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:
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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.
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.