Nuvi 255W gives strange directions

I have been using my Nuvi 255W around town for 2 months now and have
been trying to get it to give me the "best" directions to places, to
which I already know the best routes.

However, in more than half the cases, I get strange routes that are
not the best way either time or distance. In some cases, it just seems
to ignore a known highway (been there for 20 years).

I have tried modifying the settings every way I can find and I still
don;t get good results

I am a newbie (obviously) to GPS in general, and wonder if there is
something wrong with my particular unit

I would like to depend on it to find places I have not been before -
but can't do that the way it is

Can anyone help me diagnose my problems ?

Thanks in advance

I 've the same problems with the1490T, it yust seems that this issue is
simply caused by generally bad updated maps. Driving in the countryside it
wanted me to leave the real road, making me take e little road that isn't
used since 30 jears (and really damaged and dangerous), especially in
winter... :((
Another time in town trying to get home making 2 crossings straight ahead it
wanted me to make a sensless circle trough traffic limitated zone, ignoring
that the traffic limitation is there since 20 jears (!!) and arriving at
destination from the opposite side... sensless: home was 300m in front of
me.
I've tried to make the same roads with both the 1490T and a tomtom unit from
my dad: both made the same messy routes..

On Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:27:29 -0800 (PST), Jim Matthews wrote:

GPSs will often ignore highways that would only be taken for short
distances. And, short trips in general are the very worst for GPSs to do
the routing as they have only a general idea of what road conditions
are. You'll know instinctively which roads are two lanes with people
backing out of angle parking into them, and which are are four lanes and
synchro-controlled lights. To the GPS, one grey-class road is as good as
another, and it'll avoid turns (especially left ones) when it can. Long
routes, on the other hand, are where it excels, because it WILL know
about the back roads in places you've never traveled.



Do the routes it DOES generate get to the destination even if they're
not "the best"? For places you've
never been, you won't know what's best either, and getting there, with a
reasonable accuracy on the ETA, is pretty much all that's going to be
important.


I'm not as convince that you have a problem as I think your expectations
might be a little ahead of what the technology brings. Especially for a
mid-tier model...

--
90. I will not design my Main Control Room so that every workstation is
facing away from the door.
        --Peter Anspach's list of things to do as an Evil Overlord

d

Thanks for replying

The ignoring highways you are only on for a short time "rings a bell"

The routes it uses get you there but sometimes way out of the way and
sometimes not a great neighborhood either !

For instance, I am on Veterans highway and should continue onto 516W
for 2 miles whewre I exit and drive i-16 for 3 miles where I pick up
17

The GPS sends me OFF the highway through side streets that winds me up
a few blocks from where 17 meets i-16

Guess I'll try it on a longer trip and see what happens !!

On Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:07:58 -0800 (PST), Jim Matthews wrote:

That's something a GPS isn't going to pick up. (Okay, with the very few
models that have proximity points and allow avoidance on those, you
could probably set your own, but I can't even *imagine* how much grief a
company would get for publically tagging areas as "bad neighborhoods...)


That sounds like a shorter and possibly faster trip to me. Of course,
that'll depend on some of those "invisible factors" like whether you're
going with or against stop signs and traffic lights, how easy it is to
make turns, etc. All *very* localized information that GPSs aren't good
at. Mostly they make guesses like "weigh every mile on class 3 roads as
taking five minutes unless we know a higher speed limit", with no regard
between a road that you can drive 30-ish on because it's a minor
thoroughfare, or it's a residential street with speed bumps every half
block and 4-way stops at every intersection.

--
22. No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I
will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.
--Peter Anspach's list of things to do as an Evil Overlord