Avoid highways only partly on route

Former Member over 13 years ago

Hello,

I've been trying to figure out how to create a motorcycle route that partly uses highways and partly scenic routes. I'd like to be able to plan a route out of the city via the (much quicker) highway ring roads, to leave the highways when entering the countryside. And possibly to get on the highway once more when getting close to my city of destination, just to avoid smaller city roads again.

However when planning the route by means of the motorcycle activity setting all highways are avoided, and dragging or adding via points manually does not really work, the route keeps taking me of the highways as soon as possible creating loops etc. If I change the activity setting the opposite happens, the route keeps ignoring the rural routes.

It's not about very long routes, so I hope there is a solution for this without having to create multiple routes.....

your help is appreciated!

0 danham_ over 13 years ago

Why does adding via points not work? I've done this to plan routes many hundreds of miles long, combining everything from multi-lane Interstates to narrow rural mountain roads.

-dan

0 Former Member over 13 years ago

Hi Dan,

I'm not sure. If I add via point the highway the route does go onto the highway, but only for a small section, basically taking me off as soon as possible, If i then add another point a bit further down the highway it starts creating all kinds of loops taking me on and off and on again, it takes me past the via points, but it creates all kinds of loops in the route.

thanks again

0 danham_ over 13 years ago

The most common cause of those weird loops is accidentally placing the via point on the wrong side of a divided highway. Zoom way in on one of your problem vias and I bet you will discover that it's on the northbound lane when you meant to go south.

This causes the GPS to think it needs to get off at the next exit and double back. In extreme cases, you could spend all day on exit/entrance ramps [grin].

With that solved, you will be able to use the minimum number of vias necessary to keep you on the desired route.

For tips on this kind of route planning, see:

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=119351

-dan

0 Former Member over 13 years ago

My thought would probably take a bunch of programing. In some way you should be able to set your preferences for portions of a route. The preferences set for each sections would carry over to the GPS so if it recalculated you would stay on the express roads when you wanted.

Possibly a "By-Pass" setting in preferences that would take the route around cities then return to the scenic roads. Although "Scenic Roads" has been removed from preferences in the latest BaseCamp.

I was having a similar problem with the beta version. I found I had the settings for auto and not motorcycle. In Scenic roads auto, well away from the city, BaseCamp did it's best to route to a 4 lane. When I switched to Scenic Roads motorcycle I was routed to a two lane with out the need to insert a lot of waypoints.

Len

0 Former Member over 13 years ago

The most common cause of those weird loops is accidentally placing the via point on the wrong side of a divided highway.

Agreed.

I've been using via's (now "Shaping Points" according to Garmin) to follow a specific path for a decade or more. It's about the only way to make a route go the way you want unless your GPS supports avoidances. However it is sometimes impossible to force a route and you just have to drive the way you want and ignore the unit.

Just because a GPS beeps/speaks to tell you to go a certain way one can engage one's brain and ignore it.

0 danham_ over 13 years ago

My thought would probably take a bunch of programing. In some way you should be able to set your preferences for portions of a route. The preferences set for each sections would carry over to the GPS so if it recalculated you would stay on the express roads when you wanted.

Possibly a "By-Pass" setting in preferences that would take the route around cities then return to the scenic roads. Although "Scenic Roads" has been removed from preferences in the latest BaseCamp.

I was having a similar problem with the beta version. I found I had the settings for auto and not motorcycle. In Scenic roads auto, well away from the city, BaseCamp did it's best to route to a 4 lane. When I switched to Scenic Roads motorcycle I was routed to a two lane with out the need to insert a lot of waypoints.

Len

This may be impossible, due to the fact that the avoidances you set in BC may or may not match the routing algorithms in your GPS. Some say they can turn off recalc in a zumo and have this work, but my experience is that all routes are subject to some recalc when they are imported, so I rely instead on good vias (which are not the same as shaping points) to keep me on the desired path.

-dan

0 Former Member over 13 years ago

...so I rely instead on good vias (which are not the same as shaping points) to keep me on the desired path.

MapSource only has via's. The ones you create by drag'n'drop of the route line create "shapng points" (they're not announced etc).

In BaseCamp you have to manually edit a route into turn via's to "shaping points".

0 danham_ over 13 years ago

MapSource only has via's. The ones you create by drag'n'drop of the route line create "shapng points" (they're not announced etc).

In BaseCamp you have to manually edit a route into turn via's to "shaping points".

That's not my understanding. Part of the confusion comes from Garmin using some of these GPS terms interchangeably. A via is any point along a route. A via can consist of a waypoint or a shaping point. If it's a point which exists in the program's database (My Collection), I'd call that a via. If it's a point created by dragging the route, I'd call that a shaping point. By default in BC, vias have flag icons while shaping points have only a small dot.

I have never "turned a via into a shaping point." I have used vias to guide a route. And I have dragged a route to create shaping points. Maybe the Windows version of BC behaves differently?

-dan

0 Killtimer_ over 13 years ago

Maybe the Windows version of BC behaves differently?

-dan

The Windows and Mac versions do many things differently, and do many of the same things with slightly different methods. It's very frustrating. In the instance of unanounced points, different methods. The Mac version accesses the edit dialog from the advanced drop down in the properties window. It appears the edit options in the Windows version are available from a context (right click) menu directly?

0 Former Member over 13 years ago

Part of the confusion comes from Garmin using some of these GPS terms interchangeably.

And/or changing/recreating terms that were in use for a long time. Unfortunately this just confuses new users even more.