At the bottom of the I-Drive Screen, on the information line, it says T1 or TI. What does this indicate?

 

Traffic information is available...

 

Rudy: I am always amazed at the the depth of your knowledge about the e60. Plus I got a response in 5 minutes after i posted. You're the man!

 

+1 re Rudy.
Question: Did you get Traffic Info in Europe?

 

Someone needs to get out more. J/K. We love you Rudy...

 

Yes. It worked great in Europe. It routed me around a traffic event on the autobahn between Munich and Salzburg. Here in Chicago TI is on all the time. The Nav Screen shows every expressway as having a traffic event(s) and many arterial streets. It picks excellent alternate routes. Unfortunately with some of these alternate routes in Chicago I wonder if I should have a Blackwater Security Detail. Sometimes in Chicago it will grind through multiple rerouting one after another. It does a great job and the times are surprisingly accurate. In LA the I-Drive undoubtedly would just have a nervous breakdown or a system breakdown.

 

I used a Nuvi with traffic info while in Milwaukee for a business trip. I decided to catch a White Sox game in Chicago and drive down, all the highways showed as red and it had me driving through these small side streets. It took forever. Luckily the game was rain delayed and I caught the first pictch. I thought Boston traffic was bad. I am looking forward to having the RTTI on the new car.

 

My observation regarding the RTTI in the BMW, is that the results are variable, depending on market. In driving around Boston, the system is slow to react to traffic events, and slow to remove those events from the screen when they've cleared. Around NYC, the system seems to react more quickly, with more details. I have a Garmin in another vehicle with a traffic subscription, and it's pretty much the same. Sometimes the alternative routes are just as loaded with traffic as the main roads. It seems to be a not-yet-perfect solution to the traffic problem, but it's getting better.

 

Sure!

 

The one thing to keep in mind is the fact that the information you do get on it comes from whichever radio station the device locks on to for traffic updates. When you get varying coverage as ExGMan refers to above, it's down to the radio station, not the device in your car. Your device is going to show you new events and remove out-of-date ones only as fast or accurately as that broadcasting station sends out that info. Of course, if the device in the car has the ability to lock on to multiple stations and present more data, that would increase the amount of information you do receive (still may not have any impact on the quality of the information).

Remember also that, as more and more of us have access to this technology and use it, you are going to find more and more people reacting to their in-car systems, Nuvis, TomToms, etc and they're gonna be heading en masse onto those side/alternative roads.