Tmc?

jmc160

Hi all.

Sorry if I'm repeating previous threads, but I'm quite confused by this, so I'm looking for clarification if anyone can offer it.

I currently have TomTom Navigator 5.2 loaded on an XDA Mini S.
I'm starting a new job soon, which will involve lots of driving, so I was wondering about these traffic subscription thingies so I can avoid jams.

My problem is lots of people are saying these aren't very good, and I also don't know what options I have.

I've heard talk of TMC aerials - do these require a subscription? And is there one that will connect to my XDA?

Is TomTom Traffic better than these?

Any advice anyone can give me on these will be greatly appreciated.

J

Little_John

Any traffic jam avoicance system is only as good as the data loaded in to it. how often do you listen to the traffic reports and they are going on about congestion for 10 miles on the section of road you are hitting 80mph sorry 79mph

I made use of the month free trial of tom tom traic and it was ok, I avoided areas with problems, I don't know if there wre problems or not I never went near them. A problem no with so many others using sat nav everyone else now has the alternative route so it tends to get blocked also your better staying on the original road and getting an eye full of the wrecked car at the end of the jam some times.

jmc160

The problem I usually have is actually the other way round. There's been times when I've hit a major tail-back, only to get a report on the radio 30 minutes after I've been sat there.

Worst one I had was I'd sat stationary for around 45 minutes and been made late for work, only to finally get a traffic report on the radio and I thought "Great, at least I can find out where the problem is". The reporter stated that there were no problems on London Underground. That was it. I wasn't even in London.

It's because of these issues that I'm wondering about these other options.

Little_John

They all get their info from the same places, either somoene phoneing up with a problem or the cameras on the roads they are equally as good/bad as each other.

If you only update your tom tom traffice every hour then your data could be an hour out of date, its better than nothing but usually the radio is as good and free.

jmc160

So is it not an auto-updating thing then? I assumed it was all done on the fly.

Little_John

tom tom traffic updates at set intervals I used to have it set to every 45 minutes before the data was considered old and it would download new data.

I used to use traffic master and it was the same sort of thing the updates to the transmitters on the roads were slow most of the time and you were crawling along when the nfo came through.

jmc160

I see.

I think I'll stick to the radio announcements for a while then.

Thanks for the advice! I'll thank you properly if I ever figure out how to do it.