Road closures?

Having Garmin zumo XT problems? there is loads of help and advice in this forum
jfheath
Posts: 3643
Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: West Yorkshire, Uk
Has liked: 507 times
Been liked: 1170 times
Great Britain

Re: Road closures?

Post by jfheath »

What Peobody said. But regarding switching off route recalc - if it spots a road closure, you don;t get the choice. Off or not - it will not naviagte through a closed road.

Although I just noticed. They are re-routing part of the A59 near where I live - about halfway betwen skipton and Harrogate. Its not finished yet, but Basecamp has two A59s running in parallel for a couple of miles. Pity I can't get out and go and see what it does !!
Have owned Zumo 550, 660 == Now have Zumo XT2, XT, 595, 590, Headache
Use Basecamp (mainly), MyRouteApp (sometimes), Competent with Tread for XT2, Can use Explore for XT - but it offers nothing that I want !

Links: Zumo 590s . Zumo XT & BC . Zumo Navigation Booklet . Zumo XT2
Snijderj
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2025 1:23 pm
Has liked: 1 time
Been liked: 4 times
Great Britain

Re: Road closures?

Post by Snijderj »

jfheath wrote: Thu Aug 14, 2025 5:04 pm What Peobody said. But regarding switching off route recalc - if it spots a road closure, you don;t get the choice. Off or not - it will not naviagte through a closed road.
I'm not sure what you mean, we are perhaps talking at cross purposes? My XT is never online so it doesn't spot anything - I do :)
Basecamp likewise, it doesn't know about temporary closures and those are what I'm talking about.

My experience with recalc off is that once I get back on the route after having made my own way around the closure is that the XT simply picks up the route again from more or less the point where I rejoin it. From there on all is as normal again.
User avatar
Peobody
Subscriber
Posts: 2121
Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2021 1:33 pm
Location: North Carolina USA
Has liked: 194 times
Been liked: 559 times
United States of America

Re: Road closures?

Post by Peobody »

Basecamp does not have traffic or road closure detection capability but the XT does, if enabled and connected to the Garmin Drive app. Many people choose not to enable it due to its questionable abilities but for those who have it enabled, knowing the a closure can trigger a recalc even when recalc is turned off is good to know.

Manually navigating around a closure and returning to the route indeed allows you to continue on provided you did not navigate around a Via point that you now don't intend to visit. In that case you must either tell the XT to skip that point and deal with the subsequent recalc (potential RUT and modified route), or restart the route.
2008 Honda GL1800 Goldwing
zūmo XT linked to Cardo Packtalk Bold and iPhone SE.
rbentnail
Subscriber
Posts: 1039
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 10:14 am
Location: North Carolina USA
Has liked: 119 times
Been liked: 267 times
United States of America

Re: Road closures?

Post by rbentnail »

Snijderj wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2025 9:39 am I'm not sure what you mean, we are perhaps talking at cross purposes? My XT is never online so it doesn't spot anything - I do :)
Basecamp likewise, it doesn't know about temporary closures and those are what I'm talking about.

My experience with recalc off is that once I get back on the route after having made my own way around the closure is that the XT simply picks up the route again from more or less the point where I rejoin it. From there on all is as normal again.
Maybe I'm missing something here, or maybe I'm just plain stupid but....

do you not have detour signs where you live :? ? I have rarely come across a closure, temporary or otherwise, for which a detour were not set up beforehand. I leave Auto Recalculation either off or prompted, follow the signs, and the XT magically just picks right up when I rejoin the route. In the very rare occasion that an emergency closure has just occurred, I simply look at the map, pick a road to go around, pick a point on that road and add it as my next stop, then go. I also DO use Garmin Drive from my phone so I will often know in advance that a closure is coming, in which case there are detour signs anyway so I needn't do anything.

edit- I forget to mention, I keep a short pen with a rubber tip in my pocket. Great for picking a point accurately instead of "fat-fingering" the display, especially with gloves.
Russ B. Zumo 595 & XT
2007 & 2013 USA Yamaha FJR1300A
danham
Posts: 411
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2018 2:25 pm
Location: Cape Cod, MA
Has liked: 146 times
Been liked: 139 times
United States of America

Re: Road closures?

Post by danham »

Russ,

All good and I agree... until the XT pops up a phantom road closure. This has happened to me only two or three times over the years and the XT treats it as a real closure even though there is no such happening in the real world. That causes trouble.

-dan
Zumo XT, 660, nuvi 760 and many retired units dating back to the GPS III+
2018 Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX SE
rbentnail
Subscriber
Posts: 1039
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 10:14 am
Location: North Carolina USA
Has liked: 119 times
Been liked: 267 times
United States of America

Re: Road closures?

Post by rbentnail »

danham wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2025 12:22 pm Russ,

All good and I agree... until the XT pops up a phantom road closure. This has happened to me only two or three times over the years and the XT treats it as a real closure even though there is no such happening in the real world. That causes trouble.

-dan
This has happened to me too. Maybe I'm just more adventurous but I just stay the course until I see a closed or detour sign. I'll worry about it then. Garmin is not IMHO an exact Gospel example for me to follow. To me, things like indicated closure ahead are a guide, not a law until I see proof. I don't see how it causes trouble- I just continue on my original route. If it's a false alarm the XT will figure it out eventually.
Russ B. Zumo 595 & XT
2007 & 2013 USA Yamaha FJR1300A
User avatar
Peobody
Subscriber
Posts: 2121
Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2021 1:33 pm
Location: North Carolina USA
Has liked: 194 times
Been liked: 559 times
United States of America

Re: Road closures?

Post by Peobody »

rbentnail wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2025 4:27 pm To me, things like indicated closure ahead are a guide, not a law until I see proof. I don't see how it causes trouble- I just continue on my original route. If it's a false alarm the XT will figure it out eventually.
The key point is that the XT 'can' recalculate the route if it detects a closure regardless of whether recalculation is enabled, disabled, or set to prompt. Once recalculated, the remaining route may be very different from the original. I have experienced this twice while recalc was set to Prompt. On one, the recalculated route made sense and barely affected the remainder of the route but on the other, the recalculated route could not be ridden. It was made up of a bunch of direct points, most of which were well off of any road.
2008 Honda GL1800 Goldwing
zūmo XT linked to Cardo Packtalk Bold and iPhone SE.
Snijderj
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2025 1:23 pm
Has liked: 1 time
Been liked: 4 times
Great Britain

Re: Road closures?

Post by Snijderj »

rbentnail wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2025 11:15 am
Maybe I'm missing something here, or maybe I'm just plain stupid but....

do you not have detour signs where you live :? ? I have rarely come across a closure, temporary or otherwise, for which a detour were not set up beforehand. I leave Auto Recalculation either off or prompted, follow the signs, and the XT magically just picks right up when I rejoin the route. In the very rare occasion that an emergency closure has just occurred, I simply look at the map, pick a road to go around, pick a point on that road and add it as my next stop, then go. I also DO use Garmin Drive from my phone so I will often know in advance that a closure is coming, in which case there are detour signs anyway so I needn't do anything.

edit- I forget to mention, I keep a short pen with a rubber tip in my pocket. Great for picking a point accurately instead of "fat-fingering" the display, especially with gloves.
I was recounting my experiences in France, not in the USA, and indeed most of the time there are deviation signs to follow, but not always. This post was triggered by one such instance where I was struggling to find my way around the closure and back to my planned route.

Picking a new point on the XT to guide me around the closure, there are two issues with this: I wouldn't know how far the closure extends, and my fat fingers suck at picking a point on the unit. Your tip about a rubber tip pen helps with the latter, so thanks for that. An earlier tip about mimicking my route on Google Maps will help with the former, so I think I have my answers :)

I don't use Garmin Drive on my phone, in fact I generally keep my phone switched off when riding. I can catch up with things when I'm stopped for a break. YMMV.
FrankB
Posts: 980
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 7:22 am
Has liked: 202 times
Been liked: 285 times
Netherlands

Re: Road closures?

Post by FrankB »

Snijderj wrote: Sun Aug 17, 2025 8:47 am I wouldn't know how far the closure extends
This triggered me. In Google Maps you CAN see how far the closure extends. And that doesn't mean I dont agree with @Peobody that he doesn't like to feed Google with more private data. But to me it's more important to find the closure.
I updated the pdf. viewtopic.php?t=1965

Here is a teaser. Some screenshot of closures of a coming trip. In total I found 7 closures on a 5 days trip.
dev1.jpg
dev1.jpg (87.12 KiB) Viewed 440 times
dev2.jpg
dev2.jpg (80.4 KiB) Viewed 440 times
dev3.jpg
dev3.jpg (173.11 KiB) Viewed 440 times
dev4.jpg
dev4.jpg (55.82 KiB) Viewed 440 times
danham
Posts: 411
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2018 2:25 pm
Location: Cape Cod, MA
Has liked: 146 times
Been liked: 139 times
United States of America

Re: Road closures?

Post by danham »

Here is a recap of the worst phantom closure my XT has ever cooked up for my entertainment:

viewtopic.php?t=3094

-dan
Zumo XT, 660, nuvi 760 and many retired units dating back to the GPS III+
2018 Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX SE
Post Reply