Via52 still plans route through closed road

[fatbellybinky]

Hi All,
Both my son and I use TomTom Via52 devices which work fine but at the weekend, he let his Via52 plan a route back home on the south coast from Cheltenham and although he had his TomTom connected via bluetooth to his phone with Internet Data enabled, the route it planned still tried to take him through a closed road (A417 closed in both directions for the whole weekend). However, when I tried the MyDrive web route planner on my PC at home, it correctly planned the route around the closed road as it should. I set up the exact same route on my own Via52, again with Internet access enabled and it did the same thing.
Both our TomTom devices clearly showed the road closure on the map so it knew the road was closed but it still ignored it when planning his route - why?

 

[Willy875]

Hi,
Have you planned a route and sent it to your GPS?
Or have you planned a route and saved it for later use?

 

[fatbellybinky]

Hi,
Have you planned a route and sent it to your GPS?
Or have you planned a route and saved it for later use?

He didn't choose a pre-planned route. He just selected his home address as the destination on his TomTom before setting off and selected "Drive" which then planned a route for him, taking him along the closed A417. He called me at home and I was able to suggest that he headed back into Cheltenham and then drove towards Oxford, then down to home. He could have tried "Avoid Blocked Road" when he got to the closure but he wasn't familiar with that option.

 

[Willy875]

If it's a closed road, the GPS should have suggested an alternative route.

On the map, what color was the road?

 

[fatbellybinky]

If it's a closed road, the GPS should have suggested an alternative route.

On the map, what color was the road?

It was blue. He did try asking for an alternative route but it still wanted to send him down the closed A417 road. It's weird because the TomTom web planner knew the road was closed when I tried it at the time and set a route that diverted round the closure as did Google Maps. It's just the GPS that ignored the closure.

 

[Willy875]

In my opinion, it's because your GPS wasn't connected to the TomTom server via your phone.
Have you checked the GPS in the right corner to see if the car has a cross?

 

[fatbellybinky]

In my opinion, it's because your GPS wasn't connected to the TomTom server via your phone.
Have you checked the GPS in the right corner to see if the car has a cross?

I would agree - that is what you would suspect but it was definitely connected. Over the weekend while that road was still closed, I tried the exact same scenario with my own TomTom which was also connected to my phone over Bluetooth and definitely had internet access because it was also showing the road closure. I set the address he was leaving from as the start point, then asked it to plan a route to his home and it came up with exactly the same route - through the closed road!
In my own car I now always use Android Auto and Google maps rather than the car's built-in Sat Nav or TomTom but his car doesn't have that facility so he only has a choice of TomTom or Google Maps on his phone.

 

[fatbellybinky]

I think I've figured out the problem. The closure of the A417 at the weekend showed both carriageways closed but by different amounts, the eastbound (the direction my son was travelling) only for a few hundred yards so there "might" have been a way through whereas westbound had much more closed - at least as it looked on TomTom. Today as an experiment, I found a local road closure and set a couple of points either end of it. When I asked TomTom (my Via52) to plan a route between the points it correctly planned a diversion round the closure.

 

[Willy875]

Road closed in both directions.

Road partially closed.

 

[fatbellybinky]

In our case there was a red closure dotted line in Both Directions but one was shorter so half way between fully closed and partiality closed.

 

[Willy875]

In our case there was a red closure dotted line in Both Directions

As in the picture?

 

[fatbellybinky]

Something like that. I can't say exactly as the road is open now. There might have been a way through but interesting that the tomtom web planner and Google maps both decided on a detour around that section of road regardless. Definitely something to be aware of for the future.

 

[Willy875]

Okay, if the road is in red, like the Tomtom image indicates a traffic jam, not a closed road.

 

[fatbellybinky]

Okay, if the road is in red, like the Tomtom image indicates a traffic jam, not a closed road.

Pretty sure there were no entry icons at each end so closed, not stationary traffic.