laundrycza

I need help or advice on how to enter a specific area to avoid.*

Background: I have been driving between south of NYC and north of NYC for 30 years and I make it a point to avoid the GWB because I have never passed over it when there wasn't a huge amount of congestion and life threatening madness. Going around works nicely and has kept the gray hair to a minimum. Despite knowing my route extremely well, I'll often set the GPS anyway, just to keep track of the time and mileage.*

However, whether going North or South, I always wait until I pass NYC because no what you tell any GPS, they always want you to take the GWB and every exit along the way is another opportunity for the GPS to speak up and tell me to exit and go a different way than I'm going to go.*

So, over the years I have tried to set my GPS to avoid the area and I've never been able to make it work. Then , this week, I got it in my head to try again and the GPS on my HS250H seems to be just as difficult. I can only seem to get it to avoid Southbound Rt 95 using the menus and if I ask it to avoid an area, and cover the whole bridge and the approaches with the masking tool, the confirmation window only covers the approach to Southbound Rt 95. I need both North and South and both the upper and lower decks to be forbidden.

Now, the bridge is being closed for repairs and I assume more people than just me are going to have to know how to get around it. I mean, I know how, obviously, but many who don't are going to have a problem now.

If it can't be done, it's okay. I am just stubborn.

Has anyone else succeeded in blocking this area? Would anyone who has had success avoiding any area before be willing to try and block the GWB and if successful, let me know what to enter to get it to work?

Again, not a crisis either way. I'm just looking for advice from the more experienced.

Thank you.

JayGoldste

I don't have navigation on my HS, but with the Garmin nuvi you can specify toll roads as an avoidance. If you can do the same it should eliminate the GWB from your route. However, if there are toll roads/bridges you do want to use this will just create other problems for you.

laundrycza

Thanks Jay.
Sadly, I do need to be able to use toll roads.
The whole thing may be pointless anyway because my son used his Garmin and successfully blocked the GWB but despite that, it insisted that he use the Lincoln Tunnel. He blocked that and it set up a route through the Holland Tunnel. When he blocked that, it sent him over the Verrazano Bridge and back into Manhattan via the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel....all to get him onto Rt. 95 on the East side of the GWB.
I guess GPS devices love Manhattan.

acheparev

You can get a $100 gps that will let you block roads from routing, but our $2000 option can't do even that...

sublexus

When I set a destination in our HS 250h's navigation system, it allows me to choose from three different routes. In your case, I suspect one of those options would bypass the GWB. Where are your starting and destination points?

laundrycza

Sublexus:
Believe it or not, all three go through the city. I am coming from Delaware and heading into Eastern Massachusetts or points close by.
Like I said, I have done this many times and use the GPS mostly for timing, but it is a fascination to me that I can't get it to avoid NYC and the GWB. I did see in the "avoid area" section the ability to avoid Rt. 95 Southbound, but not Northbound and oddly, it listed both the upper and lower decks twice.
My son's Garmin was so insistent, that it actually had him driving through the streets of Manhattan when he blocked the bridge.

sublexus

laundrycza - I realize I'm not answering your specific question about "blocking areas", but to avoid the bridge, I would do the following:

1. Program my destination in Massachesetts.

2. After it accepts that, I would zoom out on the map and select an intermediate destination far enough either to the west (my preference) or to the east of NYC and add that to the route. I have to believe this would avoid the congestion of the bridges and tunnels into the city.

My preference for avoiding NYC when travelling from Baltimore to New England is to take the Garden State Parkway exit off the New Jersey Turnpike and then the Tappen Zee bridge to get back on 95 north.

Anyway, good luck with getting a correct answer to your question and I look forward to seeing what it is!

laundrycza

Sublexus:
That is the route I take and I have done that for 30 years.
I'm asking for advice mostly as a matter of curiosity. The GWB is a big "thing", part of the busiest highway in the country on top of the biggest city. It just seems odd that there isn't a way to block this one unit out or that if there is a way, it is so difficult.
Now, with the bridge having closings, there is all the more reason.
Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.

TheAirman

If you want to set a area to avoid in the NAV, it's pretty easy once you know where to find it.

Just go to "Setup" on the main menu screen.

Then select -- NAVI. Then you scroll down to you find the menu " Areas to Avoid".

From there select "NEW".

Then you can enter an address just like you would to find a address, or you can scroll the screen to the bridge you want to avoid by selecting the button "MAP" on the next screen.

Then touch "Adjust Location" and scroll the map with the arrows along your route until you find the bridge.

Just remember to hit the "Enter" button when you find the bridge and it'll take you right around it.

sublexus

TheAirman - I don't want to hijack Laundrycza's thread, but I can't say how much I appreciate your knowledge and presence on this forum! Thanks for being here for all of us!

laundrycza

The Airman:
Thank you. I've done all that, which is why I posted the message. It doesn't work.
No matter what you do, it insists on going through NYC and while the map function does allow you to cover an area, it only deletes the Southbound side of the GWB.
You can cover the entire thing including the areas on either side and it makes no difference.
Thanks for trying but the GPS, mine at least, will not give up the GWB.

Of course, since I know the area so well, I can just shut the nav system off. This is mostly a curiosity. A weird glitch that I find fascinating.

Thanks again.

TheAirman

Maybe try an area or the road just before the bridge on one side using the map, then add another NEW area to avoid to the system on the other side of the bridge, instead of using the bridge itself ?

laundrycza

TheAirman:
Sadly, the road on either side, for quite some distance, is Rt. 95, the main N/S highway on the East Coast. I can block the areas on either side, but if I do, I the system blocks all of the highway from Miami to Maine, not just those portions. I don't know why. I assume it is just how the software works. This creates issues, of course.
Thanks for there idea.