1995hoo

We just came back from a two-week vacation in Florida in my 2004 TL. Took the Auto Train down to Florida on the weekend of June 18 and drove back home this past Saturday (left Green Cove Springs, near Jacksonville, just after noon and got home just after midnight that night).

So last Friday we drove from Disney World to Green Cove Springs and I took Florida Route 417, which is a sort of two-thirds beltway around Orlando, because I-4 was at a standstill near Disney (as usual). FL-417 happens to be a toll road where the toll plazas are set up so that the cash payers exit to the right to the tollbooths while the SunPass users continue straight through on a separate carriageway at 65 mph (or more) without slowing down.

The reason for relating all this is that I had the Navi on because I wasn't sure how to get to our friend's house in Green Cove Springs and I noted something that struck me as quite peculiar: As we approached the first toll plaza on FL-417, the Navi told me to exit to the right (to the cash lanes). I have a SunPass, so I ignored it and use the high-speed lane. At the NEXT toll plaza, and all subsequent ones on that road, the Navi instead told me to keep LEFT to use the SunPass lanes.

That struck me as odd. I would have expected it to tell me to keep right, for the cash lanes, at every toll plaza for the same reason why it never directs you into HOV facilities—it's programmed to err on the conservative side so that you can't squawk that you got a ticket because you followed the Navi directions. (Someone without a SunPass who goes through the automatic toll lane might get ticketed for failure to pay the toll, same as in E-ZPass states.) So my question is, why did the Navi switch to telling me to keep left after the first toll plaza? Does it have a line of code that somehow lets it "learn" that you were using the high-speed toll lane?

(I haven't recently taken the TL north on the E-ZPass roads that have the separate high-speed lanes; most recent such trip was in 2008, and I've updated the Navi disc since then. So I do not recall whether it did the same thing there and I don't know whether it could be something related to the last update I bought.)

csmeance

In my car I've gone through cash and as well Sun-pass lanes and the navi never really told me to go one way or the other. I don't think it has a learning feature but I will try it out when I'm on the 417 next time!

If in fact it is a learning system, that's a great catch you made!

1995hoo

I'll try to remember to keep an eye on it next time I'm in that area as well, but that's not much of a promise: The previous time I had my TL in Florida was November 2005. (Might be more often since my wife and I got married in the summer of 2010, though, since several of her relatives live down there.)

petsheep

As a side note... I noticed on mine when a road doesn't exist that I'm driving on, the navi will create that road in memory. They show up as small circles. Recently, I drove on a newly expanded highway south of Chicago (new to me). I'm going back this weekend. I'll have to check and see if my navi tells me to go on the newly charted road or still the old route. My guess is no, but from what you said, sounds possible. I'll post my findings.

1995hoo

Those are "breadcrumbs" to help you find your way back (named for some fairy tale, I think Hansel & Gretel). The Navi will not interpret them as a road in future. I've laid down lots of breadcrumbs over the years and can speak from experience on this one.

MyBabysBaby

When I picked up my TL an hour + south of where I am in WI, I loaded the updated orange disk. Route 41 was redone 2-3 years ago (widened, added median,etc), but the new nav doesn't show it. When I drive to Green Bay/Appleton, it goes off course a couple of times, but leaves no bread crumbs and hasn't learned anything.

IMHO, the nav didn't learn, it probably kept an old route before the sunpass/cash lanes were contructed.

1995hoo

Only thing is, it's a relatively new road and it was built using that configuration, at least on the southern portion of the road closer to Disney World.

petsheep

Yup, you're correct. I was not able to navigate back tonight using the newly created breadcrumbs (you're also correct about where the term comes from). Same term is used for website navigation links.

GuyWithNoLife

I thought I had replied to this post earlier... guess I didn't hit submit. Anyway, some of the roads that are a part of the turnpike system down here only got the 65MPH Sunpass lanes recently, so I thought maybe your map disc was a year that had one plaza, but maybe not the other. Recently I've upgraded to the 2011 disc, and noticed the same thing you mentioned - my navigation unit told me to exit to the right for the cash lanes. At this point I was going north, away from my house to a friend's house. I stayed in the sunpass lane and didn't think much of it until I read this post the other day.

So on the way home, I decided to test it, as there's a 65MPH toll booth near my house. This is a different toll booth than the one I encountered earlier.



It specifically says "Sunpass". Approaching where the road splits for cash lanes:




It would make sense that Alpine would mark all the Sunpass lanes, and then flag a setting to mark that you have a Sunpass once you drive through one, and direct you to those lanes thereafter.

The best way to test it for sure would be to reset my navi and then use it on another drive home, and see if it guides me to the cash lane on that specific plaza. But without it assuming that I have a sunpass somehow, I can't see it navigating me to those lanes as pictured above.

Anyway, I was going to change the startup image on my navigation disc anyway, so when I reload it I'll try it out.

I have the white disc btw, not the orange one.

Mafyoso

iTrader: (1)

I Have to try this. Since I'm Fairly familiar with Central FL I never use my Navi unless its to a House or Business and I've never heard of the street name. But This is interesting because those Toll Booths are fairly new and our Navi Disc shouldn't recognize half of them since they were made before those new toll booth even existed

1995hoo

GuyWithNoLife, thanks, that is interesting. Mine did not show "SunPass" as any of the waypoints on our trip, either on the Turnpike when we were going from Pembroke Pines to Rockledge nor on FL-417 going from Rockledge to Disney (nor again from Disney to Green Cove Springs). As mentioned in the original post's subject line, I have the orange disc, version 3.A0 purchased last November when it was on sale for $99.

Mine DID show an exit to the right at the toll plazas but it didn't say "SunPass." Unfortunately I do not remember what it was that it did say! I won't be able to test it again any time soon since I am not driving back to Florida again this year.

1995hoo

Bumping this thread from this summer because I just returned from a trip to Florida to visit relatives for Christmas. We drove down last Wednesday, stopped in Jacksonville for the night, then met some of the relatives at the "Ice" show at the Gaylord Palms near Disney World. Took I-4 to FL-417 to get there. Then later that day we drove from the Gaylord Palms to my sister-in-law's place near Melbourne via FL-417 and the Bee Line. Finally, yesterday we drove from her place to the Auto Train terminal in Sanford, again via the Bee Line and FL-417.

Interesting thing I found is that whenever we approached a toll plaza, it said "Exit left" to direct me into the SunPass lanes, though it never showed the "SunPass" display "GuyWithNoLife" posted further up the thread—it just showed the name of the road like it does whenever it says to take an exit or to stay on a particular road. It also never directed me to the cash lanes at any point—it always told me to go left into the SunPass express lanes. I found that a bit interesting because I thought if there was some sort of flag, it might have reset in the months since our previous trip. I also found the "Exit left" terminology a bit interesting because in my mind it's the cash-paying Luddites who have to "exit" to the right to stop at the toll plaza.

One thing that did come to mind is that the roads operated by the OOCEA have the "E-Pass" signs while the ones operated by the Turnpike have the SunPass signs, so maybe that might have had something to do with it.

BTW, I still haven't had the opportunity to test it out on an E-ZPass road because my most recent trip north was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and they didn't have the separate E-ZPass express lanes; also, the Intercounty Connector in Maryland isn't yet in the Navi database and it wouldn't matter because it's entirely open-road tolling (like the Homestead Extension near Miami).

GuyWithNoLife

Well I got a little confused. Sometime between my last post and December, I used my navigation and it seemed to have 'forgotten' that I use the SunPass lanes. Maybe it only stores it for individual trips?

A few weeks ago I drove from Eustis to Brandon, and it had me take the 429 (which is E-Pass, compatible with SunPass). It had initially guided me to the cash lanes for all toll booths, but after the first pass in the E-Pass lane, it updated the routes and had me stay left for the next toll plazas. It reset back to the Cash lane upon hitting a SunPass plaza.

So it might be just for individual trips... one other thing I didn't do was to actually complete the trips... I usually ended up cancelling the routes in my tests (would rather listen to music than the lady telling me how to get to my house).

1995hoo

This is why I thought it might direct me to the cash lanes last week, as I had not driven in Florida since early July. But it directed me left through the SunPass lanes every time, and it did not reset for each individual "trip" (by which I mean I followed it until it said "Destination" for at least four separate routings while we were down there, though not all of those used toll roads). In my case I generally did follow it the whole way to "Destination" just for the added certainty of being sure I was in the right place. I haven't spent all that much time down there, so while I've gotten a sense of the larger layout of the major highways (except in Miami), I still don't generally know where I'm going unless it's to and from my sister-in-law's house, the Auto Train terminal, or Disney World (simply because Disney is so easy to find).

Who knows. I still find it peculiar for the reason I mentioned back in my very first post about the issue: I'd expect it would route you to the cash lanes in an overabundance of caution for the same reason it generally won't route you onto HOV lanes or onto reversible roads (such as Rock Creek Parkway in DC, which is two-way traffic at some hours but is made all one-way in the peak direction during rush hours).

AdamNJ

Guys, I don't drive in Florida and I drive an 05 with the original disc, but I really think that the nqvi is just planning the shortest route from where you started it. I've been following it's directions before and it tells me to turn right/exit, and then get right back on because that is the straighter route then the slight curve the highway made.

hyou101

AdamNJ,
I just got 2013 MDX, and found Navi is leading me to cash lanes, which is clearly longer detour than open road toll ways. So, I must disagree with you. Did this finally resolved or anyone follow up? I am new here and please guide me.
Thanks.

sashi2

That's not true. In my experience, cash line routes at times were significantly longer.


Dude, mine also always leads thru cash lines. It's so annoying. I was hoping to find a setting somewhere in the menus to choose the default but I couldn't.

jbrownjam

I've had the same thing happen before going from DC to NC. It tries to route me to the last route that I took when I made the trip.