Zumo User Forums

Surely, the unasked question is why can't we tell the unit that the road is closed?
I asked for this facility when I owned my Streetpilot 2610, Garmin said, look out for this in future updates.

waspanman wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 9:45 pm Surely, the unasked question is why can't we tell the unit that the road is closed?

What is the thinking around this? If following a pre-planned route and you know a road is closed then the route can be modified prior to departure. If you are letting the XT determine the route then letting it provide a route around a closure is a reasonable expectation.

How any times, especially in a town, or worse a city, have you been routed back to the same closed road by a diversion? This happened to me, admittedly using a 660, in Rouen, four times back to the same closed bridge, before turning off the unit and riding blind to the next bridge 20 km away. Once we crossed the bridge, I switched the unit back on and it worked fine. In Spain, an entire tour group ended up waiting by the roadside trying to sort out an alternative route, after several circuits. Finally the local police stopped and led us through a route we would never have found.

You speak as though you know all closed roads before you leave, utility companies close roads at the drop of a hat and the French put up Route Barrée
signs and leave you to follow the diversions, even if they are not in your travel direction.
How hard would it be to add a menu button to tell the unit that it is impossible to proceed along the selected route?????

waspanman wrote: Tue Aug 26, 2025 7:43 am You speak as though you know all closed roads before you leave

I don't. I rarely check before leaving unless I am aware of some weather event that may have caused flooding or rock slides in an area I'll be riding in. From your response I now understand that you are talking about a closure that the XT is not aware of.

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

Peobody wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2025 6:31 pm
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.

I hadn't considered this point, thanks. I have an idea- the XT doesn't do this on its own, right? I mean, it gets its info via Garmin Drive from the a phone, yes? I'd try stopping the route, turning off Drive, then restart the route. I have no idea if it will work since a closure has already been detected. Maybe even go another step in that I have all my routes on the SD card. Maybe delete then re-import and see if the route changes with Drive disabled.

My experience with this is as follows:

It's not enough (and not really necessary) to disable the Drive app - for me it looks like the Zumo XT has an internal 'memory' of the last traffic information's, that he get's!

I had the same problem a few years ago in Southern Tyrol - a false (as i saw later) road closure information and following to that a complete unstoppable recalculation, which also gives me a complete nonsense route...

Knowing this problem already, i stopped the routing, disabled 'Traffic information' on the Zumo XT and imported the original route again from sdcard. After i started the route again and continued to drive, a few minutes later there again was the unstoppable recalculation of the route, even when 'Traffic information' was already disabled...

The key was, to start the Zumo XT completely fresh (long press the on/off button) and than all worked again without any recalculation. That seems to clear the traffic information memory. I also did not(!) disable the Drive app because i wanted to have weather information.

Rofor wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 11:10 am It's not enough (and not really necessary) to disable the Drive app - for me it looks like the Zumo XT has an internal 'memory' of the last traffic information's, that he get's!

disabled 'Traffic information' on the Zumo XT and imported the original route again from sdcard.

The key was, to start the Zumo XT completely fresh (long press the on/off button) and than all worked again without any recalculation.

Exactly how I do it, after some bad experiences with Traffic info.

It could be that Traffic info is of much better quality in other parts of the world, but in The Netherlands and Germany I dont trust it.

FrankB wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 11:40 am It could be that Traffic info is of much better quality in other parts of the world, but in The Netherlands and Germany I dont trust it.

It has been pretty bad for me in the U.S. too but, while I'm skeptical of every notification, I prefer to leave it enabled. The only time I find it valuable is for notifications of slowdowns on interstate highways. I rarely ride those but I choose not to have to think about turning traffic on/off so I leave it on.

Peobody wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 2:16 pm

FrankB wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 11:40 am It could be that Traffic info is of much better quality in other parts of the world, but in The Netherlands and Germany I dont trust it.

It has been pretty bad for me in the U.S. too but, while I'm skeptical of every notification, I prefer to leave it enabled. The only time I find it valuable is for notifications of slowdowns on interstate highways. I rarely ride those but I choose not to have to think about turning traffic on/off so I leave it on.

With a track underlying every route (and a theme that makes it look like a border to the magenta line), then there is always a coloured line to show you where the route should have gone.

I had the opposite situation over Summer - with Frank's TM routes being put through their paces. There was a road closure - (two in fact) - and on both occasions, the XT2 did not know about them, but I had to divert. The route recalculated as I went away from the route, trying to get me back in the most sensible way (NOT going back to the point of departure) - but not knowing exactly where the incident was, I stuck with the most sensible technique down these quiet backroads - follow the line of traffic coming from the opposite direction - they have been diverted too.

The other incident was a mapping error. A side road that had been closed off for years by the look of it, but which the map didn't know about.

In both cases - no RUT behaviour. Just sensible logic given that the info was wrong.