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Joined: Nov 04, 2003 Posts: 2225 Location: Bedfordshire, UK
Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:53 am Post subject:
Hamie wrote:
Define 'Primary trunk network'. I'd assume (Never do that that means the M and M class roads (e.g M4, A404(M) etc).
That's what I would assume too, and I have no knowledge of why the A404(M) is not covered - it's not a route I regularly drive to have been able to study whether there is a good reason for the lack of coverage.
Quote:
There was an 80km/hr limit on the M4 from J10-11 and J11-12 for months. NOTHING listed on TM at all.
TM don't report roadworks / speed restrictions - they report traffic delays. I think their threshold is 50mph on a motorway, so if everything was happily flowing through at 50mph, there was no delay to report. Similarily for the M1 J5-10 roadworks - when the speed limit was 40mph, TM often used to show the roadworks with "no delay" - ie Green on Garmin - now the limit is 50mph, it only displays when there are real delays.
Quote:
I did get an alert on friday night for the M4 J4B though having said all that. It only appeared for a couple of minutes then disappeared...
There is NEVER anything for the A404(M) southbound. I've spent endless mornings creeping up from J9B to J8. It can take 30 or more minutes to travel a few km.
Is this just from a Garmin? This is a fairly bad area for TMC, which might be causing more problems.
Quote:
There are sensors on the bridges (Green IIRC). But never as much as a sniff, even though the GTM21 receives data fine (With a boosted aerial).
Hmm, strange. TM even have a system for spotting broken sensors, so it must be something else at play here. Have you reported it to TM?
Quote:
Agreed, but I think ITiS has a better solution as long as there's traffic on the roads
Interestingly, I think TomTom may well have the edge next year - if they combine their existing iTIS feed with information from Vodafone mobiles, they may well be onto a unique winning solution for traffic. We will have to wait and see how well they implement it of course. _________________ Please don't be offended if I do not reply to a PM - please ask questions via the forums.
TM don't report roadworks / speed restrictions - they report traffic delays. I think their threshold is 50mph on a motorway, so if everything was happily flowing through at 50mph, there was no delay to report. Similarily for the M1 J5-10 roadworks - when the speed limit was 40mph, TM often used to show the roadworks with "no delay" - ie Green on Garmin - now the limit is 50mph, it only displays when there are real delays.
Lessee... The speed imit is 113km/hr (70mph). Traffic throttled down to 50 for months over about 6km is going to create a delay... The fact that TM apparently have some artificial limit of it must drop below 80km/hr is just an example of what's wrong with them. An 80k throttle on a 113k limit is a delay. TYhey should report it. Especially since the average speed whenever I driove through (WIthout alerts) was less than 80.
What is it the ad says? Real-time alerts for traffic delays? Sorry, but TM is neither real-time nor does it actually cover most delays. And what exactly stops TM (Or ITiS) from taking a speed limit feed from whoever controls it? Company policy?
Quote:
I did get an alert on friday night for the M4 J4B though having said all that. It only appeared for a couple of minutes then disappeared...
There is NEVER anything for the A404(M) southbound. I've spent endless mornings creeping up from J9B to J8. It can take 30 or more minutes to travel a few km.
Is this just from a Garmin? This is a fairly bad area for TMC, which might be causing more problems.[/quote]
What do you mean by 'bad area for TMC'? Bad FM signal? Yes, but my aerial is boosted (I took a feed from the booster in the car). I get a signal almost everywhere now. It still doesn't ever show traffic there. If TM are having problems with their sensors over the last 12 months I'd say they've had enough time to fix it. Wouldn't you?
Quote:
There are sensors on the bridges (Green IIRC). But never as much as a sniff, even though the GTM21 receives data fine (With a boosted aerial).
Hmm, strange. TM even have a system for spotting broken sensors, so it must be something else at play here. Have you reported it to TM?
[/quote]
Well... TM only have a single method of contact. A personal email address for tim something... I've tried emailing. I got ONE response once. Saying he'd 'Look into it'. Never received anything else. Nothing has changed. If I were a bit more cynical I'd say it's been bought & getting slowly asset stripped... Hope someone can pro e me wrong,. but that would require either a dialog with TM, or some hard data showing genuine improvements in their reporting and data quality.
Joined: Nov 04, 2003 Posts: 2225 Location: Bedfordshire, UK
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:15 am Post subject:
Hamie wrote:
TM only have a single method of contact. A personal email address for tim something
For something like this, I would ring them on 08705 561712 which will get the potential fault logged with the sensor network engineers. _________________ Please don't be offended if I do not reply to a PM - please ask questions via the forums.
Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:48 pm Post subject: ended up sticking with TomTom!
Hi,
Thanks for everyone for your advice. I ran the Garmin next to my TomTom for a week driving in and around the London area.
I ended up sticking with the Tom Tom for the following reasons.
1. I find the Tom Tom interface personally easier to use.
2. The Tom Tom is faster at address entry and route location by quite a margin
3. The Tom Tom display is much clearer as to what is going on.
4. Although my Tom Tom does not annouce street names which the Garmin does, the pre-recorded voice is so much clearer when driving along with the radio on etc. I could simply not hear the Garmin!
5. Volume, the Tom Tom is nearly twice as loud as the Garmin.
6. Current speed is not shown on the garmin when a route is planned without going into another screen, so you cannot see your speed while looking at the map.
On the traffic front, I was impressed with the Garmin around London and I got lots of traffic data. I decided to trial Tom Tom traffic via GPRS though at the same time, and that was really good traffic data!
OK, there were some phantom alerts, BUT when you are in London, there are so many routes through, that going a different way, rarely makes a difference to the journey time, so avoiding a phantom traffic delay for me is not a major issue.
I compared Tom Tom traffic to my traffic Master box, and it alerted me to lots of things that the box failed to inform me about even on roads that were covered.
I may be wrong on this, but the Tom Tom can be set to automatically avoid traffic if a quicker route is found, I think on the Garmin you have to decide for yourself which is not ideal as you may not know how much longer an alternative route might take.
I suppose its a personal preference thing at the end of the day, but I just find the Tom Tom much more intutive which is very important when driving along.
Thanks to everyone who assisted me though, I did appreciate it.
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that means the M and M class roads (e.g M4, A404(M) etc).
