tomtom 720 routing

I upgraded from a garmin 330 and was trying to choose between nuvi 660 and tomtom 720. The customizations and the performace of the unit itself sold me on tomtom 720. This thing is blazing fast even after I added all the POIs that i found on this site. But now I am having second thoughts.

The biggest problem I have is that somebody at tomtom decided that the final destination should always be on the right side of the road if it is a 4 laned highway. Now the darn thing will try to take any road possible and make you cross a 4 lane highway with no signals etc so that the final destination is on the right. This in my opinion does not make any sense.

Granted there are situations on divided highways where it probably is not a bad idea but on regular 4 laned highways with turning lanes in the middle, to make a whole block around the place so that the final destination would end up on the right side of the road is just plain foolish, especially if you now have to cross 4 lanes of traffic instead of two.

I had tried 510 but the POI database was disappointing. 720 is not as good as garmin units on the POIs but a lot better than 510. I liked the interface on tomtom and there is no comparison in the responsiveness between tomtom and nuvi so I didn't mind the POI database lacking. But this routing issue is bugging me big time.

Notice the simple route below, tomtom will go past your destination and make a block around it. This is dumb.


Forgot to add: The new firmware upgrade does not fix this routing issue.

Same route with shortest distance

Oh this keeps on getting better. I figured I would try shortest distance for the same route, that would force it to turn left right? Wrong, tomtom makes a U turn in the middle of the highway Notice the second image for the last part of the route. Oh why oh why

Can any of you guys plot these two addresses and see if older navcore had same routing problems

1. 2405 South Caraway Road, Jonesboro, AR (Sams club) to 1235 S Caraway Rd, Jonesboro, AR (TJ Maxx)

The image above is from the new tomtom 720 for this route. Here is how google is mapping it correctly.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=2405+South+Caraway+Road,+Jonesboro,+AR&daddr=1235+S+Caraway+Rd,+Jonesboro,+AR&sll=35.836742,-90.69171&sspn=0.03333,0.05785&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=35.823425,-90.6778&spn=0.022827,0.040169&z=14


2. 1524 (any number larger than 1500 would do)central hotsprings ar to 232 w grand hotsprings ar (Burger King)


Google results are below

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=1524+Central+Ave,+Hot+Springs+National+Park,+Garland,+Arkansas+71901,+United+States&daddr=232+w+grand+hotsprings+ar&sll=35.796304,-90.757198&sspn=0.033347,0.05785&ie=UTF8&cd=1&z=16&om=1

1. - Using "Fastest" it makes a U-Turn and to end up on the right side of the road

Using "Shortest" shows the same route.

2. It doesn't show the route you've shown . Rather, it goes straight down to W. Grand, then u-turns at Rugg St. This is for the "Fastest".

For "Shortest" it takes a right at Maurice, left at Oak, right at W. Grand then U-turn at Rugg.


This is with V665.1293.

I just tried to duplicate your problem and it does also plan the same route on my 910 with map NA 6.65.1293.
Is the street have a island in the middle?
When I selected shortes route, it made me do a u turn instead of going around the block.

I just did this route with my NA 6.50.1052 maps and it goes straight to it (Fastest or shortest) route.

The second street (hotsprings) does have an island but it is still crossing 4 lanes to avoid a U turn.

The first example however does not have an island and is on a regular 4 lane road with turning lanes in the middle. I guess tomtom uses a U turn at the end thinking there is an island in the middle.

i wonder what changed between 6.5 to 6.65 to make routing like this? Obviously it is carrying over to 7 also.

i found a work around for these problems In mapshare, allow traffic to flow in both directions and then it will route this correctly which means its a mapping issue not the routing.

Thanks guys for all your help.

Hmmm, I have to say I'm a little worried now. I haven't taken my 720 that I got last night for a spin yet, but I was just reading the GPSmagazine review of it, where it's got nice features but the tracking sucks. I just did a couple tests to go to POIs in the area, and I had one route that basically had me going in a loop to get back on a street that's only 100 yds from where I am now.

How do you get to mapshare?

Hmmm, I have to say I'm a little worried now. I haven't taken my 720 that I got last night for a spin yet, but I was just reading the GPSmagazine review of it, where it's got nice features but the tracking sucks

Click to expand...

The GPS Mag guy is a goof. I read the same review and if you notice on the routing page, on the bottom it says tomtom xl faired the worst(page 12) http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2007/09/tomtom_go_720_review.php?page=12.

Plus test 3 has megellan as winner and it is not even going in the same direction as the other two receivers. The worst part is that in his review of garmin city nav2008 he praises city navigator 9 for using the same route as tomtom does in the 720 review.http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2007/07/garmins_new_2008_v9_maps_vs_v8.php

If you look at the routing on google, it uses the same route as tomtom for this particular example.

I think over-all, since this is my first car GPS, I don't have anything to compare it to, so I won't be unhappy, heh. I noticed a little drift when I was sitting at home getting 3 bars of signal, but in the car with 5 bars there weren't any problems.