Traffic alert service for LA/Orange county 370/670 units: people's experience? or experience other than that area?

We are going to purchase a unit for our college-age daughter to make her
feel more comfortable about driving around from Orange County to places
in LA and nearby. If the traffic info works, that would be a plus, as
she frequently will call her sister to look up on sigalert.com to see
which roads are impacted.

As I understand it, there are two services that do this: Total Traffic
Network and MSN Direct, with the Nuvi 680 the only unit the only unit
that uses MSN.

I would like to have some idea how the info is displayed. When, for
example, one goes to sigalert.com, there is a map that shows the major
highways and how they are flowing with little colored icons. Is the
info from either TTN or MSN displayed or is it merely used in
calculating routes? Is it an option that is fairly reliable and worth
purchasing or is it buggy?

(and that reminds me of another display question: is there a mode on
either the 2x0 or 6x0 units that just displays a map of where one is
without having a specific destination? If so, can one zoom in or out to
see more or less detail?)

Thanks in advance.

Ken K

There is also the XM NavTraffic option. You can get that with, for example,
the Garmin 2820 with the XM adapter and of course an XM subscription. The
XM traffic coverage is shown here:
http://www.xmradio.com/navtraffic/market_coverage.xmc
It costs about $6 per month more than the standard XM subscription. Of
course you also get the XM radio. I have a Garmin 2730, which was
essentially the 2820 bundled with the XM adapter. The 2730 (and I would
assume the 2820) allows you to integrate the traffic information into the
autorouting algorithm, so for example it will automatically recalculate your
route if it detects a traffic problem on the current route (or it will
prompt you to recalcute, depending on how you have it setup).

Overall I've found the traffic information and autorouting to be marginally
helpful. One significant problem is that I have encountered cases where
there was an accident on my current route which was not reported by XM
traffic. This has happened at least twice for sure and possibly more times.
The other problem is that when a traffic incident occurs the autorouting may
reroute me onto other roads which are not covered by the traffic information
and which may result in even longer travel times then if I just stuck it out
on the old route.

Things actually work better if I just monitor a local FM radio station and
get traffic info from them and then modify my route myself.

On the 2730 when a traffic incident on your current route occurs an icon
pops up on the map view, if you click that you get details on the incident,
including a little map that shows where it has occurred. BTW the traffic
incidents also include slowdowns where there are traffic flow sensors (the
URL that I gave above will show the roads with traffic flow sensor
coverage). There is also a menu item where you can go and look at traffic
incidents that are, for example near your current location as opposed to on
the current route.

Here is a list of the Garmin GPSRs that support the XM option:

Automotive Products XM Receiver/antenna Traffic (basic weather
included*) Radio
StreetPilot® 2730 GXM 30 (included)
StreetPilot 7200 GXM 30
StreetPilot 7500 GXM 30
StreetPilot 2820 GXM 30
zumo 500T GXM 30
zumo 550 GXM 30


If this list is unreadable you can see it here:
http://www.garmin.com/xm/#compatibility

OTOH I've found the XM radio audio itself to be quite nice, I would say that
I've been using the 2730 as more of an XM radio receiver with a GPS add-on
then vice versa!

Some other comments:
- The GXM 30 is a "hockey puck" that connects to the GPSR with a USB cable.
So its another cable to manage
- If you are interested in the XM radio audio you need some way to get it
into your vehicles audio system, I use a Sony cassette adapter. Yet another
cable to manage.
- I get really good reception with XM. XM has a number of repeaters in
urban areas. Particularly so in the Wash. DC area where I am located
because that is there home base, but I think also so in other urban areas.
So I don't need to stick the XM hockey puck on the roof, I just toss it onto
the dashboard and it works fine.

At any rate hope this helps your decision process.


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I'm in Atlanta and have tried both XM and the FM Traffic receiver. The FM
Traffic receiver basically colored everything yellow which said, "Yeah,
there's traffic." Well, I can figure that out - it's rush hour. It was rare
that the reports were accurate. It was, effectively useless (in Atlanta) and
I sent it back.

I tried XM/NavTraffic. It just works (in Atlanta). I can glance over at my
GPS (Garmin StreetPilot 2820) and see, "Oh, -red- don't want to go there,"
or, "-yellow- - hmmm slower but I'll make it through." The incidents also
seem to be pretty accurate/up-to-date. I'd recommend it if you're in a city
that is supported.

Brad

Brad Bishop said the following on 4/7/2007 7:13 AM:
Does the XM/NavTraffic work on the Nuvi products?