2.19 Trip Design, Via Points, Suggestions

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Via Points - shown on BaseCamp

Via Points announce your approach and arrival and display a message on the navigation screen. If you have the data display showing (Pic 1), then this can show the timing and distance for arrival at the next Via Point (indicated by the tiny orange flag).

However, if a Via Point is the next route point in your Trip, then the XT will insist that you visit it - unlike the Shaping Point example shown on the previous page. There are 3 exceptions to this:

Press Skip - which will remove the next Point from the Trip and re-route to the next point.
Ignore the directions (twice), the XT will ask if you want to skip the point.
If the XT has already announced your approach, it thinks that you have visited the Via, so may allow you to continue - but there is often an announcement to turn before it can announce approaching a mis-placed Via, so this behaviour rarely reveals itself.

Suggestions

Make sure that Via Points are accurately placed. Zoom in on the map.
Don’t place a Via Point in a town. Instead, put it on the road you need to be on after going through the town.
If you have to deviate for traffic, road works, fuel etc, the satnav will find a new route to the road that you have marked.

See Pic 2. I have placed 2 Via Points on the intended route. Only one of them is needed, and the route will stay the same if either of them was removed. So which one do you get rid of?
Consider this: If you deviate from the original route and head into York for lunch (on the green line) - which point works best for the route AND for the deviation?

At coffee stops, give yourself an option - whether to stop or not. Put the Via Point on the road that you want to be on after the coffee stop, whether or not you actually stop for a break. Mark the coffee stop with a Shaping Point.

See Pic 3. If you decide not to stop and stay on the yellow road - the satnav will still try to navigate you to the blue disc shaping point, by the quickest way. ie go back. About half way along the yellow road, it will have worked out that it is faster to carry on and turn left at the red circle (so for a while it is happy for you to continue as you are.
At the red circle it will tell you to turn left - still trying to get you to the blue disc. Just carry on past the left turn, and all will be well. You have missed out a shaping point, but have joined the magenta route after the shaping point - and that is allowed.
Or you could just press the Skip button to miss out the coffee stop - but on the XT, that means closing down any display that you have on the right hand side, and then putting it back again.

A Via Point after a stop is sometimes useful when you start riding again.

When starting a route on the XT, you are asked to ‘Select Next Destination’. It lists only the Via Points - so having one just up the road from where you are is pretty useful.

Mark a Turning for an Alternative Route with a Via Point.

Up ahead there are two possible routes to ride. One is over the hills, one is through the valleys. Which way you decide to go depends very much on the weather and traffic on the day. Place a Shaping Point (say) 20 miles up the road after the point where the two alternative routes meet up again.

The fastest route is over the hills, so that is the one that the satnav will follow. But you need to make the choice on the day. Place a Via Point* on the route, suitably named, just before where you need to decide. As you get close, the satnav will announce ‘Approaching A5678 for low route’.

Of course it will nag you to turn back to take the faster route, but it won’t take it long for this direction to be the quickest way to reach the Via Point that you placed 20 miles up the road.

Via Point*: Because you want it to announce - it must be a via point. Because it matters that it announces your phrase, then you will need to make it a Waypoint first. Name it and then add it to the route and set it as alerting. That is the only way to guarantee that it will announce the message that you want. (This issue may be fixed in later versions of the firmware).

At coffee stops, give yourself an option - whether to stop or not. Put the Via Point on the road that you want to be on after the coffee stop, whether or not you actually stop for a break. Mark the coffee stop with a Shaping Point.

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The information on these pages has been acquired from personal experience of using and testing the behaviour of Basecamp and my Zumo XT. I have no links with Garmin, and these pages should not be regarded as instructions. They are presented for interest only. The contents of these pages must not be shared, copied, transmitted, redistributed or re-published in any form without my permission. (C) JHeath 2021.