Weird route planning issue. Newbie really needs help!

[GadgetGuru72]

Hi everybody. First post here, and I'm a complete newbie when it comes to GPS units. Be gentle.

Ok, hopefully I can describe this well enough to be able to get some help. I have the TomTom ONE, 2nd Edition.

Over the weekend I attempted to navigate to:

3364 West 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA 90004

After entering "Los Angeles" I then attempted to enter "W 1st Street." It gave me several options, but the obvious one to select was "W 1st Street (Los Angeles)." I then entered "3364" and started driving.

For this route, the TomTom display read: "3364 W 1st St (Los Angeles), Los Angeles CA."

When I had reached the "destination" I was clearly in the wrong location. After spending some time trying to figure out where the hell I was, it turns out that I was at 3364 EAST 1st Street. I then double checked to make sure I typed in WEST, not EAST. I did, and the display even read WEST.

I then went into "Browse Map" and had it find that location. In the blue rectangle, it said WEST. However, the street name on the actual map (i.e., not in the blue rectangle) said EAST. So, at the map level, it knew that it was EAST. However, in all the display areas, it showed WEST.

After spending a lot of time with this, it turns out that I should have selected "3364 W 1st St (West Hollywood), Los Angeles CA." Had I select that entry, it would have navigated me to the correct location. However, not knowing where I was going, how on earth was I supposed to know I should select (West Hollywood) instead of (Los Angeles) when both entries were designated as being in Los Angeles?

Is there anything I could have done to avoid this? This seems like something the TomTom should have been able to recognize, because the actual map properly displayed EAST 1st Street.

Any advice on this? I'm now nervous that it's not going to route me to my desired destinations.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pedro2NR]

Hello and welcome. let me try to research this.
I had a similar problem traveling towards that area. I caught it before I drove off.

 

[GadgetGuru72]

Hello and welcome. let me try to research this.
I had a similar problem traveling towards that area. I caught it before I drove off.

That would be great. Thanks!!

 

[46jimbo]

This is a very big and annoying problem. It occurs in large urban areas and is especially noticeable where political amalgamations have taken place. A large urban area which contains many smaller municipalities is now referred to as just one. Usually, the problem presents itself by you not being able to locate a street because you have entered the incorrect municipality. Sometimes long streets cross several municipalities and are chopped up in the map's data base.

Unfortunately, the TomTom maps still refer to the old municipalities which often no longer exist. Here in Toronto, we amalgamated six municipalities into one. The post office sees it all now as Toronto. But the TomTom map expects you to know what the former names were. (This all happened more than 10 years ago.) How an outsider is expected to figure this out is beyond me.

From what I've read, I think that Garmin has a better idea. When you enter your search data, you enter the street name first. It then presents you with a list of municipalities that have this street. I realize that this could be unwieldy with a common name like 'Main St.', but this could at least be a search option.

 

[briand]

[...] Here in Toronto [...]

Hmm. How high does the numbering go on Yonge St. ??

 

[46jimbo]

Hmm... I stand corrected. In the v6.75 map, the problem I mentioned in the previous post has been rectified. I can now search for addresses anywhere in the larger amalgamated city under 'Toronto'.

 

[GadgetGuru72]

This is a very big and annoying problem. It occurs in large urban areas and is especially noticeable where political amalgamations have taken place. A large urban area which contains many smaller municipalities is now referred to as just one. Usually, the problem presents itself by you not being able to locate a street because you have entered the incorrect municipality. Sometimes long streets cross several municipalities and are chopped up in the map's data base.

Unfortunately, the TomTom maps still refer to the old municipalities which often no longer exist. Here in Toronto, we amalgamated six municipalities into one. The post office sees it all now as Toronto. But the TomTom map expects you to know what the former names were. (This all happened more than 10 years ago.) How an outsider is expected to figure this out is beyond me.

From what I've read, I think that Garmin has a better idea. When you enter your search data, you enter the street name first. It then presents you with a list of municipalities that have this street. I realize that this could be unwieldy with a common name like 'Main St.', but this could at least be a search option.

Thank you for the thorough response.

Have you been able to figure out any ways to deal with this problem? I mean, using my situation as an example, had I known that my destination was supposed to be in West Hollywood instead of Los Angeles, I could have routed to the correct location. Not realizing that, I ended up driving to the wrong area. Is there any way to deal with this issue in advance?

 

[nomars_girl]

If you know it, it may be best to enter the zip code, rather than the city name. That should limit you to the right part of a large city.

 

[GadgetGuru72]

If you know it, it may be best to enter the zip code, rather than the city name. That should limit you to the right part of a large city.

That usually works, but if you test it out on the example I gave above, the same problem occurs.

Hopefully that's just a fluke problem with that address and this is not a recurring problem.