Yahoo Driving Directions Or 60cx Autorouting?

[+Mastifflover]

I decided to take my time and drive down from PA to Dallas for GW4. I used Yahoo maps to plan my route down but I just bought a Garmin 60cx which has autorouting. The autorouting really cool but the route that Mapsource City Select v7 gives me is quite a bit different than Yahoo maps. Has anyone used autorouting for an extensive trip? If so how did it do?

[CenTexDodger]

I decided to take my time and drive down from PA to Dallas for GW4. I used Yahoo maps to plan my route down but I just bought a Garmin 60cx which has autorouting. The autorouting really cool but the route that Mapsource City Select v7 gives me is quite a bit different than Yahoo maps. Has anyone used autorouting for an extensive trip? If so how did it do?

 

I have used it on my 60cs, and it is different (better IMO) than yahoo. Yahoo does not allow you to to customize the route very much, and places too much importance on Interstate highways. If I know I am going to deviate from much I will build a route in Mapsource with intermediate points, then upload it to my unit. That way, It will route me the way I want to go, not how it thinks I should go. I also use the shorter distance, and it will not try to use interstates.

[+Mastifflover]

Wouldn't the Interstates be faster?

[+RockPlant]

For trips, etc. I like to use Rand McNally's webpage. It seems to be more accurate than Mapquest, never tried Yahoo. I especially like the Lat / Long search feature for geocaching.

 

Rock Plant

[CenTexDodger]

Wouldn't the Interstates be faster?

 

In most cases yes, but Yahoo will actually make you go out of your way to keep you on the interstates. I did a route once to a town that was located on an intertstate, and it drew a route shaped like a giant V, just to keep me on the interstate.

[+ghs]

If your GPSr's autorouting is anything like MapSource's, I too have found MapSource to be much better than Yahoo. (Yahoo seemed to think it would take me 18 hours to drive to New Orleans from Dayton, Ohio. MapSource didn't understand that. Neither did my watch when I actually did it--it only took me 13.5 hours. Another time, in Denver, Yahoo wanted me to drive 5 miles east on I-70, take an exit, and then drive 5 miles back west on a city road to get to a hotel that was right across the intersection I was waiting at.)

[+Mastifflover]

I think that I may take the plunge and trust mapsource and my GPS to get me to Texas.

[CenTexDodger]

I think that I may take the plunge and trust mapsource and my GPS to get me to Texas.

 

Mine has yet to let me down!

[vfrpilot]

 

Mine has yet to let me down!

 

Same here -

[+Lil Devil]

Wouldn't the Interstates be faster?

A couple years ago I drove from Sacramento, CA to Austin, TX and back. We spent a week on the road each direction. I'd estimate only about 10-15% of the drive was done on interstates. We spent most of the time on smaller highways and local roads. And we loved it! It was really fun to see all the little small towns (and find a cache in them) versus driving down the interstate at 70 mph and never really "seeing" anything.

 

Back on topic, when going on a long trip, I generally look at a large map of the entire trip, and pick an approximate route. Then I run some Pocket Queries, load them into a mapping program, and pick a few "must do" caches. On the trip I let the GPS route me from one "must do" cache to the next, often stopping for other caches near the route, as time and mood fits.

 

As far as picking between Yahoo or MapSource routing, look at both, and make your own decision which is best. I'll bet in certain cases one or the other will come up with a superior route. And in some cases the best route might be different than either picks. In the end, I let the GPS do the work, even if in smaller chunks, mainly because of its ability to self-adjust when I make a deviation from the route due to road construction, want for food or potty break, or need for a cache.