If there are any Nav traffic owners i want to know how do you like the XM Nav traffic, is it worth buying? What are some of the benefits of having Nav Traffic? Also what other options do you have when using the XM? I was reading in my AVIC-N3 manual and it looks like you can also view stocks, view sports scores, and etc.

I've been using it for a few days and I must say it works pretty good. If you drive in traffic daily (like I do) then its worth the $10. LA traffic can be such a killer that I look at it as money well spent. It's a beautiful thing when you see that flashing red line warning you about a traffic jam miles before you get stuck in it. This gives you the opportunity to plan and reroute your destination. It will also warn you about accidents ahead and give average speeds at various points along the route. Overall, I'm pleased with the service. I didn't go for the stocks, weather, etc. I have no use for it.

One thing I'm not exactly sure of is the amount of time it takes from an accident occurring to xm receiving the info and transmitting to the customer.

Yeah I wanted to know the same thing like is it reliable? I was hoping to get a job in Atlanta and wanted to use navtraffic and was wondering did it help any. Thanks and God Bless.

HeavenSoldier said:

Yeah I wanted to know the same thing like is it reliable? I was hoping to get a job in Atlanta and wanted to use navtraffic and was wondering did it help any. Thanks and God Bless.

Even though I live on the North side of Atlanta, I work from home and the one time I did go out even nearing high traffic time NavTraffic did warn me of an accident causing problems and would I like to re-route

that's my limited experience of NavTaffic, sorry can't be more help

With the Navtraffic you'll have good and bad experiences of it helping or not.

3 days ago on my way home on the turnpike in florida it listed 2 accidents but still good traffic flow (green), well, It took me an hour to go 3 miles, stop and go all the way and I couldn't get off, no exits.

At other times it does its job, like I said, not 100% but its cool and only costs an extra $3 or 4$ on top of your XM radio subscription.

I've got to say personally I think the XM Traffic is only worth it as the $3 add on to normal XM service and not as a stand alone service. Even at that it's 50% a cool factor for showing people and only 50% helpful with traffic.

Here in the Seattle area at least I'm constantly seeing that the traffic is a mile or more off so I'm already stuck in gridlock well before the NAVTraffic tells me I should be. I'll be sitting at a dead stop and looking at the map it tells me I won't hit that traffic for at least another mile. There's been quite a few times that I could have easily taken an alternate route if it were not so off with the distance.

Additionally the route calculations for the NAV don't seem to take traffic into account at least not as quickly as you'd like so typically it throws me on a route that uses the highway when it's clear that the traffic is congested enough that it should be taking me a different direction.

I know it's not the Seattle traffic reporting either since I've got a motorola Q smartphone that I look at the Washington DOT traffic maps in real time and they're always more accurate than the NAVTraffic is. So I find myself paying for data on my MotoQ to check traffic in order to ensure that the XM traffic is accurate (again it seems to be only 50% of the time).

The scale of the map, zoomed all the way in or out doesn't seem to affect the overlay of the traffic either since I thought that might be impacting the accuracy of traffic reports.

So in my opinion if you're looking for something that's reasonably decent then it's worth the $3 a month to add on to normal XM service. If you're looking for something that's totally accurate to rely on for the fastest routes possible to various destinations I'd likely suggest a phone that's capable of getting real time data from the DOT for wherever you're at in the US.

cadwiz said:

I've been using it for a few days and I must say it works pretty good. If you drive in traffic daily (like I do) then its worth the $10. LA traffic can be such a killer that I look at it as money well spent. It's a beautiful thing when you see that flashing red line warning you about a traffic jam miles before you get stuck in it. This gives you the opportunity to plan and reroute your destination. It will also warn you about accidents ahead and give average speeds at various points along the route. Overall, I'm pleased with the service. I didn't go for the stocks, weather, etc. I have no use for it.

One thing I'm not exactly sure of is the amount of time it takes from an accident occurring to xm receiving the info and transmitting to the customer.

In order to view the traffic flow or perform other option with the nav traffic, do you need to calulate a route first or can you just have the map view displayed to view the traffic flow or other nav otions???

Even with no route programmed in, you'll still always see the traffic pattern if it's available on the map. Keep in mind that the colors for the traffic pattern blink every couple of seconds so it can be a bit distracting if you're driving and catch the blinking out of the corner of your eye.

So you don't need to calculate a route or anything to see the traffic data and average speeds, accidents, congestion etc.

Hmmm well who updates xm navtraffic? Is there a possibility that the routing and and calculations will be updated in the near future? Because I really may get it and I need it to be effective, I hope they'll update it sometime in the near future.

I think the information is taken from participating DOT databases. I find that the information is somewhat behind. I would guess about 15-30 minutes.

It IS fairly accurate in reporting (despite the delay). I have only re-routed once. I drive a truck in Atlanta daily, and know the traffic is pretty much screwed. In a car, it might work perfect to get off the highway and use city streets. Unfortunately, I drive a tractor-trailer, and most of the time it makes more sense to stay on the highway.

The highways will be highlited in green, yellow, or red depending on conditions. And yes, it still works even if not under route guidance. Although, it won't re-route you since you don't have a destination plotted.

travisj315 said:

If there are any Nav traffic owners i want to know how do you like the XM Nav traffic, is it worth buying? What are some of the benefits of having Nav Traffic? Also what other options do you have when using the XM? I was reading in my AVIC-N3 manual and it looks like you can also view stocks, view sports scores, and etc.

I'm question the value and may cancel - I'm in Northern NJ, and many popular arteries don't seem to be covered - Route 4, 17, 208, 3, etc.

It's great for me in Phoenix. There are times where it lags behind excessively, but more often than not it's a great timesaver.

Does it work off of the XM Antenna? or what?

It words off of the XM antenna.

In the DC metro area, Im finding it useless for the week I've had it. Doesnt cover the Baltimore/Wash Parkway at all, nor does it cover the top part (Maryland side) of the Beltway. Nor does it address any of the major alternate routes I use (Rt 29 in Silver Spring, Rt 1 in College Park, etc)

lseguy1 said:

It words off of the XM antenna.

In the DC metro area, Im finding it useless for the week I've had it. Doesnt cover the Baltimore/Wash Parkway at all, nor does it cover the top part (Maryland side) of the Beltway. Nor does it address any of the major alternate routes I use (Rt 29 in Silver Spring, Rt 1 in College Park, etc)

Finally getting some coverage flow now on the Maryland side of the Beltway between I270 and the BW Parkway

I'm thinking about getting the XM NavTraffic tuner but waiting a bit to subscribe to the traffic service. Will it still give me the stock \ sports info? Will it still say Traffic on the AV menu? Or do I have to subscribe to get this stuff? Thanks all!

You have to subscribe for stock/sports

I'll post my opinions after I use mine for a bit. I'm on LI NY with tons of traffic so we'll see if can make my trips easier to navigate.

Just as I was about to post about this, I see this thread. Looks like I will just hookup my existing Pioneer XM unit rather then blow $150 on a NavXM unit.

I activated the navtraffic about a week ago just to try it for a while. I tried re-routing for the first time today, it actually worked here in Atlanta. I was in traffic on I75 and I hit the traffic buttion and it asked me to re-route so I answered yes. It got me off the highway and took me through some back roads. Probably only saved me 15 minutes or so, but I was moving and not sitting in stop and go traffic with atlanta commuters cutting in front of me. If this happens once a month, it is worth 4 bucks for me.

i use nav/traffic here in texas (DFW) and it works great! at $36 bucks a year it's not a bad deal, well worth it........that's my $.02