tweaking the route to use highways

[UnknownUser]

Perhaps it was due to my newbieness, but my TomTom One totally let me down yesterday. Hopefully people here can tell me what I did wrong.

I had a funeral to go to followed by a trip to the family's house.I had to go to from Southern New Jersey to a city in Pa that I was unfamiliar with. Both "fastest route" and "shortest route" told me to take back roads instead of highways which would take way longer. I just went to 95 in Pa and let it recalculate which worked great.


Now we have to go to a city in NJ that I'm unfamiliar with. I forgo the printed directions that are offered because I have a GPS. We start driving back the way we had come while I plugged in the address. Both shortest, and fastest want to take me through downtown Philadelphia, easily three times the time it would take to use 95. I try "travel via" but can't find 95 using "route 95", "RT 95", "US95"... I can't find it. I try "find alternative" and it goes into an endless loop of calculating a route and finally shuts itself off. Being totally lost at this point I have to stop and ask directions to 95. Once on 95 I finally get the TomTom to turn back on. It gets a route and I follow it only to find out that it lets me down again. Instead of taking 295 which everone else did, it takes me through back roads, even a dirt road, and takes me around a section of road that was perfectly clear... Needless to say, it took me twice as long as anyone else to get to the house.


Anyone have any help? Why is it always avoiding major highways? I do not have it set to avoid tolls.

 

[devnull]

Unfortunately, I've had similar experiences with my newly acquired TT1. I've reached the point of giving up on it and am sending it back.

 

[LostFool]

Perhaps it was due to my newbieness, but my TomTom One totally let me down yesterday. Hopefully people here can tell me what I did wrong.

I had a funeral to go to followed by a trip to the family's house.I had to go to from Southern New Jersey to a city in Pa that I was unfamiliar with. Both "fastest route" and "shortest route" told me to take back roads instead of highways which would take way longer. I just went to 95 in Pa and let it recalculate which worked great.


Now we have to go to a city in NJ that I'm unfamiliar with. I forgo the printed directions that are offered because I have a GPS. We start driving back the way we had come while I plugged in the address. Both shortest, and fastest want to take me through downtown Philadelphia, easily three times the time it would take to use 95. I try "travel via" but can't find 95 using "route 95", "RT 95", "US95"... I can't find it. I try "find alternative" and it goes into an endless loop of calculating a route and finally shuts itself off. Being totally lost at this point I have to stop and ask directions to 95. Once on 95 I finally get the TomTom to turn back on. It gets a route and I follow it only to find out that it lets me down again. Instead of taking 295 which everone else did, it takes me through back roads, even a dirt road, and takes me around a section of road that was perfectly clear... Needless to say, it took me twice as long as anyone else to get to the house.


Anyone have any help? Why is it always avoiding major highways? I do not have it set to avoid tolls.

Isn't 295 a toll road? Did you have toll road preferences set to avoid?

 

[UnknownUser]

No, I've checked several times, and it isn't set to avoid toll roads. Actually, I'd like an option to please use toll roads

I took a trip to the Pocono mountains over the last two days and it was more of the same. It wanted to take me through Philadelphia instead of using highways to come home. Back roads for a 4 hour trip? I could be wrong, but it appears to deliberately avoid highways, preferring back roads. Either an option to "prefer major highways" or if the engine would just use highways when travelling more than a certain amount, it would be a huge improvement. But then again, I never tried my hand at GPS programming so that's probably easier said than done

When it DOES calculate a good route (or I manage to tweak it using "travel via") it's a wonderful thing which takes the stress out of road trips. Unfortunately, it's been ADDING to my stress level during road trips. I love my tech toys, especially small wireless devices. But if I can't get better routes this thing is getting ebayed.

 

[LostFool]

No, I've checked several times, and it isn't set to avoid toll roads. Actually, I'd like an option to please use toll roads

I took a trip to the Pocono mountains over the last two days and it was more of the same. It wanted to take me through Philadelphia instead of using highways to come home. Back roads for a 4 hour trip? I could be wrong, but it appears to deliberately avoid highways, preferring back roads. Either an option to "prefer major highways" or if the engine would just use highways when travelling more than a certain amount, it would be a huge improvement. But then again, I never tried my hand at GPS programming so that's probably easier said than done

When it DOES calculate a good route (or I manage to tweak it using "travel via") it's a wonderful thing which takes the stress out of road trips. Unfortunately, it's been ADDING to my stress level during road trips. I love my tech toys, especially small wireless devices. But if I can't get better routes this thing is getting ebayed.

There are settings to avoid major hiways when you do your trip planning. If you aren't being asked what type of route then you need to check all of your preferences to make sure it is set to use the fastest route and not the scenic route.