I frequently hear people say they wish the Garmin nuvi had a routing option for "Least use of freeway", the way Magellan's RoadMate units do. It turns out you can force the Garmin nuvi into calculating the route so that it avoids highways whenever possible -- Garmin just doesn't make it obvious. Here's how to do it:
Continue reading "How to force "Least Use of Highway" on A Garmin Nuvi" »
Hi fletch I wanted to see if you knew when Garmin would be updating it's maps for the Nuvi 660. I say this because I find alot of info not to be right like the Target shopping plaza about 12 miles from my home the whole plaza is not in my nuvi although the target shopping plaza has been there for at least 5 to 7 years. no Kohls no Dicks no Staples no BJs they are all stores that have been there for 5 to 7 years has this been missed by navteq? I also owned the 350 nuvi it was not in that unit either. Thanks for your time.
IF YOU KNOW HOW TO GET TO THE PLAZA THAT IS 12 MILES FROM YOUR HOUSE THEN WHO CARES! WRITE A LETTER TO NAVTEQ IF YOU CARE THAT MUCH.
IM ONLY JOKING. SMILE :-) I AGREE, I ALSO FIND THAT MANY POI IN MY AREA ARE NOT LISTED.
Does anyone know if you can point on a street on the Magellan 6000 and have the address pop up? I believe its possible with the Nuvi's but I am not sure.
Thank you!!
The biggest problem with the Nuvi 660 is the inability to FORCE it to use the MOST freeways ... a feature that the Magellan systems let you easily choose, and that can often save LOTS of time enroute.
I found that the Nuvi 660 often failed to find the "fastest" route because it kept directly me off the freeway system in favor of much slower alternatives...
Returned the unit ... going back to the far superior Magellans (based on past experience with several models owned by myself and other family and friends).
Steve: Are you sure you had the Nuvi set right? I have been all over California with mine and if you pick the Fastest Route and don't deliberately avoid highways it will use the freeway system extensively. I have never seen it deliberately take surface streets unless it told it to.
You are absolutely right, Steve. I had a broken Magellan 760 that I upgraded to the Nuvi and I really miss the "most use of highways" option. I was travelling from Pennsylvania to Long Island NY and the Nuvi sent me into Downtown Manhattan from route 95 - an obvious poor choice to get to Long Island.
I have a Garmin Nuvi. Unless you are travelling States to state (it refuses to use teh highway). Yesterday I travelled an additional Hour to get home as it took me for a cross country tour rather than use the Highway. The only avoidance I had on was "No Unpaved Streets" - Which apparently it ignores as well.
In my optionion there should be some sort of Use Highway option as I travel all teh time and do not like beig put on side streets that go 35 and 45 the entire trip.
YES, I tried both FASTEST TIME and SHORTEST ROUTE - Both avoid the highway.
I was so frustrated using my Garmin 660W this weekend. I went from Pittsburgh PA to Brighton Michigan. It normally takes around 5 hours with a stop for lunch. The GPS both up and back took me off the highway and into small towns. It is set to go the fastest route and to avoid small towns. I spent a good 3 hours round trip following this system. I have used it before with no problems. I have no idea what the problem is.
I was told that if you set the type of vehicle your using to Emergency, and then CHECK "Avoid Highways" it will exclusivly use the Interstates. However, if you don't check "Avoid Highways" it will have a bias toward State Highways, Not interstates.
It doesn't purposely avoid highways. It takes distance/speed limit to calculate the time it would take to travel on a particular road.
The problem with that is that the actual speed is often faster on highways than the posted speed, and slower on surface streets. The NUVI 660 doesn't appear to take into account stop lights or number of lanes, both which easily affect the average speed of the road.
is the "avoid highway feature" avalible for all of garmin nuvi? even the latest release?
I just got a Garmin 750T (my first GPS) and find that the "shortest distance" in a large Metro, such as Washington DC, makes little sense to use. It avoids all expressways and insists on routing you to routes that take 2-3X as long to travel. I now understand that "fastest route" is the option to use. However, in more rural areas where one wants avoid expressways how to set up the Garmin is confusing to me.
In rural areas, one has Interstates, US highways, State highways, country roads and dirt roads -- as the 300,000 miles of dirt roads in the National Forests (8% of the United States). If you want to travel across a state on a more scenic route by avoiding the Interstates apparently the suggestion is to use fastest route and the avoidance "highways." What is Garmin’s definition of highway? I do not want to travel across the stae on country roads!! Before I bought the 750t I read that the 750’s had high end navigation software but to me it seems crude.
A friend has another brand of GPS that allows one to specify the kind of specific roads you want to use. I wonder if I made the wrong choice in GPS units.
Rob
I just got a Garmin 750T (my first GPS) and find that the "shortest distance" in a large Metro, such as Washington DC, makes little sense to use. It avoids all expressways and insists on routing you to routes that take 2-3X as long to travel. I now understand that "fastest route" is the option to use. However, in more rural areas where one wants avoid expressways how to set up the Garmin is confusing to me.
In rural areas, one has Interstates, US highways, State highways, country roads and dirt roads -- as the 300,000 miles of dirt roads in the National Forests (8% of the United States). If you want to travel across a state on a more scenic route by avoiding the Interstates apparently the suggestion is to use fastest route and the avoidance "highways." What is Garmin’s definition of highway? I do not want to travel across the stae on country roads!! Before I bought the 750t I read that the 750’s had high end navigation software but to me it seems crude.
A friend has another brand of GPS that allows one to specify the kind of specific roads you want to use. I wonder if I made the wrong choice in GPS units.
Rob
I just got a Garmin 750T (my first GPS) and find that the "shortest distance" in a large Metro, such as Washington DC, makes little sense to use. It avoids all expressways and insists on routing you to routes that take 2-3X as long to travel. I now understand that "fastest route" is the option to use. However, in more rural areas where one wants avoid expressways how to set up the Garmin is confusing to me.
In rural areas, one has Interstates, US highways, State highways, country roads and dirt roads -- as the 300,000 miles of dirt roads in the National Forests (8% of the United States). If you want to travel across a state on a more scenic route by avoiding the Interstates apparently the suggestion is to use fastest route and the avoidance "highways." What is Garmin’s definition of highway? I do not want to travel across the stae on country roads!! Before I bought the 750t I read that the 750’s had high end navigation software but to me it seems crude.
A friend has another brand of GPS that allows one to specify the kind of specific roads you want to use. I wonder if I made the wrong choice in GPS units.
Rob
My wife bought me 285wt for christmas because my other GPS was stolen from our car ( forced entry on what was supposed company security patrol lot ). It was cheap $100 no name brand that was always dead on accurate with its routes. The damage to my car door locks far exceed the cost of the GPS. Recently my 285wt will not pick a highway. Even if I am on the highway and my destination is at exit on the highway, the GPS will ask me get off the highway at every exit and have me drive some ridiculous route on some side streets and not even side roads along the highway. The route was neither shortest distance or the fastest time. I cleared all avoidance. I tried restoring settings, clear, etc. I tested with routing across states ( St. Louis, Mo to Memphis, Tn ). A 280 mile trip was 419 miles. It is now time to excercise my warranty options or find the name of that $100 no name I had.
I agree with everyone else here that Garmin is terrible with the highways. My Garmin Nuvi 660 refuses to acknowledge the existence of highways unless you're like a mile away from it. And it constantly fights with you to take you off the highway you're on. It took me an extra 1 hour to travel from Philly to Lehigh Valley area since my 660 did not show me the PA turnpike as an option and took me to side roads constantly.
Just purchased the Garmin Nuvi 755T and I have the opposite problem of those commenting. My Nuvi ALWAYS chooses the highway/interstate option here in NJ.
Totally, same here. My 660 takes me on highways all the time, and it does not matter that my destination is a mile or two away and it is actually easier to take the streets. Also, a few times told me to get off the highway, although I could stay on it for 5 more miles. Unfortunately, I listened and I stood in streets' traffic for another half an hour. I don't like this GPS at all. It is confusing and does not work well at all.
i disagress with a few of the comments. But is this honest or just your take on it?
Don't confuse Highway with an Interstate. I had a problem going from Central Illinois to Chicago. It should have been I88 the whole way, but it kept wanting me to take IL61. If you select "Avoid Highways" it will keep you on the Interstate. Also, change your vehicle type to Emergency!!!!
I would like a GPS that you can avoid Freeways. If I put avoid highways, it will keep me off the freeways but will also keep me off of any highways that are more than 2 lanes.
I have found out why the Garmin avoids highways even when "avoid highways" is turned off.
I was having a problem for months where my Garmin would not take me anywhere near an interstate and was also avoiding expressways and even big US or state routes. It turns out there is a "bicycle" option (at least in my model, which is a Garmin nuvi 255), and it is possible to somehow set it accidentally, and your Garmin will not warn you that you are in bicycle mode. If you are in bicycle mode it will avoid highways because they're not safe for bicycles (and in the case of interstate highways, not legal for bicycles), regardless of if you have "avoid highways" turned on or off.
Find the settings where you can switch modes between automobile, pedestrian and bicycle and make sure you are on automobile. This solved my problem and now the Garmin is correctly calculating routes that involve highways when they are faster.
Your workaround is great. I didn't find out the highway issue until it was too late. I couldn't return the garmain. I was so mad. A trip into OBX took me into Norfolk instead of using the bypass road, Interstate 664. Also traveling to downtown Baltimore, it takes me into local roads for my destination instead of the beltway to 95. I set the Eco mode like you said and did the same trips and the routes use the highways like they should (also like google and mapquest suggest). Thanks for your help. I was planning on buying another GPS but now I don't have too.
I found out a work around to USE MOSTLY HIGHWAY.
Use "BEST FUEL" mode and change your eco mode settings to 15 MPG CITY and 40 MPG HIGHWAY.
Your idea worked out great. Not it takes the highways!
Hey MOE!
Thanks so much for your information that you posted on here - I am an EMT in a decent sized city and depend on my GPS to get me there fast! (We respond to 911 calls) Yes we use a map book, but 10 out of 10 times, I can find the address and get us there faster then my paramedic partner who uses the map book, every time. I just got a new Garmin and was horrified when it would not take freeways, highways, interstates AT ALL, and we had to go back to map books, everyone was quite upset about that. (They had started to rely on my GPS!!) After trying every single thing you can think of, following multiple ideas on forums, comment boards, blogs, NOTHING worked! (Even did the emergency vehicle and avoid highways trick, didnt work.) Finally MOE posted to use the 15 MPG CITY and 40 MPG HIGHWAY and select BEST FUEL option for routing and FASTEST WAY - IT WORKS!! EVERY SINGLE TIME - it will pick the interstates, highways, freeways, every time!! It uses the best routes for every situation, never fails! It uses our tried and true methods on how to get to hospitals using short cuts even - if its faster! ITS AMAZING! Its like my little Garmin all of a sudden grew a brain!!
I had to go in and set up a vehicle profile, telling it what my MPG is, I used unleaded gas and just threw in a random price for gas - but most of all, it needs that fuel difference for MPG and it will pick the right route every single time!!
Thank you again MOE for being a leader and blazing the path for us! Youve helped me get to my 911 calls SO MUCH FASTER!!!
Take care!
M