RDS-TMC traffic in the US has more coverage than PLUS

[mvl]

I was forced to use RDS-TMC (antenna) traffic in NYC today, as my PLUS subscription is broken.

Turns out that the antenna traffic has more sideroad coverage than PLUS. It now appears to use the expanded Inrix traffic, although Inrix only runs this expanded system at rush hour.

This expanded coverage is the same limited sideroad coverage that was shown during the September 09 "outage", so I'm pretty convinced now that Tomtom is deliberately restricting PLUS traffic, either due to Inrix licensing restrictions or a marketing decision to push people into LIVE traffic.

RDS-TMC traffic isn't as comprehensive as LIVE traffic, the rest of the info must be coming other LIVE devices and from Trafficcast.

RDS-TMC traffic is also much more stable than PLUS traffic, the "dead zone" crashes don't occur like they do with PLUS. In fact, with 8.302 on my 930 and RDS-TMC traffic it didn't crash with over 8 hours of use covering about 10 destinations. PLUS traffic definitely would have crashed by then.

 

[gatorguy]

Even Live traffic is not so different from RDS-TMC for the vast majority of the country. The biggest upside is the timeliness of delivery and thus the dependability of the reported traffic conditions. In many areas the actual road coverage will be comparable.

Good to see you discovered that simply because a service is more expensive doesn't make it better.

 

[mvl]

NYC is one area where the expanded Inrix on RDS-TMC is vastly improved over Plus.

However, the problem with IQroutes delay being added to RDS-TMC delay causes way more sideroad driving than appropriate. This issue doesn't happen with PLUS nor LIVE traffic as Tomtom subtracts the IQroutes delay at the server, so I'd still prefer LIVE traffic over RDS-TMC.

In connecticut it appears PLUS traffic doesn't cover the Merrit (RDS-TMC does), so in that location I'd prefer RDS-TMC traffic.

Still, LIVE traffic is a further significant update over the RDS-TMC coverage in NYC, Connecticut, and pretty much everywhere else that I've tried. And it doesn't suffer from the double-delay problem.

In New York EPT is very helpful, and although it's close I'd take a 930 with PLUS traffic over a 740 with LIVE traffic in New York purely because of EPT.

In Boston the EPT doesn't work as well in the tunnels as I thought. So there I'd prefer a 740.

I'm really hoping Tomtom just sells the 940 or 950 here so we can stop having to make this choice. If Tomtom publicly committed to not releasing a 940/950 within the next year, that would be fine for me too, as I'd go out and buy a 740 to swap with the 930 where I saw fit. This "unknown" status that we're in is really annoying.

 

[gatorguy]

If you're truly interested in a 740, let me know. Mine is not nearly as useful to me as I had expected.

 

[mvl]

If you're truly interested in a 740, let me know. Mine is not nearly as useful to me as I had expected.

I'll let you know - see my quandry below, however. I'll wait for the CES and then think about what to do next.

I'm really hoping Tomtom just sells the 940 or 950 here so we can stop having to make this choice. If Tomtom publicly committed to not releasing a 940/950 within the next year, that would be fine for me too, as I'd go out and buy a 740 to swap with the 930 where I saw fit. This "unknown" status that we're in is really annoying.