"Avoid Freeways" in Los Angeles, CA

Joined
Dec 2, 2007
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I recently purchased both a Tomtom ONE v.3 and Tomtom ONE LE, and am having the same problem with both units.

Whenever I select a route and choose "Avoid Freeways" as a planning option, the unit(s) do not seem to recognize the fact that some of the major freeways in the area are in fact freeways (interstate 10, interstate 110, US101, etc.). I thus end up with a route that is exactly the same as if I had selected "Fastest Route," which is usually not an option in rush hour.

Anyone else experiencing this problem? I have a feeling that it may be related to the map data being improperly coded, since I have experimented with avoiding freeways in other cities, and it has worked fine for me. Any ideas? I love the ONE but not being able to avoid freeways (except for excluding the roads manually) is super annoying!

I'm running app 7.161 and maps USA/Canada 710.1575.
 
I get the same thing with my 910. Just hit find alternative and hit avoid freeway again usually the next route is better, if not the second than the third definitely is
 
But why would we even have to go through this process? Interstate 110 is definitely a freeway, so if I select "avoid", shouldn't it just ignore it as a possible option the FIRST time?
 
Yes this option doesn't really work.
I haven't recently tried this but try to use the certain speed selection and set a low speed so your unit won't make you travel on a freeway.
 
"Avoid Freeways / Tollways"

I agree, I wish there was a rhyme and reason with the "avoid" or "always use" Freeways and Tollways...depending on how fast I need to get to a customer's site I may select avoid or always take a tollway. Recently I had to visit a customer in Chicago, the first time I used "always use tollways' and "fasted route" selected (I was Late) it sent me through a wild goose chase through a bunch of toll routes, this was fine, but definitely not the fastest, then it sent me going on side streets after the toll roads. The second time to the same customer a month later, and withthe same exact settings, it sent me down the Kennedy Expressway and BAM I was there in 30 minutes from Ohare, no tolls no side streets...very frustrating when you don't know the area...!

celsius
 
Limiting speed doesn't work either

If this is a local problem, it extends to the Inland Empire as well. My TomTom doesn't seem to recognize any of the freeways west of Moreno Valley.

As I was experimenting with this, I had it plan a route from Riverside to Ontario with speed limited to 50 mph. It thinks the best way to do this is to take the 215 W to the 15 N to the 10 W. At 50 mph? The mind boggles. I really feel sorry for anyone who tries to do that.

Has anyone here contacted TomTom about this issue? What did they say?
 
Dumb question, but maybe TomTom doesn't know what a "freeway" is? I mean the voice of US Mandy says "motorway" instead of a "freeway" or "expressway", I know that motorway is a UK term, but here in the states we only use "freeway" or "expressway". And since TomTom technology is based in the UK (Netherlands), maybe they quite don't understand US maps the way they should.

Sorry for my noob analogy, but I also have encountered this same issue when traveling from San Diego to Los Angeles, and it does seem not to know what is a freeway.
 
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Well, the option is specifically called "avoid freeways", and you'd think roads specifically labeled "freeways" would qualify if anything does.

I tried some routes in the US Midwest, and the TomTom has no problem avoiding "interstates". The symbol is the same.
 
We have the opposite problem in more rural areas. We WANT to take the "freeway", "4 lane" or "interstate", (because they are faster) but get routed on small dangerous county or state 2 lane roads. Many people have complained about this on this forum.

Here in Western Kentucky, my 910 wants to send me 30 miles on a dangerous 2 lane, when the (direct route) 4 lane freeway is 2 miles from my house. I have ran into this several times. It also has a bad habit of exiting you off the 4 lane, thru many side streets, then back on. A route no one would take.

I had been thinking that it needs a "stay on 4 lane" option. But after reading your post, the problem does seem to be as you have described. Tomtom does not seem to know how to distinguish between "4 lane freeways" or "2 lane". At least in some parts of the USA.

I will also note that I get the similar results with a 910, 510, one LE. Also with 2 different map versions.

Randy R.
 
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I have the same problem with my 130S and my XL340TM Live in New York. It does not work well in New York City, Nassau County and Buffalo (those are the ones that I tried). I have no problem with the Garmin Nuvi 350 and the Magellan 4250 they both "know" what a freeway is. I have a feeling that it is a problem with the underlyer map itself. Garmin and Magellan use NAVTEQ and TomTom uses Tele Atlas.

In a place like New York with major traffic shifts during rush hour the ability to say "hey, it is rush hour and I want to stay away from the freeway system since they are nothing but parking lots" is very important to me. I wish TomTom could get this fixed. Another acceptable option would be to choose only roads with a posted speed limit under "X"mph. This way durring rush hour I would simply say stick to roads with a posted speed limit 40mph or lower (maybe even 45mph would do the trick). This would for all practical purpose kick out all the freeways.
 
I have the same problem with my 130S and my XL340TM ....
.... In a place like New York with major traffic shifts during rush hour the ability to say "hey, it is rush hour and I want to stay away from the freeway system since they are nothing but parking lots" is very important to me.
Your 130S doesn't include the IQRoutes capability which is critical to knowing the time of day (on average) that certain roads should be preferred over others due to known average speeds. I wouldn't expect any help there. Like all similar units by TomTom and other manufacturers, it looks at the road type and assumes a speed -- it will get you there, but really knows little of how fast it will actually happen.

Your XL340 should do much better, though, assuming that the IQRoutes feature is enabled. TomTom slices and dices speeds on major roads by day of week and within 15 minute time slices. Unfortunately, many minor roads aren't included, so their low assumed speed is used to calculate your likely ETA when deciding about your routing. Still, in a side by side, your 340 should be a better predictor than your 130. Of course, real time traffic data is really the ticket. I've found that the "Live" traffic feature, while still a little behind all the time, is a much better solution than the RDS, but comes with a price.
 
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