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I just got back from a 3 week vacation in the UK (Enland and Wales). I had a great time. Betty was a help ... mostly. If someone is planning a similar trip here are some suggestions:
1) Get the latest map set available. I did not upgrade to V7 European maps (had V6) and found there were a number of places where roundabouts were added or removed as well as some roads that Betty thought were 2-way but were, in reality, 1-way (the wrong way for my needs)
2) Get a good paper map set. We used the Ordinance Survey maps. Again, get the most recent you can find (ours was from 1999). This is a good back-up and lets you see a bigger picture than Betty's llittle screen.
3) Be aware that Betty will route you over some of the tiniest roads you will ever see if you use auto-route. I was using the fastest route algorithm and was really surprised at how often Betty chose a tiny (1 lane and just barely wide enough for you, never mind another vehicle) road when a Motorway, A road or even a B road seemed a better choice. In the villages, the speed limits are well marked (20-40 mph) but outside them the limits are not marked and must be either very high or non-existent ... maybe this is why Betty choses this little road ? My solution was to pre-plan the next days trip and set way-points to force use of the better roads. However, this lessens the value of a spontaneous use of auto-route.
4) Many of the roads in the map set are identified only as "road". Navteq needs to work on this. Between the paper map, Betty and the occasional road sign I got around this.
5) Betty works great at showing where you have been (track) on the days where you kind of ramble around, just stopping at whatever looks interesting (the UK is full of such places).
6) Betty also helps you anticipate a right or left turn that is coming up on the very twisty, hedge-lined roads you sometimes find yourself using. I hate discovering that I just passed the turn off that I wanted because I didn't know how close it was.
All in all, Betty was very useful as long as I took the time to check the route beforehand and add way-points as needed. I was glad to have her along
Originally posted by bencason
3) Be aware that Betty will route you over some of the tiniest roads you will ever see if you use auto-route. I was using the fastest route algorithm and was really surprised at how often Betty chose a tiny (1 lane and just barely wide enough for you, never mind another vehicle) road when a Motorway, A road or even a B road seemed a better choice. In the villages, the speed limits are well marked (20-40 mph) but outside them the limits are not marked and must be either very high or non-existent ... maybe this is why Betty choses this little road ? My solution was to pre-plan the next days trip and set way-points to force use of the better roads. However, this lessens the value of a spontaneous use of auto-route.
4) Many of the roads in the map set are identified only as "road". Navteq needs to work on this. Between the paper map, Betty and the occasional road sign I got around this.
Anders and I have discussed this on the forum previously, and found that a good way of avoiding these narrow roads was to use 'Truck' instead of 'Car' in the preferences.
The 'National Speed Limit' for cars is 60mph [that's everywhere that is not otherwise marked---so in reality there is always a speed limit!].
Anders has found that the Ique 3600a overcomes your comment (4) by seeing an extra class of road. Until then the UK users of the 3600 [and you visitors] will have to suffer
Originally posted by strumble Anders and I have discussed this on the forum previously, and found that a good way of avoiding these narrow roads was to use 'Truck' instead of 'Car' in the preferences.
The 'National Speed Limit' for cars is 60mph [that's everywhere that is not otherwise marked---so in reality there is always a speed limit!].
Anders has found that the Ique 3600a overcomes your comment (4) by seeing an extra class of road. Until then the UK users of the 3600 [and you visitors] will have to suffer
I tried using truck instead of car/motorcycle and got the same routes. From experience, lorry drivers seem to take those narrow little roads in stride ... I met some awful big trucks on awful small roads, much to my dismay. Perhaps I should have tried bus.
60 mph huh .... that would explain why they were passing me so frequently ... I seldom went over 45 as I did not know the roads and questioned the sanity of those that were passing me in places where even 45mph seemed too fast
Ah well, all's well that ends well ... I certainly enjoyed my trip and will brave the UK roads again in a couple of years (with Betty along to help).
Originally posted by bencason I tried using truck instead of car/motorcycle and got the same routes. From experience, lorry drivers seem to take those narrow little roads in stride ... I met some awful big trucks on awful small roads, much to my dismay. Perhaps I should have tried bus.
I enclose two screenshots:-
On the left the obvious route from the Irish ferry to the Motorway M4--with 'truck' option.
On the right the scenic/narrow route from the Irish ferry to the Motorway M4--with 'car' option.
These options change UK routes considerably!!
As a 'local' my advice would be set the options to 'truck' unless you are going sight-seeing.
Not always, Strumble. In some instances, the setting to Truck didn't help, but in other places, it did. It did work near where you live.
The map problem we found was that all roads, regardless of their size, were classified as "major" roads. You can't see this in the 3600, since it will not tell you, but you can with the 3600a. That's because the 3600a allows you to customize the routing, in such a way that you set different preferences for major, medium and minor roads. To give you an idea about which is which, you can point on a road in the map screen, tap the (i) icon and see the road category.
By using this function, we found that even the tiniest roads were "major", and thus the iQue assumed them suitable for routing, even when using the "fastest route" setting.
This will fool the 3600a too, since it sees nothing but the map information. But at least you can understand what it's doing, and also utilize the "avoid area" function occasionally, if you want to keep out of a mess of narrow roads.
But in that case, you'll exclude a great deal of the UK from your explorations...
Originally posted by apersson850 Not always, Strumble. In some instances, the setting to Truck didn't help, but in other places, it did. It did work near where you live.
The map problem we found was that all roads, regardless of their size, were classified as "major" roads. You can't see this in the 3600, since it will not tell you, but you can with the 3600a. That's because the 3600a allows you to customize the routing, in such a way that you set different preferences for major, medium and minor roads. To give you an idea about which is which, you can point on a road in the map screen, tap the (i) icon and see the road category.
By using this function, we found that even the tiniest roads were "major", and thus the iQue assumed them suitable for routing, even when using the "fastest route" setting.
This will fool the 3600a too, since it sees nothing but the map information. But at least you can understand what it's doing, and also utilize the "avoid area" function occasionally, if you want to keep out of a mess of narrow roads.
But in that case, you'll exclude a great deal of the UK from your explorations...
apersson850,
thanks, that explains the behaviour that I was seeing. It would really be nice if this got "FIXED" in an update of some kind but I will not hold my breath waiting for that to happen.
I don't mind using the small roads when time isn't an issue (my wife always prefers the small roads) but there were times when I really did not want to deal with anything except the best roads.
Strumble,
As a local, I respect your advice and will certainly change to the "truck" setting on my next visit (just in case it helps). But I will be sure to check the route before commiting to it.
No, take a deep breath instead, then visit Navteq's web site, for customer feedback, and report the error. This is in the map database, not an error in the iQue itself.
If Navteq finds that their maps are correct (you'll get a reply from them, in a while), then proceed to report the error to Garmin, since in such a case, it's Garmin that hasn't processed the map data from Navteq properly.
If you do that, then chances are that you can start breathing normally when Europe CS version 8 becomes available.
Perhaps I should have tried bus.
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