Easy sat nav?

twopenny

So I'm giving in. The changes to road layouts when I go to towns or so far even out of town is driving me nuts!

Which lane, am I on the right road etc. Just went down a main road between 2 towns and there was a roundabout appeared in weeks after 70yrs with no distinguising marks as to location. Ditto village streets on outskirts suddenly become bus lanes. And don't even start about the worn out road markings or hedges growing over road signs!

Mostly I won't be travelling far so something basic for idiots would be good. Road lane indication would be great.

I often go back ways as it's quicker than some of the main routes and a darn sight more relaxing so up till now it would be too much of a trial to put all the villages into sat nav. Besides it's easy to follow road numbers and names.

I live and travel rurally in Somerset and Devon. I know the villages as markers but recent road building by passes them leaving me flumoxed.

Won't need Europe.

I also need to be able to turn it off until I approach the town or speedy 3 lane roads that have brutalised our lovely counties for the tourists. It would indeed drive me nuts being told what to do when I know.

Searching throws up the big names and ones with lots of gizmos so any suggestions for something simple would be welcome.

Neil_Jones

Roundabouts don't just "appear", if you use the route regularly approaching it should have been relatively obvious some work was going on, usually from a gaggle of cones, temporary traffic lights, people in high vis jackets, JCBs etc... You can make use of websites like https://one.network/ which will tell you what works are going on where and for how long.

Google Maps will probably do what you want (see any relatively recent smart phone) and it'll be updated far more often than any satnav will, and it'll tell you how long this traffic jam is due to hold you up for.  Just have to be careful not to follow its directions literally sometimes - you may find it'll tell you to do an impossible u-turn somewhere.

As for the rest of your post, well all I can say is trees only overgrow road signs when they've been there a while (Tree and sign), and most roundabouts will have signals on the arms which almost always repeat whats on the signs approaching it so...

MattMattMattUK

Just use Google Maps and enable voice control so you can mute/un-mute at will, or a whole bunch of other things, without having to touch the screen. It also works with Android Auto as well if you have a car with that. 

facade

Argos sell a binatone unit for £85 that only covers the UK and ROI.

It has a 7" diagonal screen, which is just about ok for a satnav. They also sell one for about £65 that is so small you would be lucky to see it.

Whatever you buy, just make sure it has 2D and 3D modes (2D is like a moving A to Z, 3D is like a video game and I can't cope with it - 2D can have "direction up"- looking down on the car or "North up" the map is fixed and the car turns round)

There will be a little speaker icon on the screen, just poke it and the voice goes off, leaving a quite useful moving A to Z.

However, I think you want "lane guidance", binatone call it "lane assistance" where it supposedly tells you which lane to be in, my satnav lady politely says "stay in the left lane" or whatever, I think the binatone just shows little gtaphics (so you want the bigger screen)

No doubt someone will tell you to use google maps on your 'phone (in a holder) for nothing, well I tried it when I was completely lost and I couldn't get it to work- I ended up getting out and walking to the next street to figure out the road names and which way to go.

oldernonethewiser

If you don't have a reliable mobile signal and haven't downloaded the maps then something like Google Maps will be as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.

If you can go into somewhere like Halfords you should be able to see a SatNav in action and have a play to see if it is something you would be comfortable using.

facade

oldernonethewiser said:

If you don't have a reliable mobile signal and haven't downloaded the maps then something like Google Maps will be as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.

It showed a streetmap ok, but I couldn't understand where I was on it. I managed to activate a "navigate to" function, and a dotted blue path appeared, but as I was parked, I couldn't figure out which way to go, so I had to get out and orient myself with sideroads to then go the opposite direction to the one I was facing

Naturally, when I pulled up on the drive at home, my satnav sprang into life.......

twopenny

Neil_Jones said:

Roundabouts don't just "appear", if you use the route regularly approaching it should have been relatively obvious some work was going on, usually from a gaggle of cones, temporary traffic lights, people in high vis jackets, JCBs etc... You can make use of websites like https://one.network/ which will tell you what works are going on where and for how long.

You'd think. It's taken 18mts for them to put 2 miles of cycle path on an existing one where I live. This 'appeared' after a few weeks. It's in an area where they seem to get bulk discount on traffic lights and such.

I have a 20yr old car and 12yr old phone. The battery will run down before I get through. I tried a plug in the lighter socket and the phone got very hot.

It's only worth getting something cheap if it's a satnav as it's infrequently I need it but I was hoping it would save me coming out of towns with a headache.

I'm just very cautious about snvs because of the daft things I see around here where people believe everything it tells them and never check the road signs.

That's good that Halfords have demonstration ones. So many of our shops have closed post covid. Seeing stuff working is the quickest way to see what suits. Mind I have to do a 50mile round trip and park and ride to get there but good outing for a dull day.

Thanks all for the ideas, and smiles :-)

mgfvvc

If it's changes to road layout you're worried about then you need either Google maps or a sat nav with lifetime maps. Even with life time maps, a sat nav will probably be 6 months behind and the speed limit database will be several years out of date. Google maps on a phone is usually more or less up to date.

Neil_Jones

mgfvvc said:

If it's changes to road layout you're worried about then you need either Google maps or a sat nav with lifetime maps. Even with life time maps, a sat nav will probably be 6 months behind and the speed limit database will be several years out of date. Google maps on a phone is usually more or less up to date.

To be honest a lot of road don't change that often, my parents have a map in the form of a picture on the wall which shows the road network of the regional area in 1837 or whenever from maps/records of the time .  A lot of the  major roads on it are still there today and have just been branched off over the years or had roundabouts chucked in (or ripped out) along the routes for housing and what not.

Its very unlikely even a sat nav with lifetime maps will be so far out of date as to be unusable.  Government generally baulks at spending money to fix bottlenecks properly (ie grade separated junctions, flyovers, underpasses, etc) or even potential bottlenecks on new road builds so all that happens is the work gets done, roundabouts get flattened, the traffic gets worse and after a few bodges  (usually traffic lights on roundabouts is the main one) the intersection gets ripped out and replaced with a four way set of traffic lights... and that's how it stays until the whole area is redeveloped.  Repeat and rinse.

Tiexen

twopenny said:

So I'm giving in. The changes to road layouts when I go to towns or so far even out of town is driving me nuts!

Which lane, am I on the right road etc. Just went down a main road between 2 towns and there was a roundabout appeared in weeks after 70yrs with no distinguising marks as to location. Ditto village streets on outskirts suddenly become bus lanes. And don't even start about the worn out road markings or hedges growing over road signs!

Mostly I won't be travelling far so something basic for idiots would be good. Road lane indication would be great.

I often go back ways as it's quicker than some of the main routes and a darn sight more relaxing so up till now it would be too much of a trial to put all the villages into sat nav. Besides it's easy to follow road numbers and names.

I live and travel rurally in Somerset and Devon. I know the villages as markers but recent road building by passes them leaving me flumoxed.

Won't need Europe.

I also need to be able to turn it off until I approach the town or speedy 3 lane roads that have brutalised our lovely counties for the tourists. It would indeed drive me nuts being told what to do when I know.

Searching throws up the big names and ones with lots of gizmos so any suggestions for something simple would be welcome.

Waze is a good smartphone app - so good Google bought it.

"Always know what’s happening on the road with Waze. Even if you know the way, Waze tells you instantly about traffic, roadworks, police, accidents & more. If traffic is bad on your route, Waze will change it to save you time."

John_Gray

Seems to me that a hand-held compass would assist you in your orientation!

(I'm not going to suggest that you employ a chap with a red flag...!)