GPS issues - advice or help?

[resmas]

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....

[prichardson]

First check your route preference setting as others have said. Your problem is a common downfall of GPS units. In their programing there is a hirarchy in the way they choose one highway over the other (ie.federal over state over county) and this affects the route shown. Even if you force a route by making intermediate waypoints it may change the route if you deviate from it and it recalculates. They are not designed to replace a good map and are really only an aid.

[paulj]

My TomTom has a 'plan a route' function. When I ask for 'fredericksburg VA to newburg MD' it has no problem routing me on US301. For Waldorf, it prefers I95 for fastest, US301 for shortest.

[kohldad]

First off, GPS are for guidance only. If you know your prerred route, you may have to ignore the GPS for a while until it picks up on the correct route.

Does your model have a "T" in it? These models pick up traffic details. Wonder if it was erranously thinking the bridge was temporarily and routed you the quicker direction based on this info. And remember, quicker is based on distance and speed limit, not actual speed because of traffic. Sometimes, it's only a difference of 0.1 miles or 0.5 second that makes the difference.

Sometimes, when the mappers program things, they screw other things up. There is a part of road near my house that after doing an update, just disappeared. They fixed something on one of the side streets and messed up the road section. So now, when I'm headed out in a certain section it takes adds 3 miles of traffic instead of taking the shorter traffic free route.

It appears that your current map version thought the bridge (or road section) isn't there. I would recommend you report the error to Garmin. They should look at the report to verify the map data is accurate.

You can also put you GPS in simulate mode, which should let you choose a fake start point and destination point then provide you a route. You could narrow it down to a point directly on each side of the bridge and see the route it provides.

[resmas]

Z-Peller wrote:
Don't know about your model Garmin, but on my old Streetpilot I can add other places along my route, rather than just point A to point B.....try adding waypoints at various places along some of the secondary roads you want to travel and that will "force" the GPS to route you off the interstates......

That's what I generally do, and how I got it to send me on a different route than I-10. But, for some reason, it did not work at all to get me to my house. It kept wanting to send me 40 miles out of my way, back to I-95 and thru DC instead of using a bridge right by my house.

I'm glad others have the same frustrations with the darn things... Maybe it isn't just me.

I do like being able to know which lane to be in to exit or cross a major city, and being able to find locations in big cities without having to purchase and study a street-by-street map (since I do not have and WILL NOT have a smart phone, good old maps are my only option). But when it comes to "country" areas, the thing is pretty useless. The problem is that many of the smaller roads I want to take do not show up on an atlas, and sometimes not even on a foldable state map (they generally do show on the big thick atlas-sized books, which I am not purchasing one for every state I cross). Some only show up on county maps... That's when the GPS SHOULD be handy, too, but it doesn't seem to want to recognize them. It's funny how I can zoom in on any "internet" mapping system (Bing, MapQuest, Google, etc.) and see those roads and route over them, but the GPS won't let me.

[Z-Peller]

Don't know about your model Garmin, but on my old Streetpilot I can add other places along my route, rather than just point A to point B.....try adding waypoints at various places along some of the secondary roads you want to travel and that will "force" the GPS to route you off the interstates......

[msmith1199]

accsys wrote:
Your Nuvi preferences may be set to avoid toll roads and I believe the Nice bridge is a toll bridge??

X2. If I set mine to avoid toll roads and then try and get to San Francisco it sends me down through San Jose and around.

One problem with the GPS is it simply doesn't know your driving preferences. It is going to make it's routing based on computer programing and based on the way you have the preferences set. You just simply can never rely only on the GPS. When I'm in a place I'm not familiar with I always make sure I zoom out and see the route the GPS is trying to take me and make sure it doesn't appear to be a giant circle or anything weird.

[paulj]

RicJones wrote:
... and to avoid dirt roads.....

I think the cow paths through DC were paved decades ago. 🙂

[RicJones]

First of all go into preferences and make sure you have fastest route set and to avoid dirt roads. Those two settings get many people into trouble. I've never understood why fastest route isn't the default.

[paulj]

I wonder if you had (inadvertently) set an intermediate destination in the DC area.

It was no longer giving you the fastest route to your destination, but a route through some other point.

[resmas]

paulj wrote:
What happens if you pick a destination near the west end of the bridge?

Tried that - set it to Dahlgren... Sent me to Dahlgren, then back to I-95 to DC! Tried setting it to towns just over the bridge on the MD side - still sent me all the way thru DC.

It makes no sense.

I don't have it set to avoid toll roads. Not sure how the bridge is listed - you pay a toll crossing from MD to VA, but it is free from VA to MD. So it's only a toll in one direction...

[pamvanw]

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]

What happens if you pick a destination near the west end of the bridge?

[accsys]

Your Nuvi preferences may be set to avoid toll roads and I believe the Nice bridge is a toll bridge??

[resmas]

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...