest route possible along these roads that have me sitting in traffic for HOURS.. whats up with that? any other setting does the same and I dont know why? in fact I tried other settings and it took me through the centre of London and added a few hours to my journey, while bmw's built in sat nav got me on the motor ways and the good routes home

 

[Andy_P]

On my GO 1005 a "fastest" route from Kingston upon Thames (Centre) to Cambridge (Centre) doesn't take me through the centre of London at all.

It takes me through Richmond Park , across Kew Bridge then round the A406 North Circular to the start of the A1 and then up the A1 to Junction 9 and onto the A505.
67 miles - 1 hr 44 mins at 1am (1 hr 57 mins at 9am)

Google maps takes me on a more devious route through Richmond, but still over Kew Bridge. Then it goes on the North Circular but STAYS on it much longer and takes the M11 up to Cambridge
77.2 miles - 1 hr 39 mins

Not much difference there!

To take this further, we'd need some detail of the exact routes Your Start and your Google maps took and the journey times/distances.

 

[Unleashed]

right! one of them is that north circula thing.. and there is ALWAYS like 5000 years of traffic waiting for me.. with the google maps that the bmw sat nav uses it had me on the m25 within 5 minutes and home much faster..

but I cant get tomtom to go on the motorways and it hates them and wants to see me sit in traffic for hours no matter what setting I chose.. its either go through the north circular (quicker setting) or go through the centre of London

I kept choosing new settings to try get on the motor way every time I go to kingston and it never tells me to go a way where I go on the motor way EVER

when I get in the car I shall take the exact route and save it.. I am told the bmw sat nav uses google maps any way

 

[Andy_P]

I've done a lot of testing of the routes suggested by TomTom LIVE models and found that (against all my expectations) routes that took me through places I would normally avoid like the plague often actually turned out to be quicker after all.
Obviously the Start 25 isn't a LIVE model so it can't allow for unusual traffic conditions, but I think it still uses IQRoutes mapping (not 100% sure about that though).

As we all know, the M25 can be a car park for long periods of the day as well...

But all SatNavs are only a guide, they have much smaller brains than the average human, so if you think you know a better way, take it and let the GPS catch up with you.

On last thing.... I'd be interested in ANY route that got me from the centre of Kingston upon Thames to the M25 in 5 minutes! Does your car have wings?

 

[Unleashed]

ok maybe not 5 minutes but compared to going through the north circular roads it feels like 5 minutes... I know the M25 has been known to be very bad but when I go on the M25 I am always able to keep doing 70mph the whole way while going through suggested routes on the tomtom I sit for hours and I barely go 10 feet, thats probably why it felt like 5 minutes getting on the m25 with the other suggested route but it got me home much faster then those routes..

I just want to be able to make tomtom suggest the motor way all the time, not roads that like you I would normally avoid.. I get used to the way tomtom goes and I can recognise the roads but other then that I would have no idea where I am going and would be completely lost. I dont use it until after around 6pm so its usually not really bad when I go on there not even half as bad as the north circular that you are only allowed to drive 50mph and never reach 10mph and are fighting with the crazy london drivers who push their way in and are generally nasty drivers. (no offence to any Londoners here)

btw that would be sweet to have wings on my car, I bet bmw or mercedes will be the first cars to have them in 10000 years lmao (well affordable road cars any way, not supercars that cost more then a house)

 

[Andy_P]

the crazy london drivers who push their way in and are generally nasty drivers. (no offence to any Londoners here)

That's me :lol:

Well, going back to the original problem... there's nothing the user can do to affect the roads used for TomTom routing, other than the preferences settinngs to AVOID motorways etc.

All I can suggest is trying the "Calculate alternative" button a few times to see if that produces a route you like, or you can always use "Travel via..." and add a point on the M25 itself to force the TT to go that way.

 

[Unleashed]

hehe.. I can see how living in London would make you end up driving like that though.. its so frustrating sitting in countless hours of traffic, in Cambridge our traffic is like nothing for London lol.

well thanks for your suggestions, I did notice an option to say avoid motorways and I was hoping there would be one to stick to motor ways. I will try the travel via method.. i did try calculating alternative route and I ended up going through this very rich area where every other car was a ferrari or lamborghini and these lights that stayed green for literally 5 seconds at a time and stayed red for what seemed to be 500 hours so it put me off trying that again lol.

thanks though and have a good xmas

 

[Pater]

I guess we're all assuming that you are not using 'Avoid motorways', 'Shortest route' et, but 'Fastest route'.

 

[Unleashed]

that is correct

I have also switched between fastest route and shortest route to find a way to get on the motor way, but I really think Andy's solution will be the best one using the "Travel Via" option but I wont get to try it out until the start of next year when I next go to Kingston.

unless you have any other suggestions then I am open to them if there is some way I can make tomtom by default always use motor ways for as long as possible

 

[Pater]

that is correct
best one using the "Travel Via" option

Is pretty much fool-proof, providing only one "travel Via" is needed. Beyond that, Itinerary, with/without Vias is needed. Or one has to "close" a road in order to force TT to get the "right" alternative. Gleaned from experience of towing in Cornwall, Pyrenees and Alps.

 

[canderson]

If you "close" a road, please remember NOT to MapShare it!

 

[Pater]

If you "close" a road, please remember NOT to MapShare it!

As if I would ( ; > )