Fix found for U-turn 5 minute delay

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mvl

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Tomtom has a safety "feature" where it adds a 5 minute delay to any u-turn on a route. This prevents its built in routing from taking u-turns, even in instances when they are deliberately designed traffic-flow elements on a road.

I was tinkering with mapshare and found a fix for this, but it only works on divided highways, and you have to do it one u-turn at a time:

1) use mapshare's "Block/unblock road" feature and change the 1-way road prior to the uturn into a 2-way road
2) use mapshare's "turn restriction" feature and prevent any turns into the wrong direction of the 1-way road.

When you use route planner, you can see the 5-minute delay will be removed. And tomtom's routing will not try to avoid the U-turn because of the delay.
 
This doesn't seem beneficial at all except for places you have already been to, or familiar with, in which a GPS device is useless at this point. I wouldn't screw with the maps for something this small.

Having to do this with every destination is... blah..
 
I agree, this isn't useful in unknown neighborhoods. But I'd rather not have to take potentially unsafe u-turns in places I've never been before.

This fix works great in Boston. There are always 10 different ways to go somewhere, and with IQ2 tomtom often finds better ways to go places than I do, even after driving here for 20 years. The only non-perfect decisions it has made so far had to do with either rush-hour (doesn't have enough IQ time of day data yet) or u-turns.

This u-turn fix eliminates half the problem. So I'm hoping my tomtom can teach me even better ways to drive places around here.

Based on the quality of IQ2 data (and if it continues to improve), I'll be the first in line for the map subscription once they release it in the US.
 
This is great. There is a u-turn right in front of my office. When I am going back to the office, I will not need to listen to bad directions. I need to leave the unit on for the bluetooth.
 
mvl said:
Tomtom has a safety "feature" where it adds a 5 minute delay to any u-turn on a route. This prevents its built in routing from taking u-turns, even in instances when they are deliberately designed traffic-flow elements on a road.

I was tinkering with mapshare and found a fix for this, but it only works on divided highways, and you have to do it one u-turn at a time:

1) use mapshare's "Block/unblock road" feature and change the 1-way road prior to the uturn into a 2-way road
2) use mapshare's "turn restriction" feature and prevent any turns into the wrong direction of the 1-way road.

When you use route planner, you can see the 5-minute delay will be removed. And tomtom's routing will not try to avoid the U-turn because of the delay.
Click to expand...

I can't seem to get the block/unblock to change the 1-way into a 2-way road. I take the divided highway and block the eastbound half. How do I turn the westbound part into a eastbound/westboard two way road?

Thanks,

Howie
 
Last edited:
hditkof said:
I can't seem to get the block/unblock to change the 1-way into a 2-way road. I take the divided highway and block the eastbound half. How do I turn the westbound part into a eastbound/westboard two way road?

Thanks,

Howie
Click to expand...

The key to the fix is that the 5 minute delay only happens if the original road (prior to taking the U-turn) is one way. It the original road is 2-way, it doesn't add a 5 minute delay.

If you are going eastbound, and want to take a uturn to go westbound, then don't touch the westbound road. Use "block/unblock" on the eastbound road, to unblock the westbound direction of the road so it becomes 2-way.

As part of the second step you can prevent tomtom from routing down the incorrect direction of the eastbound road by adding turn restrictions preventing all paths from going down it.
 
Will this do anything to correct the problem for other users, I wonder? It seems like something that would get thrown out without being released to MapShare. OTOH, if enough people do it at any particular intersection...
 
sageuvagony said:
This doesn't seem beneficial at all except for places you have already been to, or familiar with, in which a GPS device is useless at this point. ... blah..
Click to expand...

My TT is used mainly by my wife and 17 year old new driver. Many times, before they leave the house, I will customize the route to what I know is better than TT created. So even though I know where they are going and how to get there, they don't and the GPS device is very useful. No more phone calls after missing a turn.

(I wish "Itinerary" was more intuitve for thr non-techie, then I could save more routes for them other than the next one. :( )
 
You may wish to consider TYRE as a program to assist in Itinerary Planning.

A link is here to a site provided by a member here, Birdman, that has a link to TYRE and an explanation of how it all flows together.
 
Make U-turn a user option

Can the U-turn avoidance just be made a user option to disable or enable this "safety" feature, maybe in the next sw upgrade? You can default it to enabled, but I find it really annoying in most situations. I would like the ability to just globally disable this, rather than going and tweaking the maps.
 
gclevepitt said:
Can the U-turn avoidance just be made a user option to disable or enable this "safety" feature, maybe in the next sw upgrade? You can default it to enabled, but I find it really annoying in most situations. I would like the ability to just globally disable this, rather than going and tweaking the maps.
Click to expand...

I sure hope Tomtom does something about this. It one of the two biggest bugs that is responsible for most of the misrouting in a Tomtom IQroutes model. The other is this one.
 
No U-turns???

Not having U-turns for "safety" reasons may make sense in some areas, but here in Texas the majority of thoroughfares are median divided. And TomTom does not allow you to U-turn at median intersections (as legally allowed) to reach destinations on the opposite side of the road. The low-density, suburban layout of Dallas-Ft Worth means instead of a simple u-turn to reach the address on left side of the road, Tom Tom will routinely have you make a right , left, left, and left again - having you wander through neighborhoods trying to avoid a simply U-turn. And if you've ever been to the US southwest-neighborhoods are not typically laid out in a gridlock system with short blocks as they are in the metro east cost cities. So it's longer then a simple "5 minute delay". It's creating inefficient meandering and unnecessary excursions (on top of not being environmentally sensitive). I'm hoping TomTom fixes this. I like the idea of a "option" for turning off the "5-minute safety delay." Are you listening Tom Tom??? Why restrict perfectly legal traffic movements??? My next GPS won't be a TomTom if this doesn't get corrected.
 
Deal Breaker! If TomTom doesn't fix this, my Go 630 is going in the trash when my Map Update subscription expires and I'm buying I Garmin. As noted, U-Turns should be on by default for divided roads or at least an options. This kills me driving all over the West and even recently in NY. Driving people around the block negates IQ Routes 150%. :mad:

TomTom - are you listening?!? I put up with my no carry over of upgrade path on my $150 18 month old Europe map purchase on my old TomTom. I put up with having to buy a 2 week old map update in order to activate the Update subscription. I put up with the worst pronunciation of names (how can you get San Francisco wrong?). But I can't put up with the inability to do U-Turns. Often, the route is even more unsafe and difficult trying to turn left across traffic on some retarded alley or residential street off a major road than making a U-Turn with the protection of a traffic light. Wake Up! FIX IT! Or lose my revenue. :confused:
 
this is crazy

I had a garmin and there was an option to avoid u turns.

I live in Michigan and we have loads of U turns that are legal and necessary. The XXL IQ even shows the turn lane and avoids it!

Agree that they either fix this, or I will go back to garmin.
 
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After many years, Tomtom has finally fixed the U-turn bug on newer models.

App 12.035 finally has proper U-turn behavior. This would only be available to the newer devices that run MyTomtom.
 
Is it being released as 12.035, or 12.040???
 
MyTomtom says 12.040. Device says 12.035. Typical mismatches of app numbers in MyTomtom world.
 
Is there any geographic restriction on this that you know about? I had not seen reports of any feedback 'elsewhere' that indicates that this mod is effective outside of the U.S. (and possibly? Canada and Singapore). Scratching head ...
 
It's never been an issue here in the UK, so it may well be just a US mod.
 

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