Quest-Route Planning problems

I purchased the Quest so I could get off the beaten trail and AVOID motorways and such at all costs.

However when, for example, I plot a start point from London to a destination in Sheffield and putting in the avoidance of highways (I guess this an Americanism for motorways ), the first thing it does is take me straight to the M1.

Ok, so now I put into the custom avoidance, AVOID M1, despite calculating away for yonks it still sends me up the nearest junction to the M1. Even if i try the road avoidance feature (a start and an end point at the beginning and at the end of the M1) it comes up with '....this never expires' , and low and behold I'm on the M1 again.

So what's the trick? How do I plan a route without boring motorways? Do I have to tediously put in waypoints along the way which are off the M-ways, or i there an easier feature on the Quest which avoids these roads?

Thanks in advance!

I can't help you with instructions for the Quest, but in the US etc. their equivalent of motorways are called 'freeways'. Can you select 'avoid freeways'? I use TomTom, and to get a route using every little B and C road the selection is 'shortest route'. 'Fastest' invariably uses motorways. Also, if Quest allows it, tell it your vehicle type is a bicycle, and it will avoid M-ways where pedal cycles are illegal.

HTH
TC

There is an option on the Quest to select bicycle and it does avoid motorways. Only problem is it thinks you are riding a bicycle speeds so the best option is -

1. Plan the route on your pc having selected bicycle as the vehicle type.
2. Upload to the Quest
3. Turn off off-route re-calculation
4. Leave Quest set for Car/Motorcycle thus giving more reasonable times to next turn / destination etc

HTH

Dave

Thanks for the responses.

I did think about the bicycle option, but was a tad concerned about it leading me 'too' far off the beaten trail, if you know what I mean. I love A and B roads (seeing that a sportsbike is usually my choice), and even though some little dirt trails are fun, I would prefer to keep off these small single lanes for both safety's sake and to keep the speed up. So, before I try it out, is it quite likely I'm going to be led down gravel strewn mudtracks?

So what the heck is the 'Avoid Highway' feature in the route options of the Quest. What exactly are you avoiding if it's not the M-way? BTW Tomcat, there isn't an avoid Freeway option.

Thanks

The "avoid highways / toll roads / u-turns" option isn't cast in stone AFAIK, as I'm sure there is a sentence in the Mapsource manual that said they would be avoided "where reasonably possible" or words to that effect. In other words, it would still send you along a toll road - if the alternative was a ridiculous detour. Personally I wouldn't change the vehicle type, as that will bugger up your "time to go" big style - and thats a very useful feature.

Why don't you just plot the route on Mapsource (manually selecting the roads you want) and download the route to the Quest ?

Be careful though if you turn off the avoid highways. Next time you plan a route and it has to use highways it will take you off the motorway at every roundabout and then back on agin. Mine did it to me!!

Rockbyter said:

Be careful though if you turn off the avoid highways. Next time you plan a route and it has to use highways it will take you off the motorway at every roundabout and then back on agin. Mine did it to me!!

Click to expand...

Is there a way to get around this? Or do you just ignore it when it tells you to turn off.

I did a mega 700miles over this weekend but when I was on Big A roads such as the crappy A1 and A14 (which I really looked forward to getting off) the Quest was telling me to come off at every roundabout then rejoined the same road each friggin time! I did this about four times before I cottoned on
Car drivers must have thought they were tripping each time I overtook them disappeared then re-overtook em when I came off then back on the road again . Groundhog day

So is this just a flaw with the quest you kind of have to accept?

There are loads of ways of doing what you require;

Taff mentioned one - plan the route on Mapsource & download to the Quest.

Break up the route into smaller chunks.

tediously put in waypoints (vias) which take you away from the motorway

Select shorter, rather than faster routeing

Reading through posts on this forum


Taff is quite correct in what he says. The Quest will try to do what you want, but will give up if your request is unreasonable. I mean, London to Sheffield - what do you expect?

As you have discovered, there are wrinkles with using these machines, which can only be discovered by experience. Moreover, these wrinkles are, in most cases, quite logical and occur as a result of operator error.

Route planning

I am the proud possessor of a 2720 so Im not 100% sure this will work on a Quest, however....
Change your settings so that your average speed on Highways is 30 m.p.h.and your speed on other roads is say 75 m.p.h.
Set for Fastest route, and lo and behold, you should avoid the tedious M1.

It's true that the Garmins reason (?) that although you say you don't like M'ways, it's impracticable for you to travel by alternative routes, so they ignore your preferences.
Hope this helps.
John Benson

waqxville said:

Is there a way to get around this? Or do you just ignore it when it tells you to turn off.

I did a mega 700miles over this weekend but when I was on Big A roads such as the crappy A1 and A14 (which I really looked forward to getting off) the Quest was telling me to come off at every roundabout then rejoined the same road each friggin time! I did this about four times before I cottoned on
Car drivers must have thought they were tripping each time I overtook them disappeared then re-overtook em when I came off then back on the road again . Groundhog day

So is this just a flaw with the quest you kind of have to accept?

Click to expand...

It's not a flaw with the quest...it's a flaw with the user


As mentioned above, you'll need to increase the speeds on other roads to make them more 'attractive'.....you do this in Mapsource rather than on the unit.

You've got to be realistic in your expectations as well...as a guidance unit, it's a very good bit of kit, but if you expect it to interpret exaclty what you want on a long journey like that, you've got to expect to do some work yourself or it will do exactly what it should, get you from point 'a' to 'b' taking into account some general preferences you've put in.

If you want a totally non motorway route over a distance like that, you can either tell it you're a bicycle as mentioned, or take five minutes to look in Mapsource and 'tweak' the route away from the motorways by adding 'via' points, as well as adjusting the road type speeds.


There are a lot of threads with hints and tips that are worth reading, but start off with this one it should give you some clues

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71060&page=1&pp=40

I just wish that; as well as 'Fastest' and 'Shortest' it had a 'prettyest' or 'most GS friendly' or 'most scratchy' route option.

Waqxville:

There are a number of different issues (constraints) that the GPSR has to deal with when it automatically constructs a route, and there are also a number of different controls available to you that allow you to influence how the route is constructed.

I'm not a Quest expert (I use the 2xxx and 7xxx series of GPSRs), but I think the Quest behaves much the same as the larger GPSRs. Perhaps experienced Quest users could check my comments and provide corrections if needed.

1) Avoid Highways
Choosing this indicates that you have a strong preference to avoid highways, but it will not result in the GPSR avoiding highways at all costs. I think this choice is there for novice drivers and also elderly drivers who would prefer to avoid highways if there is another way to easily get to the destination.

2) Route Preferences
The 2xxx and 7xxx series of GPSRs have an 'Advanced Route Preferences' page that was developed by Garmin specifically for motorcycle riders like yourself (and me) who don't like riding on highways, especially controlled access highways. This page allows you to state your preferences (avoid, favour, or don't avoid) for three broad categories of roads - major roads, medium roads, and minor roads.

Try setting major roads to 'Avoid', medium roads to 'Favour', and leaving minor roads as a neutral choice (Don't Avoid), and see what the result is. Be aware that once you do this, you have to ensure that the GPSR asks you what your routing preferences are each time you calculate a route (e.g. fastest, shortest, custom, or off-road). It won't do any good to enter a set of custom route preferences, as I just explained, if your GPSR is set to always route you via the fastest route and to NOT ask you what your routing preference is! Personally, I kind of suspect this is the cause of your problem...

Often, the GPSR will construct an auto-route that takes you down a major highway in spite of the fact you have done everything listed above. If that happens, try riding off in the same general direction but following a secondary road that will take you to your destination. Chances are that after making a few recalculations (typically 3), the GPSR will then notice that you have chosen to take the secondary road, and it will then begin to route you along that road.

Michael

Thanks for all the comments guys!

I have taken a good read and am gonna take them all into account on my next little foray over the next few days. Need to stop being a brainless twit with this thing