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philh's avatar
philh
Explorer II
Mar 09, 2021

GPS rerouting due to accident

I run with a Garmin and Waze. Most the time they agree, sometimes they disagree, but when both tell you to exit now, I'm exiting :)

Except, neither one updated fast enough to tell me if I'm going right or left. Wild A** guessed, and got it correct. But what a PITA. It was the 2nd major accident on that day :(

On another trip, I got off the freeway, walked right into another rush hour/ accident avoidance miles long traffic jam. Knowing the area, took another road 2 miles south, drove about 5 miles west, got back into the alt route, right in front of the truck that was in front of me. Then when I finally got to the freeway, got on right behind the exact same truck I was behind when I first darted off the freeway. It was interesting to see it made zero time difference, but I hate sitting in traffic.
  • Garmin has been wrong, but rarely. I have learned to just trust it and ask questions later.
    The confusing part that gets me is when I turn it on and it routes me not on the interstate and I think it is wrong, but actually is routing around accidents... Mine will not show accidents that are not on the planned route, so this is a weakness.
    Overall, if I trust Garmin all the time I am better off than second guessing it.
  • I'v3 had a few occasions with accidents and in each time I called onstar and advisor was able to reroute us or tell us when road was expected to be cleared. In each case I told them I was pulling a 35ft trailer and the reroute took that into account.

    Our vehicles both have traffic shown on the vehicle gps which also has helped us preemtively avoid a few issues.
  • Google Maps has saved us significant delays many times over the past 5 years of Full Time Travel. Only once can I recall that it re-routed to an equally bad route. Both routes had bad accidents...
    The tie breaker decision for us is if we see many Truckers taking the alternate route, we follow the trucks.
    We like the odds.
  • I also hate sitting in traffic. That's why I don't go near Chicago. :)
  • Last night west bound I70 was shutdown for several hrs for an accident. We saw more than 10 tractor trailers head up our road with many cars following. The thing is the road they were on ends at a 3 way intersection just after going over a 1 lane bridge with a 90deg turn before the bridge. I’m not sure how the rigs made the turn onto the bridge and then the turn at the stop sign. Turning right at the stop sign takes them back towards where they came. Turning left takes them towards sections of winding 1 lane road.

    Following the trucks in this case would have been a bad option. Traffic was backed up and stopped on our road.
  • I don't use the alternate route because I don't know where they will take you. I usually stay the course unless all the trucks are leaving the road and then I might follow the truckers
  • Google maps will highlight the alternate route in blue so you can immediately see the turns in addition to the voice commands.

    I rarely jump off as there have been too many times even creeping along I still ended up ahead of the traffic stuck on the service roads.

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