‘Live traffic’ on your sat nav – is it worth paying for?

I love the idea but not at that price. If it was 20-25£ a year I wud definitely sign up… i HATE sitting in traffic!

At TomTom, using the RDS TMC was sometimes painfully inaccurate, especially when trying to navigate through a foreign country.

When Live traffic was introduced I was amazed at how accurate this system was, right up to the point detailing exactly where the jam started. The devices basically have a SIM card in them that checks for other stationary devices on the same stretch of road. If more than 3 = traffic jam.

I am completely unsold on paying for it though, much as I hate sitting in traffic, if the main route is blocked, this means that all the secondary and tertiary routes are going to be rammed also. The best way to go at points like this is by stopping and plotting a new route around everything manually rather than rely on the most popular.

I mostly use google traffic before I leave, yet it never seems to be entirely accurate. It can be green yet there are miles of tailbacks due to an accident, or it can be red when the traffic is moving freely. Having so many issues with breakdowns/accidents in the M1 Luton roadworks, I just don’t take that route north anymore.

Subscriptions are the way forward as a business model, but ultimately I lament having to pay for information that is provided for free elsewhere and will never sign up for something like that, regardless of how accurate it is.

Maybe if I was on the road every day, but I am not so it doesn’t matter to me

Whether it is “worth it” or not, there is a fundamental problem with having to pay for this service. Good quality, accurate information about traffic conditions should be freely available to all road users. These are our roads, paid for by our taxes.

The Highways Agency have installed CCTV cameras and gigantic matrix display panels, again at our expense, but the quality of the information is sometimes appallingly poor, unreliable or out of date. For example, on 1st November, traffic queued for 3 hours on the M23 between Gatwick and the M25 – a distance of less than 5 miles. The signs only said there were “delays” between J5 and J8 of the M25, not that the road was closed and would not be reopening for several hours!

If a road has been closed at the decision of a public authority, they surely have a duty to inform all road users of the fact, not just those that pay for a premium subscription service or happen to be listening to the radio at the right moment?

I used FM RDS TA radio broadcasts and a Traffic Mater ( blue poles ) recevier. Both are free to use.

I have a garmin nuvi model which came with FM traffic. It is “free” being included in the price, so no annual fee. It is superb! It will re-route you automatically when on the road, and will avoid traffic delays when programming. The only thing I have found is that is does not automatically re-route when the congestion has cleared; so every half hour or so I reset it to the destination. Would definitely NOT buy a satnav without it.
Has any one else found that mapping is not very accurate on minor roads through villages and on speed limits which have been in place for several years?

I use nuLink! live for traffic info and the answer for me is NO it is not worth paying for.
3 Reasons:
First: last year one carriageway of the A690 was closed for 4 days. (mon to thurs, opened on friday) due to a huge hole appearing in the road. Caused major disruption and delays. I use this road daily and according to my garmin nulink the road was open and ok. RUBBISH.
Second: The estate where I live is just off a slip road from dual carriageway A road. The slip roads off the A road in both directions have been closed for the past few months, due to junction works and bridge repairs, causing delays and disruption at rush hour and weekends…my sat nav says it is open and there are no delays in the area. RUBBISH.
Third: A key roundabout is having a makeover, bridge repairs and all is just one lane (was 3) causing havoc on all roads leading onto it and will do till the other lanes are opened. I am in the que for 20 mins daily with my Sat nav saying all is ok, just the arrival time clocking up the mins. RUBBISH.
All the above were mentioned on local tv and radio updates as being issues in the area…and they want £44.99 when my subscription ends in two months. For the same for “another year of great service” I don’t think so.
I have looked online and some A roads are not mentioned in the search lists to check for roadworks, this may be a reason for the lack of up to date info. I don’t really know why.

This subject seems dead.

I was looking for some feedback on the current usability of live traffic services on TomTom, Garmin and others. I believe there issues with some devices which rely on an internal connection via the mobile network to obtain live data. The network(s) now get congested at busy times and drop the connection – this usually happens when there is a lot of traffic (M1, M3, M25 etc) just when you need it.

The Which November review on Satnavs does not help.

Whether live services justify the cost (some devices now have a lifetime service) is not part of my question. However in deference earlier posts my subscriptions have saved my bacon over time (eg making a flight departure, making business meetings etc)

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