XT is convinced an open road is closed

[danham]

This strikes me as a problem caused by the traffic reporting service that the XT "subscribes" to, but thought I'd share.

Last night we asked the XT to route us home from a restaurant during torrential rain. It certainly would be possible for various roads here on Cape Cod to be closed due to temporary flooding, so I had the XT display the traffic info on the right side of the screen even though I know my way. We had not gone a mile before the XT announced that Route 6 (the highway we would normally take to get home) was closed and therefore the XT chose a detour that was complicated and in my opinion not the best way around the closure.

I was skeptical that 6 was actually closed because unless there was an accident, the back roads would be more susceptible to flooding. So we ignored the GPS and headed for the highway. Sure enough, the on-ramp was open and we got on 6. After a few miles, the XT again warned that 6 was closed 2 miles ahead. After 2 miles, the warning disappeared and did not return.

If we were in an area unknown to us, the XT would have sent us on a wild goose chase.

-dan

[rbentnail]

For me this is a common thing as well as routing across closed railroad tracks and doing anything possible to avoid a small town's downtown area. I don't know why it does these but I'll often disconnect the Bluetooth and take my chances without re-rerouting. 98% of the time I'm right, and the times I'm wrong will show on Google maps on my phone.

[danham]

Good point about Google maps. My wife checked Route 6 on her phone and it was green all the way.

-dan

[Peobody]

I have experienced a number of inaccurate road closure detections too, one which resulted in a recalculation that included a number of direct points that could only have been followed by helicopter. For most of the others the resulting recalculation is rarely the most efficient way to get around the closure, if it actually is closed. Google maps is a valuable tool when you have cell reception. Thankfully, where I didn't (somewhere in Nebraska), the traffic coming from the other direction on the supposed closed road was a clue to ignore the XT.