Many times when I am planning a route on Google Maps, the route they show me is not the route I want to go. It is fairly easy to change the route on Google to suit me. Is that an option on GPS devices, or are you stuck with the route they show you?
It would depend on the GPS device. My Tom Tom has a choose alternative route option that may choose a route more to your liking. The best way to get your route is to choose some waypoints that cover the route you want choosen. The google map is generally much easier to use than a gps. There is a script to download a google route to my gps.
On mine (Magellan 4250 or something, starts with a 4) you can tell it to go fastest route, shortest route, least use of highways, or most use of highways. Fastest and shortest are usually pretty similar, but have some little differences. If you get stuck behind traffic or construction or something, you can tell it to reroute around your current route and avoid whatever number of miles on your current route you like. For instance, you see a road sign that says “Construction next seven miles,” and traffic is backing up. Just tell ol’ Magellan “Detour, ten miles (or seven, or eight, or twelve, whatever you want)” and it’ll provide you with an alternate route.
Just another data point here…
I have a Garmin, and it is very difficult to get it to change routes. I have a cheaper model, granted, but still.
I worked for months driving all over the tri-state area with my GPS. It was very useful generally. It only gave me problems about 5 percent of the time. But this also means having to do things the GPS way when you’d rather not. Case in point: my Garmin wanted me to take an onramp to a highway at some point, but it was closed. There are two ways of getting around this on my model. Change the settings to avoid highways and re-route, but at some point I’d like to get back on the highway. Secondly you could simply go your own way and wait until the GPS reroutes you to the next on-ramp. Unfortunately you need to know which direction to go to do this. The GPS unit will re-route you to the same exit if you pass it though.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is that GPS units are not nearly as good as Google Maps, but form the posts above it sounds like they are getting there. But you’re always well-advised to keep a normal map in the car too, because it will come in handy at times.
I use USB GPS hooked up to a laptop running MS Streets and Trips. Easy to reroute if I don’t like the one it choose. You can either set areas to avoid or place extra waypoints. Other software packages don’t make it so easy. I don’t know much about the self contained units.
By the way. Notebook is place on the back seat with the lid closed when driving and I go off of the voice prompts for people who are worried I am looking at the screen and not the road.
I use a laptop w/ Delorme streets program. If i plan a route and want to change the way it is presented I just stick in a via somewhere along the way and it plans the new route. It also redirects me back onto course if I fall wide. It will give new directions as I go, and works very well for me as I am a country driver that will not react to the turn now directive given that would probably work just fine with someone much more accustomed to urban travel.
And I do apologize openly to all those whom I share the road with when I am forced to drive in the urban world.
“Take me home country roads, To the place I belong”!!
Is there a way to get the GPS systems to tell you of unusual features of a route?
On a recent Scout trip (from Washington DC to Wildwood NJ), I had printed out directions for a route that was roughly 200 miles.
A fellow parent, driving her own car, said she didn’t need the spare printout of directions, as she had a GPS unit.
4 hours later, when I arrived, I phoned to see how far behind she was. She said her GPS gave her a route that saved 40 miles.
Unfortunately, the GPS did not warn her that the journey involved a 3 hour delay while waiting for, and riding, the Cape May - Lewes ferry! OOPS!!!
I have a Magellan on my work vehicle, and it also gives me the option of excluding certain roads from my route.
I can toggle into “View” mode, and see step-by-step directions (as opposed to the usual map view). I can choose any given street and opt to exclude it, and it then re-routes the directions without that street.
I borrowed my mom’s Garmin last week for a trip to the coast. It has options to avoid the use of secondary roads, ferries, toll roads, main roads, and a few others.
It can be programmed with a ‘via’ point to include on the route, or you can just turn off whenever you like and it will recalculate the route based on your current position.
On my trip home from Coos Bay last week I wanted to take the coast road into Washington. (Mistake!) I didn’t want to get onto the 5 until Olympia. So I mapped the route to Astoria, and then from there to home. It worked pretty well, only when I entered Washington it directed me to continue on the 101 and when I checked the map display I saw that the 401 would be shorter. So I turned onto the 401. The GPS (oh, it’s the built-in one that came with the car) instructed me to make a U-turn. Once I passed the U-turn point it recalculated the route.