Zumo XT - Road Closures

[jfheath]

This little essay came about as a result of me hi-jacking a different thread. The OP was concerned about inaccurate timing on his Zumo 550. The suggestion that inaccurate timing can also be due to the alteration of a route by the Zumo with a Traffic link established to a smartphone. When this happens with a road closure, the XT says that it has recalculated a route, but it doesn't tell you where, and it doesn't plot the road closure. Nevertheless there are some useful tools ont he XT that help you to locate such closures.

This doesn't relate to the 550, but it does relate to the 595 and probably to the 590 - both using the smartphone link rather than the Drive link. I will need to switch my 595 to being a 590 to check out how similar it is - but I remember using it on my 590 before I got the XT.

A682 Planned Route.jpg (51.27 KiB) Viewed 986 times

A682 - XT spots road closure..jpg (43.17 KiB) Viewed 986 times

A682 - Avoided Closure.jpg (46.53 KiB) Viewed 986 times

The display when it spots the road closure very rapidly disappears, and the route ahead is now altered to get around the closure and return as quickly as possible to the original route. So on the new root (including the big loop to the right at the top of the map - there are no traffic reports.


I have seen road closure signs on plotted routes, but I could not get them to appear today. But I did notice that the XT only looks ahead to the next Via Point. Maybe they appear for sections with closures after the next Via Point.


If you stop navigating and look at the map with your current location at the centre - then the same message shows up.

A682 - No Active Route.jpg (43.88 KiB) Viewed 986 times

And if you then tap on the map to pan around or zoom out and in, the location of the road works can be found.

A682 - After tapping map.jpg (29.36 KiB) Viewed 986 times

And tapping the red circle gives more information

A682 - Tapping Red Circle.jpg (42.42 KiB) Viewed 986 times

If you have the Live Traffic widget displayed on the right of the landscape screen, you can tap that.
Note that we now have the 3 bar menu in the top left. THis gives access to two other displays. Incidents and Legend.


Incidents looks like this.

A682 - Traffic Events.jpg (29.46 KiB) Viewed 986 times

And then click on the A682 Incidents

A682 - Incidents.jpg (45.7 KiB) Viewed 986 times

Clicking on the actual road closure often marks the beginning and end of the closure.


Note that if trying this at home, you may need to turn the GPS off, and set your position close to the 'incident'. Drive picks up the closest incidnets faster than the more remote ones. At some point it will stop looking. You need to give the data time to be collected and transferred, which can take a few minutes after turning the satnav on. Not a problem when riding, but very noticeable when sitting at a desk waiting for things to happen.

I've just been for lunch. Between taking the screen shots, and coming back an hour later, the road closure has been cleared ! I know that they were there yesterday.

Zooming out on the maps reveals more issues on nearby roads.

A682 - nearby incidents.jpg (88.69 KiB) Viewed 986 times

And slow traffic can be detected on the move by track like colours superimposed ont he magenta route.

Traffic issues.jpg (38.91 KiB) Viewed 986 times

[Peobody]

Thanks John. Today I fired my XT, connected Drive, and then looked the map, specifically for the red circle with a white centre indicator where I knew a nearby road closure was. There were two, one at each end. I regularly ride past this closure and they have not been displayed before nor were any displayed when I last experienced a road closure recalc. Perhaps nearby (off route) road closure indicators are not displayed when following a route? This would explain why one was not displayed following the recalc.

[jfheath]

I am 'sure' that I have seen them when navigating a route in the past.

Maybe it is to do with it only appearing to recalculate up to the next Via Point. The speed at which the XT identified a road closure and recalculated the route was impressive - so if it only displays closures on the current road or current route - it wouldn't have had chance. Maybe if the road closure on your route is after the next Via Point, it will show up - eventually. I don't know. I do now that on the preview screen certain items don't show up until you reach a certain zoom level. For them to show up on a live route (if indeed they will show up), the closure might have to be just the other side of a Via Point. Just thinking out loud here.

It's difficult to get what you want to see sitting at a desk, because the time delay in getting the information becomes significant.

I really don't know. Its not a topic that I have seen much of anything written - so I thought I'd get shots of the stuff that I had seen. Getting the list of 'events' was luck really. I just wondered - what happens if I press this bit of the screen that says that there is no traffic reported ahead?

I suppose not having that list available when a route is active makes sense. Not the sort of thing to be looking at when riding. But that is another good reason for having a track of the route - so that you can see closures in relation to where you are traveling.

@FrankB tells me that the 660 DOES have Traffic /road closure info. I was trying to work out why I didn't know that. The answer is simple. Mine didn't. I didn't have a smartphone or a traffic receiver when I owned my 660. It was a feature I couldn't use, so I never investigated. I connected my thickphone to my Autocom using a cable. It was there so that my wife could get in touch while I was out.

The 550 was also capable of handling traffic information, but it needed a separate traffic receiver or antenna. viewtopic.php?t=2037

[FrankB]

@FrankB tells me that the 660 DOES have Traffic /road closure info.

@jfheath This only happens seldom! We have a misunderstanding.
What I was trying to say in an other thread: The 660 can drive tracks. Wether or not it has Traffic / Road closure info I really would not know.

Edit: More precisely 'a trip from a track'. You do get directions as long as you're on the track/trip.

[jfheath]

Yes. Sorry Frank. I watched the video and then loaded up the 660 manual for English (as opposed to Dutch) points of reference for the track navigation. While doing that I came across the ability of the 660 to present traffic info. And my brain associated the two sources. Worrying that it has started to do that. Covid ? Getting older ? I still don't know if the 660 reports road closures as well as traffic. Whatever, traffic info at the time the 660 was available was not as good as it is now.