I am still in the 90 day trial of XM after purchasing an 06 RL. I live in an area that is covered, according to the XM website, and I get alerts on specific traffic problems. Also, there are icons on the Nav display to indicate construction and accidents. There is a range of zoom levels that are supposed to provide traffic info and that seems to be active. So it is working in general.

My question is, isn't it supposed to give "traffic flow" information? I think it should do more than it currently is.

I have an iPhone and the map application on it actually gives pretty close to real-time updates on traffic flow. So I know that type of information is available for my area (although not necessarily from XM).

Thanks for any feedback from someone experienced with what it "should" look like.

-Dan

 

It depends on where you live. XM Navtraffic covers many cities, however not all have Traffic flow information.

I live in Kansas City, NavTraffic does not cover traffic flow, only incidents.

Here is the link to their Market Coverage.

http://www.xmradio.com/navtraffic/market_coverage.xmc

Notice that cities labeled with a blue triangle are "Incident Only" cities and ones labeled with a red circle are "Incidents and Traffic Flow" cities.

 

I guess I overlooked the detail about the two levels of service.

Thanks

 

At least you got the traffic service with your trial. I got XM radio only with my 90 days. Really like the radio and enjoyed the 1 day of traffic I got when I bought the car. Next week I'm looking to check out the tips on getting a deal on XM as others have contributed from this site.

 

check to make sure that the traffic is turned on in the icon's selection box. Where you turn on icons for gas stations and parking, there should be one for traffic.

 

Also make sure that you have the map magnification in the traffic region to get the traffic flow info. If you are too fine (e.g. 1/8) you won't see the colored sections of freeway.

 

Draw your own conclusions Dadanny, but I found the incident icons useless without the flow data. Knowing there's an accident isn't what you need. Knowing how it affects you is what's important. Since Orlando didn't have the flow data I canceled the service after the trial.

By the way, I have kept an eye out for expanding coverage but it hasn't changed at all since I bought my car in 2007. In the two years since I bought my RL, FREE realtime traffic flow on the internet has exploded onto the scene. I now have an iPhone and can check it for free when I venture out. I think XM knows they won't be able to make money on this add on service and have probably just stopped investing in it. Its an evolutionary dead end for them.