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[pscocoa]

Travelled from Manchester down M6 this morning and motorway signs came on saying delays between 16 and 15 southbound. Radio stations are all saying motorways running fine and so you start to think that signs relate to a cleared incident. Phaeton sat nav system also showing clear and then with just literally 30 seconds to go before J16 it comes up with the divert around Stoke A500.

Luckily we took it and then as we rejoined a quiet M6 at J15 to hear on radio that all 3 lanes had been closed. A lot of people must have been tied up  in that in such heat.

Thank heavens for the system but surely if Mway signs on for at least 20 minutes before we hit the incident, the services could get the message onto radio and avoid immense discomfort for many.

[chrisgixer]

Travelling the m4 regularly sees a complete distrust in motorway communication signs. Often left on for days at a time after an incident. Or there's an incident and no signed warning at all.

What source does the nav use for traffic on the Phaeton?

[biggriffin]

Garmins come with life time traffic master, some tom-toms do aswell,
. If you have digital radio there traffic on those which is better than sally the slapper

[Marks DTM Calib]

The Futon uses TMC as per the other OEM setups (including my mum bus)

[TheBoy]

I think the signs are the first, by some margin, to come on when there is an incident. But sadly, all too frequently left on, so we never believe.

I think the radio is so far behind, (local) travel info is useless. When I used to travel to Snorbs most days, I'd be sat on the M1 with engine off and handbrake on, and 3CR would still say the motorway was clear.  Used to take at least half an hour for them to report such incidents.

[biggriffin]

Lokal radio is normally about 15mins behind the incident,were as radio 2 is about 1hour minimum. Lokal radio website have very uptodate travel,.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Not convinced, think its dependent on the local radio station.

As an example, Radio leicester seem to be 1 hour behind, you often hear of isues on the M1 or A46 on Radio 2 before they announce it.

[chrisgixer]

Travelling the m4 regularly sees a complete distrust in motorway communication signs. Often left on for days at a time after an incident. Or there's an incident and no signed warning at all.

What source does the nav use for traffic on the Phaeton?

Also, MUCH to my annoyance, there are no warning signs before getting on the the motorway. Many a time I drive up the slip road to be faced with stationary traffic, when I could so easily have taken the back roads.

Google maps traffic is probably most reliable source I know of, yet the m4 is so busy its difficult to tell the normal crawl home traffic from the almost normal stopped still waiting to move at all traffic.

Thankyou GM for the omega auto box.

[chrisgixer]

Should add, I don't have tomtom traffic, which is supposed to be good, but are they all based on the same info anyway?

[pscocoa]

http://www.which.co.uk/technology/computing/guides/sat-nav-live-traffic/

I must just be on TMC.

[zirk]

Another option could be to get a old Nokia Smart Phone, Symbian type N8, E7 etc, which no one seems to want anymore, Download Nokia Maps for the Sat Nav feature (Free World Wide) which are download on the phone and use as a stand alone Sat Nav or slap a Sim in and get free Live Traffic and use that aswell as Google Traffic.

Payg Internet Sims can be had for £5 pm or £20 for 6 months, so free live updates, Traffic and Camera Hot Spots for a couple of quid a month.