ROUTE PLOTTING

[GSTourer]

Hi all,

I plotted a route this weekend to visit a friend in Thatcham from Whipsnade in Bedfordshire.

My friend had told me that the best route was the M3 off the M25 and visually in Mapsource this appeared to be the case. However, whatever parameters I set to calculate the route it always failed to send me via the M4and either stuck to a route via the M3 or more minor roads.

All I did was leave the M25 via the M4 intersection (as my friend had suggested) and immediately I was on the M4 the Zumo indicated I should leave the M4 via J12 which was the route my friend had indicated. Anyone got any idea why Mapsource failed to consider what was clearly both the fastest and shortest route?

Secondly..................on my return I wished to follow the route I had taken to get there.............If I pressed 'Home' which is stored as a favourite on the Zumo I faced the same problems again. Is there a way to follow a route in reverse if you have deviated from the route plotted by either Mapsource or the Zumo?

Sorry it's a long winded question.

Regards.

Ian.

 

[Womble]

Have you got avoidances enabled, and if so, which?

Are you planning for Shortest or fastest routes?

What is your vehicle type set to? It may sound a bit silly, but I know a lot of bikers who set their vehicle to 'Truck' to get fast routes, or even 'Emergency Vehicle'.

Let me know if you find a way of reversing routes in the Zumo. That feature would have been really useful on holiday when I was at the southern end of the Route Des Grandes Alpes and I suddenly realised that I'd loaded a North-South version of the route, and I couldn't just tell the faffing thing to go the other way

 

[Deleted account W]

No idea about your route choice issue.

You can't turn a track into a route and then reverse it on the Zumo, which i think is what your asking.

 

[Wapping]

Hi all,

I plotted a route this weekend to visit a friend in Thatcham from Whipsnade in Bedfordshire.

My friend had told me that the best route was the M3 off the M25 and visually in Mapsource this appeared to be the case. However, whatever parameters I set to calculate the route it always failed to send me via the M4and either stuck to a route via the M3 or more minor roads.

All I did was leave the M25 via the M4 intersection (as my friend had suggested) and immediately I was on the M4 the Zumo indicated I should leave the M4 via J12 which was the route my friend had indicated. Anyone got any idea why Mapsource failed to consider what was clearly both the fastest and shortest route?

Secondly..................on my return I wished to follow the route I had taken to get there.............If I pressed 'Home' which is stored as a favourite on the Zumo I faced the same problems again. Is there a way to follow a route in reverse if you have deviated from the route plotted by either Mapsource or the Zumo?

Sorry it's a long winded question.

Regards.

Ian.

I think you mean M4 not M3?

It's only a dumb device. Sometimes it makes basic errors. Sometimes though its dumbness is increased due to operator error.

You need to fiddle with your settings.

Go to Edit ----> Preferences ----> Routing ---> Road selection (slide the slider all the way to the right, so it will always look for motorways, first) and light the shorter distance button on the calculation style menu.

Here's one I made earlier, doing just that.

Result? Happiness. It will autocalculate a route that takes you M25 / M4 - in 1 hr 14 mins and 57 seconds / 71.6m Just as you knew was the best way.

Or you can do it manually, just be clicking on the route - using the route tool - to create your own route, as you know it's best.



Whatton's right about question two.


PS When you have finished. Don't forget to set your routing preference back, or you will use the last method of calculation for ever more. Unless of course you just like motorways, in which case it will be fine.

 

[Wapping]

Let me know if you find a way of reversing routes in the Zumo. That feature would have been really useful on holiday when I was at the southern end of the Route Des Grandes Alpes and I suddenly realised that I'd loaded a North-South version of the route, and I couldn't just tell the faffing thing to go the other way

He won't, as it can't be done.

 

[GSTourer]

Wapping,

That was the EXACT route my friend advised and I ended up taking once I got on to the M4 against all the advice of Mapsource.

I couldn't get Mapsource to replicate that route prior to leaving home however...............many thanks all.

Ian

 

[GSTourer]

Wapping,

Yes of course you are correct I did mean M4 and not M3......I tried your suggestion and believe it or not Mapsource avoided motorways completely sending me via Thame and Oxford etc !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......................I tried all other permutations of shortest/fastest and motorway/highway etc and am unable to reproduce your result!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ian

 

[Popeye]

You did slide the slider fully to the right didn't you, not the left.

If you slide it fully to the left it will favour minor roads over motorways.

 

[Wapping]

Wapping,

Yes of course you are correct I did mean M4 and not M3......I tried your suggestion and believe it or not Mapsource avoided motorways completely sending me via Thame and Oxford etc !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......................I tried all other permutations of shortest/fastest and motorway/highway etc and am unable to reproduce your result!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ian

You did slide the slider fully to the right didn't you, not the left.

If you slide it fully to the left it will favour minor roads over motorways.

"Ah...."

I think I hear someone in Thatcham going.

I think it might look a bit like this if he did. A complete avoidance of superslab.









Here's the result sliding it to the left.

 

[Wapping]

Wapping,

Yes of course you are correct I did mean M4 and not M3......I tried your suggestion and believe it or not Mapsource avoided motorways completely sending me via Thame and Oxford etc !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......................I tried all other permutations of shortest/fastest and motorway/highway etc and am unable to reproduce your result!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ian

And here's a version created if I do slide it all the way to the right but, instead of hitting the shorter distance button in calculation style, I hit the fastest time button.

It has preferred the highways (which are not necessarily motorways) and tried to work out a route that maximises your time on highways but gets you there quickest, as opposed to some (unknown) options(s) it might have considered spitting out.

Interestingly enough, perhaps, ViaMichelin calculates it straight off as M25 then M4.


===

The simple truth is, if you know where you are going (and it's really only two motorways) and you have been told the junctions....you don't need a GPS at all.

 

[GSTourer]

First of all can I thank everyone for their time and useful contributions.

OK, I set it again last night as per Wapping's recommendations but to take me from my home (Whipsnade) to a place (I cannot recall the name now sorry) which is situated actually on the M4 (as close as possible anyway).

It did exactly the same....................routed me via 'A' and more minor roads except for the very last part of the journey when it routed me back on to the M4.

I was VERY frustrated by now and left the settings EXACTLY the same and AGAIN put in the original request for a route between Whipsnade and Thatcham...........................and would you believe it, it gave me the exact same route as Wapping managed to get.

I have done it several times since and it re-produces that route every time now.

I was sober and careful, on all the previous occasions and had already got it set to Wapping's recommendations but the bl***y thing just wouldn't do it.

I know this may be difficult to believe and you may think that I had the settings in the wrong position but I swear I didn't.

Oh well all is OK now.......again many thanks.

Ian