My TMC is a bit rubbish :)

[ukdavvy12]

Hi

I have a new Garmin 660FM with the free Trafficmaster TMC stream

Its cool, I think, and I get decent TMC reception with the standard antenna which after reading a few scares online is a relief

I need help with the traffic alerts though please

I live in Sheffield
Currently the 2 obvious transpennine routes are blocked
One recently, while the Snake Road has been shut for over a week.

The Garmin happily plots routes over the Snake

The TMC is live and shows me all sorts of data up and down the UK
It shows me a road closed near Bristol but not the one 15 miles away

Does the TMC data purely come from those dinky blue camera things at the side of the road? If so how did it know the road was closed in Bristol?

This seems the obvious explanation although if a roads been closed for weeks I do feel a bit cheated that the data doesnt tell me this

Cheers

D

[kiwisr]

I've often thought the TMC system is well-intentioned but rubbish - on a GPS units I've used.

[niva441]

ukdavvy12 said:

Does the TMC data purely come from those dinky blue camera things at the side of the road? If so how did it know the road was closed in Bristol?

TMC doesn't use the blue cameras, they are Traffic Master. TMC relies on Highways Agency information, which is as accurate as the matrix signs.

[ukdavvy12]

niva441 said:

TMC doesn't use the blue cameras, they are Traffic Master.

Are you sure about that?

I thought Garmin were in bed with TM for the TMC feed

Cheers

[off_again]

ukdavvy12 said:

niva441 said:

TMC doesn't use the blue cameras, they are Traffic Master.

Are you sure about that?

I thought Garmin were in bed with TM for the TMC feed

Cheers

Not sure for certain, but TMC is a service offered by ITIS and TrafficMaster. Almost all TMC services through things like portable satnav is the ITIS service:

http://www.itisholdings.com/itmc.asp

The ITIS stuff is part of their own data and part additional supporting information from the likes of the Highways agency and other travel groups such as the AA and RAC. The TrafficMaster stuff is different and uses the little blue sensors on major routes across the UK. This is their data and they sell it on in different ways, but not sure if Garmin is included in this - though the website seems to say that Garmin are an OEM for the TrafficMaster data.

To be honest, they are just as bad as each other. I have a Sony unit with TMC and its clever enough to receive all of the relevant TMC information but store the date and time info. So a road near me was closed for maintenance and was marked on my satnav for the duration of the closure. The information about the closure was in the TMC data but if this is wrong (which has happened) then a road may be marked as open when the road is in fact still closed - mainly because someone didn't let the relevant authorities know they overran on the road works.

Still, good idea in principle and seems to work 60% - 70% of the time.

[AMG Merc]

I also thought Garmin TMC uses UK Traffic Master.

[niva441]

I'm pretty certain my 360 uses ITIS, however I've just read a review on PocketGPSWorld of the latest 700 series and it states that the 700 uses Trafficmaster.