GPS Devices w/Traffic Info - How Do They Work?

Garmin can't fix the traffic information that is supplied by a completely
different company.
So it isn't Micro accurate. It is better than the radio stations telling you
about blockage which was cleared an hour or two before.

I would note that in my frequent east coast road trips, as I incur 'ongoing
road projects' I always get a 'traffic slow ahead' message. I click the
traffic icon, then see reason is 'Slow from exit 111 to Exit 117 ' and yet
quite often there is no traffic. Or accident ... but it had cleared already.
I had always assumed the delay message was accurate, but once the detour was
going to be worse than staying on the road, so I continued - and there was
no delayat all. It's just a 'standard message they leave there until the
project is over'/ they get updated. For those, I would like a comment like
Slow traffic from 8pm-5am until Sept 1 , or whatever the specs are. ( I've
left such feedback at garmin)
I HAD avoided traffic for those warnings if there was a valid detour, and
then came to realize that they might be false alarms. Now when I see one of
those messages I don't know: is it real ? A few times I've guessed
incorrectly and been stuck in traffic .. if only I knew if I could trust it
on those "ongoing project" warnings.

In article


Figaro-

My 1490T provides considerable information. Each option seems to have a
sub-option when you tap on it. When warned of a delay ahead and
selecting search for traffic on route, an additional tap provides a map
of the highway area where the delay is located. It usually indicates
whether there has been an accident or traffic is just slow.

Traveling on I-4 from Orlando to Tampa, there is usually a warning of
delays ahead. Searching for traffic on route, you can see a map of
downtown Tampa with the exact area of congestion shown.

On my first trip with the new 1490T, there was an accident on I-4 ahead.
The indication was that the delay would be on the order of 5 minutes, so
I elected not to avoid it. It turned out to take about an hour to get
past it. By the time I realized my mistake, there were no more exits
between me and the accident!

Fred

On Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:10:47 -0400, Fred McKenzie wrote:

Traffic information is subject to some delay, and accident-triggered
delays are the hard ones to guess at, since they're outside of
historical models of trafffic flows.

--
With a Dremel tool and a cut-off wheel, _everything_ takes a flat-blade
screwdriver.
                         -- Matt Roberds in the Monastery

For my 265T, free traffic subscription is broadcast over the air from NAVTEQ
( I can see that in traffic settings on my GPS )
http://www8.garmin.com/traffic/fm/navteq.html
and it doesn't cover every square inch of the country. Mine only covers:
http://www.navteq.com/rdstraffic/
I've driven all day in the southeast and not had the traffic icon appear.
Different offerings:
http://corporate.navteq.com/products_data_advanced_traffic.htm

http://www.traffic.com/
for NAVTEQ's big picture