TOMTOM Traffic

aerotec · Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 11:36 pm Post subject:

Well I have to say Tomtom had it's first real test for me recently and it failed totally.

I was driving from Brighton to Leeds and as soon as we joined the M1 at around 3pm the overhead gantries where saying the M1 was closed at J32. This is where the M1 meets the M18, curves west and up past Sheffield. Sadly it was closed due to an incident between a minibus and a truck. I only discovered the exact location of the closure as I got within 5 miles of it.

Going back to earlier in the trip...Tomtom was showing total delays on the route of between 25 and 73 mins so I thought the traffic delay from the closure was being correctly relayed to my unit. I tried browsing the screen to see where the closure was as "J32" meant nothing to me at the time. Now is it just user error or does tomtom not show the junction numbers? I couldn't find it on the "Browse Map" and the text list of manouvres just shows you leaving or joining the Motorway but not at which junction??

Well when we got near the indicated large delay of 30+ mins I thought that must be the closure. I followed Tomtom's suggestion and left the motorway at J25, slightly changed the suggested route and re-joined the motorway about 10 miles further up. I was well impressed. I thought Tomtom had let me cruise past the closure (not thinking 10 miles wasn't much for 5 junctions)...until I realised we had joined it again at J27! It must have been slower traffic through roadworks. I now think the traffic was slower due to the constant speed cameras most likely on the route but I would have rather done 50mph than the rat run diversion I took.

Tomtom now showed no further delays or road closures despite all traffic bulletins and overhead gantries still saying the M1 was closed at J32. I ended up browsing the map while driving on the motorway (not recommended and not happy that I had to do that) and came off at J31 and cut across to rejoin at J33. This detour was very easy, very quick and very much a HUMAN decision.

WHY did Tomtom not show this road closure. I have lost all faith in the traffic service. It is not doing enough to justify subscribing to it when it runs out in a month.

Edit: Just browsed the map and see the junction number tags. Didn't see it before as I was trying to speed browse while driving!

Edit 2: Meant to add that Tomtom has now also frozen on me 10 times. I need to tap the screen then click "Done" in the menu to get back to the navigation screen. Grrr!

aerotec · Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 11:47 pm Post subject:

Hmmm,

Just done an A-B route and browsed the map. The motorway junctions can be seen...UNTIL you click and highlight the motorway you are looking at then the junction numbers will not appear!

Can someone else try this. Is it just me!

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

This appears to be the current flaw in the HD traffic - motorway (road) closures. Because it relies on traffic movement, it can't tell that the motorway is closed. Thus it needs manual intervention to add (and later remove). It will normally show the busy traffic around the off-junction and surrounding roads though.

If you get signs saying it is closed, then you may need to manually divert.

aerotec · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 1:29 pm Post subject:

But I see long term roadworks are put on the traffic system and show as grey for the length of the works. And when I browse routes.tomtom.com I see various road closures highlighted. These are probably road closures agreed in advance so they must get some sort of roadworks data they import to the traffic. I would have hoped the vodafone data was used in conjunction with traditional data such as highways agency accident reports etc.

Andy_P · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 1:57 pm Post subject:

You're right, it is. Smile

The "moving car" data from all those vodaphone mobiles is only added to the pot of data from more "normal" sources.

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

aerotec · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:35 pm Post subject:

It is a dilemma but on ein which Tomtom can take partial control off.

Do they not have an operations room for the traffic? Even something as simple as listening to Radio 2 traffic news would have told them the M1 was going to be closed until at least 10pm. In that case program in a closure and expire it at 10pm or 9.30pm. Review motorway webcams. Why not incorporate map changes so "Traffic delays" can be uploaded realtime by users and after, say, 10 similar reports it can be actioned in the HD Traffic centre.

I know it is a complex issue but I am sure we would all be happy to work with Tomtom to improve data accuracy. Maybe we could get 1 free day HD service for each validated incident we report or incident error we get removed.

JockTamsonsBairn · Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:56 am Post subject:

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

jimbo_hippo · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 444

As a user of both GPRS and RDS TMC 'old school' traffic my biggest gripe has to be that scheduled road closures aren't entered into the database. These are planned in advance and must be in the system for the Highway's Agency somewhere. They should make it to our Tom Tom's too.

The worst one is the A19 at Middlesborough which often gets closed for maintainance on the flyover. They always kick in around 8pm for overnight work. I've often driven up the A19 without issue, pick up the sprogs and headed back down to be diverted on a yellow sign wild goose chase for an extra 40 minutes through the surrounding area whilst shouting profanities the kids should never hear at my Tom Tom and the subscription I pay for.

As a side issue, I'm thinking of writing to my MP to ask that learning motorway junction numbers should be added to curriculum for schools because I'm lazy and I never learn them. So when it says A1 closed after jctxx I have no idea where that is and put faith in Tom Tom. This led me to do a trip almost to Hull to get onto the A1 after it's junction with the M18 was closed at 2am. Partly my fault for not 'knowing' the jct number but stupidly I assumed my Tom Tom would already know that. Alas that was not the case.
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Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
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JockTamsonsBairn · Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 8:51 pm Post subject:

jimbo_hippo · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 444

As an update to my previous post, this weekend (Friday Evening) I returned from the North East via the A1(M) rather than the A19. Tom Tom did warn me of a road closure ahead at about 7.55pm but I persevered to see what lay ahead. As I approached the location at about 8.10pm I saw roadworkers errecting signs suggesting the road was about to be closed and I think I just made it through before they did so. So it must be possible to register advance warning road closures since this one would have been correct had the workers not been a few minutes behind schedule. Looks like it's hit and miss or perhaps 'M' roads have a more strict policy over informing of closures than 'A' roads.
_________________
Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

MrT · Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:14 am Post subject:

From another post I put up last week there were several closures one day on the M11, M25 & M20 which both HD Traffic and GPRS traffic failed to report, the HD showed delays at the closures and around them and the GPRS showed no issues at all. I also have TrafficTV and this was showing the closures (or rather that the traffic was at all points on the road not moving). This looked to me as if TomTom were not getting the inputs from the Highways Agency and only the additional vodaphone information.
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aerotec · Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 1:21 pm Post subject:

Didn't think this needed a new thread so will ask here:

Got a .014 mini USB RDS-TMC cable and plugged it in to my 940 which still has 18 days of the LIVE service till it expires. I didn't expect anything to happen as LIVE takes priority over RDS but it is sitting there looking for a station so it can get traffic info and until that happens there is no traffic data being shown from the HD service.

Is this right? I thought it would no nowt till 18 days are up??

Andy_P · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 10:31 pm Post subject:

I've not tried it with a mini USB receiver, but certainly if you use the RDS-TMC mount for the x40's then it always defaults to the HD Traffic, so long as it has a GPRS signal.

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