I cant explain Routing

[Z28]

Recently coming home from Orlando Fl to Crystal River Fl, the TT chose a peculiar routing through Wildwood Fl. Navigation was use FASTEST and allow toll roads. TT chose to exit the Florida turnpike at US301, then go north to US44 and then west towards CR going under I75. The last part goes through parts of Wildwood, not the fastest. The preferred way would have been to stay on the turnpike, merge with NB I75, then exit at US44, and proceed west to CR.
Later using TT home, I removed all mapshare corrections but my own and had the TT prepare route (A to B) using the same start and end points. It did exactly the same.
Sorta bothers me because if I am in strange territory how reliable is the routing? I know that bottom line is that it will get me there. By the way Google maps used the prefered route. Versions shown below. Will appreciate any ideas.

 

[drledger]

Sometimes the routing just does not make sense. I do not know if the fuzzy logic that TT uses fails to understand the concept of reasonable routing or if in the software there is just a glitch or map error. This past week TT kept telling me to turn when I was on a limited access highway with no turns even available. And in a mile or two TT showed me off the road. This was not a new road. Then TT tried to take me through a small rural town when there was a perfectly good four land road around it. In most cases I think TT will get you there but the process is not 100 per cent yet.

 

[mvl]

Z28, your issue is due to a map bug. The thing I like about tomtom is that you can fix the bugs yourself rather than waiting for a new map.

The bug is on the I-75 / Hwy-44 interchange. Tomtom is not permitting a left turn from the I-75 offramp to Hwy 44.

The tomtom map (and google maps) look different from the actual interchange in google street view. I suspect that there was major construction on the interchange recently, and teleatlas mapped it in the middle of the construction with the confusing lane restrictions.

At the bottom of the offramp, there is a physical fork prior to hwy 44 between the right turn lane and the left/straight lane. Although you can't see it, the left/straight lane is physically disconnected from offramp, and therefore unusable.

Since you can't change physical road locations, I used the following as a workaround:
1) Use mapshare to erase the portion of the left/straight lane that is south of Hwy-44.
2) Use mapshare to change the small east-only segment of Hwy44 to a east-west segment.

Tomtom will now take the left, by using the small east-only segment of Hwy-44 to get to the original left/straight lane.

Once the left is permissible, the routing will stop taking you into downtown Wildwood.

In general, any routing error I have found was due to a tomtom map bug. And with mapshare I've been able to fix them all (why I'll never buy another brand nav). drledger if you have specifics I can look into why you've been having issues also.

 

[ccarson]

MVL has pointed out the routing factor in your case. Map bugs would be suspect in similar cases but I experienced one instance of strange routing for another reason. I have the traffic service on my TomTom Go920 and on a recent trip from New Jersey to Tyson's Corner, VA my route took me off of I95 near Wilmington, DE onto Route 58 then onto Route 4 to Route 273 and back onto I95. The return trip took me straight down I95 with no detour. I found out later that there was road construction on the stretch between the two exits that had closed a lane and was causing a backup. The lane closure icon showed up briefly on the TomTom display but I hadn't noticed the rerouting alert and message.

In another instance, a friend's TomtTom would repeatedly take him off the New Jersey turnpike and then immediately back on. He couldn't figure out what was going on until I asked him if he was using the truck or car lanes. It turns out that the fastest routing between Philadelphia and Newark normally wants to use the car ('express') lanes and the TomTom will attempt to take the driver off the turnpike and then back on to get into the express lane.

 

[pianoCM]

Recently coming home from Orlando Fl to Crystal River Fl, the TT chose a peculiar routing through Wildwood Fl. Navigation was use FASTEST and allow toll roads. TT chose to exit the Florida turnpike at US301, then go north to US44 and then west towards CR going under I75. The last part goes through parts of Wildwood, not the fastest. The preferred way would have been to stay on the turnpike, merge with NB I75, then exit at US44, and proceed west to CR.
Later using TT home, I removed all mapshare corrections but my own and had the TT prepare route (A to B) using the same start and end points. It did exactly the same.
Sorta bothers me because if I am in strange territory how reliable is the routing? I know that bottom line is that it will get me there. By the way Google maps used the prefered route. Versions shown below. Will appreciate any ideas.

Mate, no need to repeat but your local knowledge is far more superior than Tomtom unit as well as ANY other navigating devices, so don't compare, just know there is no perfection.
If I was down there with your GPS, as long as it takes me to my destination, I'm happy with it, I don't care (actually I wouldn't know) this route would take only 5 minutes or that route would take 8 minutes. I'm new to that area, I don't know and I can't compare and so do you.

 

[Z28]

Thanks all for your responses. MVL you are right on! There was construction several months ago at that location. I will make your mapshare corrections to my map. Thanks.

 

[sageuvagony]

I was driving to NY in 2005 from FL, and these are the directions mapquest makes me take. TomTom unfortunately isn't the only thing that gives such stupid directions. I got lost following mapquest's stupid "get on get off get on get off get on get off I-95" directions. When I drove back to FL from NY, I just took I-95 instead the whole entire way, which saved TONS of headaches and frustration.

 

[mvl]

sageuvagony,

I used to drive DC to NY a lot back in college. IMHO, Mapquest is taking you the best way.

I95 takes the counterclockwise beltway around DC, and 495 takes the clockwise beltway. The clockwise beltway is shorter/faster.

Similarly, I95 does an out-of-the way loop around philly, and going through 295/delaware bridge like mapquest says (straight to NJ turnpike) is much shorter/faster.

 

[uocooper]

Don't forget to always submit your corrections to both mapshare and Map Insight. http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com

 

[Z28]

UOCOOPER
I did report this situation to teleatlas. Their reporting process is very easy to use. However: I tried to do what MVL suggested in with mapshare :
Since you can't change physical road locations, I used the following as a workaround:
1) Use mapshare to erase the portion of the left/straight lane that is south of Hwy-44.
2) Use mapshare to change the small east-only segment of Hwy44 to a east-west segment.
I totally messed up. The TT kept complainng about wrong way on a one way. So I was unable to get my unit to recognize the preferred routing and therefore was not able to share this correction.

 

[mvl]

The one-way issue is probably part of the second step.

Did you do "Menu" -> "Map Corrections" -> "Correct a map error" -> "Block unblock street" -> "On map".

Then on the interchange, zoom in all the way. Click on the Hwy 44 eastbound section, between the part of the ramp marked "Iverness" and the part marked "Leesburg". Then click done.

On the next screen, you should see "eastbound" with a blue arrow and "westbound" with a red do-not-enter sign. Click on "westbound" and it changes to a blue arrow.

Is that what you did? If so, where are you seeing the 1-way error?

 

[Z28]

Thanks again MVL. I printed your last post and am going to hook up my TT and follow it step by step. I did zoom all the way but blocked the NB exit to west 44 which appears to be an orphan. Then tried to turn the NB east exit to allow left turn. That was where one way message popped up. Am going to try your latest now.
I did what you said and it worked great. I redid navigate function and it went off the east bound ramp and turned left back to WB 44. Looks funny but works great thanks.