I just came here today to post a feature request. I have been using a Garmin Edge 520 for the past six months, after upgrading from my previous Edge 250.
The Edge 520 is an amazing device. I love (almost) everything about it! Except for one thing: Map auto-orientation during navigation.
So far I have taken my Edge 520 to San Francisco and Pittsburgh (heavily urban areas) for vacation riding. When traveling, I like to download someone else's Strava ride as a .GPX into my Garmin so I can follow their route without having to know anything about the city.
However with the Edge 520, I have found that during navigation of a course - especially in urban areas - the map automatically changes orientation based on the direction your riding. I find this to be extremely frustrating because rotating the map makes it very hard to navigate turns. In an urban area, you must be relatively "zoomed in" on the map to assist with knowing exactly which street to turn on. The zoomed in map, along with auto-orientation causes issues with navigation by:
- First - The map rotation has a delay - and only begins to rotate after a few moments of riding. This causes you to make turns in wrong directions, because while idle - the map is oriented one way - and after moving - you realize you made the wrong direction of a turn after the map changes orientation.
- Second - while actively cycling, the map orentation changes without your knowledge during turns - leaving you confused the next time you look at the device for navigation.
- Third - because of the rotating orientation, there is no way to truly know what is North, South, East, West is while zoomed in. This causes the rider to make many wrong turns in urban areas, which can be dangerous for the rider to turn around and correct. After the rider turns around, the map again changes orientation - further confusing the rider once again about exactly which way their going
On Google Maps, Strava, and the Edge 250 - there is no map auto-orientation. Having a static map that doesn't rotate during navigation eliminates and concern of knowing what North, South, East, West is. With a static map, North, South, East, and West never change. It makes it much easier to navigate and understand where you are on a route.
Please introduce a feature to disable map orientation during navigation, so riders can have a static map route to follow.
Thank you so much!
- Marcus
