sat nav with avoid motorway setting?

droodle

My tomtom one has this feature to turn off motorways, however when i tried it, it took me down some very dubious "roads" had i been in a car and not my dads 4x4 i would of been stuck!! I don't know if the feature has been improved mine is 6years old!

Lum

No. That still happens, it's why satnavs are an aid, not a replacement, for planning your route.

Where I am there are some single track roads that are significantly quicker than the main roads and I love it when my satnav takes me down them as they are fun to drive and are often a nice shortcut to remember. One recent one was overrun with very stubborn sheep and I had to poke them lightly in the bum with my front bumper to get the things to move.

The only real problem we get is non-local lorry drivers using satnavs designed for car users. My ancient Garmin had separate modes for foot/bike/bus/taxi/car/lorry but this feature seems to have been dropped these days.

Imp

movilogo wrote: »

Just inquisitive to know, why do you want to avoid motorways?

They are faster and safer. I always try to use as much motorway possible while on long journey.

Times Imp has avoided motorways

1) driving vehicles which cannot legally travel on motorways
2) it is Friday afternoon and I know that the non-motorway routes are quicker than the M25
3) carrying a divan bed on my roof rack and don't want to go above 40mph
4) have time on my hands and want a more interesting journey
5) the car was struggling to travel more then 5 miles without needing a rest (turned out to be debris in the fuel tank was stirred up and blocking the fuel line)

anewman

I'd rather be on a motorway than a single track road with BMW's hurtling at me around blind bends at 50mph. Much less stressful.

There's a single track road almost all the way from Caerphilly to Cardiff (Newport Road end) I followed via sat nav, and TBH I'd rather take the main roads.

Inactive

Lum wrote: »

I have to confess I haven't kept up with the modern theory test, but there was nothing about motorways in mine when I took it, though admittedly this was in the days were you had to be a complete idiot to fail it.

There would have been questions on the Highway Code that covered Motorways, it was of course pot luck if you were questioned on Motorway usage, even prior to the Theory test.

Lum

anewman wrote: »

There's a single track road almost all the way from Caerphilly to Cardiff (Newport Road end) I followed via sat nav, and TBH I'd rather take the main roads.

I know the exact road you mean. I use it daily to get to work (J30) as it is much faster than sitting in the queues at J28 or J32.

My particular pet hate is that blind right hand uphill hairpin where the road widens to easily accommodate two cars but there's always builders vans parked on the outside edge of the hairpin corner.

Other than that it works quite well for commuting as most other traffic is going in the same direction as you on the way in and on the way out, and that means the one person coming the other way gets to reverse

Edit: There's also a particularly nasty blind right hander with really tall hedges just before it exits out onto J30. Again with there being a building site at the end of that road you get morons in transit vans hurtling around it. Generally best to slow to a near crawl for that corner.

Gloomendoom

Ada3050 wrote: »

What model is it? My 200w has it in the setting menu.

I like to avoid motorways in my MG so its a useful feature

My 770 has "Avoid highways". Apparently, this means all roads with a 70mph speed limit.

I'm generally extremely pleased with it but I find its inability to specifically avoid motorways and it's incessant bonging if you get close to the speed limit in a speed camera zone annoying at times.

anewman

Lum wrote: »

I know the exact road you mean. I use it daily to get to work (J30) as it is much faster than sitting in the queues at J28 or J32.

You can avoid the J28 queues (somewhat) by going through High-Cross (J27). And to avoid J28 coming from Royal Gwent you can go through Gaer which takes you back onto the bypass in Rogerstone.

I'm sure there's an optical illusion on the road from Risca to Lower Machen (Ochrwyth), as the hill looks less steep than the gear the car needs to be in would otherwise suggest.

Lum

I know about the high cross shortcut, but the other route you mention, Risca to Lower Machen is actually the route I take, then you can carry on through the lanes all the way to J30

and yes there are some amazingly steep hills on that stretch, especially if you go right when the road forks at the top of the hill after going through Ochrwyth.

The day I got my Mondeo, first time I've driven a manual in 4 years and an unforgiving diesel to boot, I met an HGV while going down that hill and had to reverse up. That was not a fun time.

Imp

anewman wrote: »

There's a single track road almost all the way from Caerphilly to Cardiff (Newport Road end) I followed via sat nav, and TBH I'd rather take the main roads.

If you mean the route via Rudry, then I have to agree, it's a little hairy. On the bright side, lorries don't go down it because they can't