Garmin GPS - Washington DC Traffic

Author

Washington DC Traffic

taem4sidwf@gmail.com

2006-12-11, 10:33 pm

I am looking for a GPS to get my wife for Christmas, and one of the
main features that interest me is the ability to get live traffic
alerts. I've about settled on one of the Garmins, where I appear to
have a choice between two different types of traffic reports - one
given over FM from Clear Channel, and one on XM radio.

If anyone has experience with these two services, particularly in the
Washington DC area, I would appreciate any help you can give me.

Thanks.

Tom

Bruce

2006-12-12, 10:33 am

<taem4sidwf@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1165883438.209589.48880@j44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I am looking for a GPS to get my wife for Christmas, and one of the
> main features that interest me is the ability to get live traffic
> alerts. I've about settled on one of the Garmins, where I appear to
> have a choice between two different types of traffic reports - one
> given over FM from Clear Channel, and one on XM radio.
>
> If anyone has experience with these two services, particularly in the
> Washington DC area, I would appreciate any help you can give me.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Tom
>

I am in the DC area and I have the Garmin SP 2730. I signed up for the XM
audio/traffic package. The traffic costs an extra $4 per month for a total
of about $17 per month. Also you can cancel at any time and get some
pro-rated reimbursement.

I find that the traffic info is somewhat helpful. Some issues with it:
- It takes about 3-4 minutes after startup to acquire the traffic info. By
that time I am often on the interstate and it's sometimes too late to avoid
a traffic situation.
- The coverage only includes the primary roads, secondary roads (e.g.
highway 29, 28, 2700, etc. are not covered).
- When an incident does occur it often takes some time to show up. I guess
it has to go through a number of hops, e.g. from the actual traffic enter to
an XM desk where it is reformatted, then sent up to the sattelites, then
sent back down.
- The XM reception is very good in the DC area as they have a number of
ground transmitters. I can even receive the XM inside the parking deck at
work. I just use the XM "hockey puck" on top of the dash and it gets great
reception there.

So if you are going with the XM receiver anyway then it won't cost much to
try out the traffic service.
I think with the Garmins you need to get an external receiver for XM or a
different one for the FM traffic service. So in either case you end up with
another cable to manage.

I really like the XM just for it's audio anyway. I use a cassette interface
(a Sony) as the FM retransmitter doesn't work very well in an urban area
(pretty much the entire DC metro area).

Brad Bishop

2006-12-12, 10:33 pm

Some things he missed:

XM also gives you weather from most airports. They show up on-screen.

XM also gives you stock tickers, from what I understand.

FM-Traffic gives you more cities of coverage. I'm using it in Atlanta and am
pretty happy with it. I haven't noticed any 3-4 min aquisition time. Mostly,
by the time I'm out of my parking garage at work I know what's up with
traffic.

XM w/o the XM Radio is ~$10/month
FM-Traffic is $5/month

FM-Traffic comes with 15 months of service as part of the purchase. No
sign-up/cancels later. You just plug it in an you're going.

I'd say that if you're considering sat-radio for the car that XM is a good
way to go. You do lose some portability from other Plug-N-Play (PNP) XM
products, though. With other PNP XM products you can use them in your house
and run an antenna to a window or, in metro areas, just pick up service.
With the GXM30 puck, though, it'd be cumbersome to haul it in and then plug
your GPS receiver in to use it with your home stereo. Just something to
consider.

Good luck.

Brad

Ramon F Herrera

2006-12-13, 4:33 am

taem4sidwf@gmail.com wrote:
> I am looking for a GPS to get my wife for Christmas, and one of the
> main features that interest me is the ability to get live traffic
> alerts. I've about settled on one of the Garmins, where I appear to
> have a choice between two different types of traffic reports - one
> given over FM from Clear Channel, and one on XM radio.
>
> If anyone has experience with these two services, particularly in the
> Washington DC area, I would appreciate any help you can give me.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Tom

Tom:

I am currently carrying 2 GPS in my car: a StreetPilot 2730 with the XM
weather and traffic, and a n=FCvi 660 with the FM TMC traffic receiver.
Since I got the 660 very recently, I have had the opportunity to
compare the traffic services in the Boston area only. Bottom line: both
traffic services are equivalent and I would never base the purchasing
decision solely on that parameter.

AFAIAC, the n=FCvi 660 is a full replacement for the StreetPilots, not
only better in almost every conceivable respect but also much cheaper.
I only miss the weather and the north pointing compass arrow. I don't
care for the remote control. The screen is simply superior: it is
bigger, with higher resolution, brighter and more sensitive to the
touch. The SD slot is really useful to store a gazillion MP3s. Having
batteries is a big plus and I can do all kinds of things indoors (I
just need to be near a window) before I get into my car. The new GPS
chipset is superior. The n=FCvi boots faster.

I don't think that after coming up with such a nicely engineered
(frankly, I think they deserve an award for that design) case, Garmin
will ever go back to the clumsy StreetPilot case.

Don't get me wrong, I love my 2730 so much that I wish Garmin offered
the StreetPilot functionality in a n=FCvi wide case.

-Ramon

ps: I will be driving to NYC this weekend. I will make a point of
comparing the two traffic broadcasts.

taem4sidwf@gmail.com

2006-12-13, 4:33 am

First I want to thank everyone for their responses, it has been quite
helpful.

Ramon,

You have the two main contenders for my money, so your post helped out
the most. Thanks for giving me a view of those two head to head. I had
been leaning towards the 660, but had seen some messages on other
boards that pointed towards the XM traffic being better than the FM.

Thanks again.

Tom

Ramon F Herrera wrote:

> I am currently carrying 2 GPS in my car: a StreetPilot 2730 with the XM
> weather and traffic, and a n=FCvi 660 with the FM TMC traffic receiver.
> Since I got the 660 very recently, I have had the opportunity to
> compare the traffic services in the Boston area only. Bottom line: both
> traffic services are equivalent and I would never base the purchasing
> decision solely on that parameter.
>
> AFAIAC, the n=FCvi 660 is a full replacement for the StreetPilots, not
> only better in almost every conceivable respect but also much cheaper.
> I only miss the weather and the north pointing compass arrow. I don't
> care for the remote control. The screen is simply superior: it is
> bigger, with higher resolution, brighter and more sensitive to the
> touch. The SD slot is really useful to store a gazillion MP3s. Having
> batteries is a big plus and I can do all kinds of things indoors (I
> just need to be near a window) before I get into my car. The new GPS
> chipset is superior. The n=FCvi boots faster.
>
> I don't think that after coming up with such a nicely engineered
> (frankly, I think they deserve an award for that design) case, Garmin
> will ever go back to the clumsy StreetPilot case.
>
> Don't get me wrong, I love my 2730 so much that I wish Garmin offered
> the StreetPilot functionality in a n=FCvi wide case.
>
> -Ramon
>
> ps: I will be driving to NYC this weekend. I will make a point of
> comparing the two traffic broadcasts.

Ramon F Herrera

2006-12-25, 10:33 am

taem4sidwf@gmail.com wrote:[color=darkred
]
> First I want to thank everyone for their responses, it has been quite
> helpful.
>
> Ramon,
>
> You have the two main contenders for my money, so your post helped out
> the most. Thanks for giving me a view of those two head to head. I had
> been leaning towards the 660, but had seen some messages on other
> boards that pointed towards the XM traffic being better than the FM.
>
> Thanks again.
>
> Tom
>
> Ramon F Herrera wrote:
>

I profusely apologize for having said that the XM and FM traffic
features were comparable, whereas in fact the traffic info in the n=FCvi
sucks big time.

I understand that the FM traffic works properly in Europe, though.

-Ramon

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