New member says hello. Why doesn't trip routing use shortest route?

[Marcus_P_Hagen]

Hi!

I bought the XXL 540 as a Christmas present for my wife. Since it arrived one day after she got lost in a snow storm, she got her present early! No point in making her wait to use it.

This site has been very helpful in clearing up some of the pronunciation glitches. However, I've got one that I haven't been able to find, perhaps because I'm not sure what search words would describe it.

When the trip starts from home, it always has the car oriented toward North, from the front of the house. This is OK when the trip goes North, but when going another direction, it does strange things like traveling two long blocks North, then turning around and coming back South before it turns West. If the car started South, it could save 1/2 mile of routing and turn West immediately.

It gets even stranger when trying to go to a site which is 8 short blocks West and 1/4 block South of my home. The calculated route has the car go North 2 long blocks, West 4 blocks, South 2 long blocks (back to the road I would have taken West initially) and then continues normally to the destination.

It's almost as if the routing software thinks that the East/West road is blocked near the house, and won't allow cars to pass that way at all.

Is there any way to find out whether the map is wrong? How can the various pieces of data (speed limit, blocked/open, gravel/paved, etc.) be examined and changed if needed?

Thank you,
Marcus

 

[dhn]

Welcome to TTF.

It may be a bit of faulty mapping that thinks a road is blocked one way when it isn't or it may be a situation whewre you know the proper route results in a turn on a divided median road where the map data thinks there is not a break in the road to make a turn.

Remember that no gps unit of any model is better than local knowledge in certain areas. If you KNOW going one way is better than that rote provided by the 540, then take it, the gps will pick up the alternate routing and recalculate in short order.

Also, do you have planning preferences set for 'fastest' and 'IQ routes' enabled?

 

[Marcus_P_Hagen]

do you have planning preferences set for 'fastest' and 'IQ routes' enabled?

Yes, both are set. The road is a 2-lane 2-way residential street. If I set the trip option to "walking", it will route there, but still only after it goes the extra 1/4 mile, turns around, and comes back. The road it wants to use, used to be a 4-lane 2-way arterial. It was recently converted to use a bi-directional center "turn" lane, and bike lanes on either side, leaving a single lane in each direction for car traffic. It's actually easier and faster to take the 2-lane residential street, since the amount of traffic on the other can have you waiting for a couple of minutes before a break allows you to turn onto the street.

If someone can point me to where I can learn more about editing maps, I'd appreciate it. The manual has only a cursory mention of preferences, and nothing about how to edit a map. When I use "Help" on the GPS, it offers to phone someone, and give links to car repair information!

I'll continue searching this site.

thanks,
Marcus

 

[dhn]

When you go to mapshare changes, anything you do on the first couple of pages will show on your map and you can share the changes with others the next time you connect to Home.

Anything on the Report page is exactly that, you can only report such changes (like a new road or anything of a geographical nature) and hope your information will get implemented in a future map.

The best way to learn about the various changes is to start going through the process for each one (like Block/Unblock road, for example). observe what screens appear for each step you take and make sure you cancel or back out before finally implementing the change.