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resmas's avatar
resmas
Explorer
Sep 02, 2013

GPS issues - advice or help?

Be forewarned - I am NOT a "techie" person. I refuse to have a smart phone, still use a dinosaur desktop computer, etc. I have a Garmin Nuvi that my husband keeps updated for me, and was last updated in July 2013. So theoretically, it should work fine right?

Over the weekend, I drove from Houston, TX to my home in southern Maryland. The GPS did okay once I forced it to route me through Shreveport, LA vs. taking I-10 along the coast (which, IMO, it THE WORST road I have ever been on - worse than the Alcan!). I made it all the way to I-81 in Virginia, and that is where my issues began.

I won't drive in DC. There is simply no reason to when I can take the Harry Nice Bridge into southern MD and not have to backtrack. The GPS refused to acknowledge the bridge even existed as a route, and kept sending me up thru DC. I got off I-81 onto I-64 towards Richmond - GPS still trying to send me to DC. Got off I-64 in Charlottesville to cut across to Hwy 3 - GPS still sending me to DC. On Hwy 3 near King George, GPS still trying to turn me around, even when I got to 301. It wasn't until I was 100' away from the bridge that it finally routed me over it. Can anyone explain why and tell me how to "fix" the issue of the GPS not recognizing any road other than interstates? I went thru the GPS menu/settings and could not find any clues....
Roads and Routes
  • pamvanw's avatar
    pamvanw
    Explorer
    Sep 02, 2013
    We have similar experiences with our Garmin that the kids gave us for Christmas. I wish they could return it. We wanted to go from Front Royal, VA up to Reading, PA via Rt. 340 to 15. All the way up 340 it kept trying to get us to cut over to 81. Some might say, if you know your route why use it? We do like the feature that warns you when an exit is coming up, and which lane you need to be in.
  • paulj's avatar
    paulj
    Explorer II
    Sep 02, 2013
    What happens if you pick a destination near the west end of the bridge?
  • accsys's avatar
    accsys
    Explorer
    Sep 02, 2013
    Your Nuvi preferences may be set to avoid toll roads and I believe the Nice bridge is a toll bridge??
  • resmas's avatar
    resmas
    Explorer
    Sep 02, 2013
    paulj wrote:

    On Google Maps, Charlottesville (even Fredericksburg) to S Maryland routes me (as fastest) over Harry Nice if the Maryland destination is Waldorf or south. Otherwise it thinks the I95 bridge is faster. For Waldorf the Nice route is shorter by 12 miles, but the time differences are in minutes.

    If a GPS or mapping program insists on taking the freeway it is probably because the estimated time is less, due to higher projected speeds on the freeway. Switching preferences to 'shortest' will get you off the freeway. But it might also route you down some country lane.


    That's the frustrating thing - we live a few miles from the Nice Bridge, on a "country lane". So to go all the way to DC and back down would take forever - TONS of stoplights on 210 or 301 to get from DC to where we live.... It makes no sense... I've learned all the "country lanes" down here in southern MD, and can get just about anywhere in Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary's county WITHOUT the GPS. But I still need it's "advice" to navigate thru Virginia. Or so I thought...
  • resmas's avatar
    resmas
    Explorer
    Sep 02, 2013
    Nuvi was purchased in spring of 2012. DH is the techno-geek in the family. I don't even try to keep up. I know he gets an email, pays some money, hooks it up to the computer for a bit, and says it is updated. That's about the extent of my knowledge about updating.

    I'll dig deeper for the "most use/least use" option. I hadn't come across it when I was messing with it during the trip. I only saw a "avoid highways" option. There was also a custom option to tap the road on a map to avoid - tried that - tapped I-95 and it locked up calculating for 15 minutes until I just canceled the route and winged it on my own.
  • paulj's avatar
    paulj
    Explorer II
    Sep 02, 2013
    2oldman wrote:
    If this Nuvi is many years old (as I suspect it is) and the maps have not been updated, that could be the problem..


    The Nice bridge was built in 1940.

    On Google Maps, Charlottesville (even Fredericksburg) to S Maryland routes me (as fastest) over Harry Nice if the Maryland destination is Waldorf or south. Otherwise it thinks the I95 bridge is faster. For Waldorf the Nice route is shorter by 12 miles, but the time differences are in minutes.

    If a GPS or mapping program insists on taking the freeway it is probably because the estimated time is less, due to higher projected speeds on the freeway. Switching preferences to 'shortest' will get you off the freeway. But it might also route you down some country lane.
  • Crowe's avatar
    Crowe
    Explorer
    Sep 02, 2013
    Look at your preferences: You can adjust them to read "most use of highways", "least use of highways", etc. Sometimes there will be conflicts if you have "shortest route" and another setting picked. And sometimes they just get confused. We've found that shutting it off and starting over sometimes clears it's brain.
  • 2oldman's avatar
    2oldman
    Explorer II
    Sep 02, 2013
    If this Nuvi is many years old (as I suspect it is) and the maps have not been updated, that could be the problem. I know you said updated, but does that mean the maps?

    Garmins can be rather insistent on certain routes unless you force them to go where you want to go by picking shorter trips instead of one big long one.

    Smartphones have pretty good GPS in them.

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