i stopped using traffic reporting

Fewer than two weeks ago, I bought a Garmin Drive 53, and purposely got the EX model that does not have traffic reporting.

Over the weekend is when I really put the 53 to the test, and drove somewhere I wasn't familiar with that I knew typically had heavy traffic to see how I'd feel about navigation without the traffic reporting feature.

I was slightly nervous before going on that trip. The thought of driving without traffic reporting felt weird since I'd been using it for so long. But then I thought okay, I bought this thing, let's do this. If I encounter traffic, I'll just deal with it, and off I went.

Nothing bad happened other than a few traffic slowdowns in places where I expected them to be.

I thought having no traffic reporting was going to be a point of stress, but it ended up being a relief.

Since the 53EX doesn't have traffic reporting, it was one less thing to worry about. I knew there wasn't going to be any rerouting unless I missed a turn (which actually did happen, but I got back on track without a problem). I also knew there wouldn't be traffic warning sound alerts either, so I wasn't listening for any.

What I came to realize is traffic reporting adds complication to a drive rather than makes it easier. Even on drives where I'd encounter no traffic, the thought was still in my mind while driving that if the screen alerts me of some traffic event, give it attention. Was that a stress point? Yes. Maybe not a big one, but still, stress is stress.

Another complication is that while traffic reporting is integrated with navigation, it operates separately. Now I have to worry about two things working instead of just one, and that's annoying.

On the rare occasion GPS has an off day, no troubleshooting is really required. If it doesn't work, it just doesn't work. All you can really do there is turn the screen off, wait a few minutes, turn back on, reacquire GPS signal, and that's pretty much it. As cliche as this sounds, turning if off and then back on actually does work the vast majority of the time.

If traffic reporting starts glitching up however, troubleshooting that isn't as simple. Glitchy traffic reporting can and does mess up routing, regardless of whether a Garmin or phone app is used. But at least on the Garmin you can easily turn traffic reporting 100% off via Settings > Traffic while still keeping navigation running. And that's the only real troubleshooting you can do. I can't even really call that troubleshooting, because while it sounds the same as fixing a GPS signal issue, it's not because turning traffic off didn't really fix the glitch.

Yes, this does mean that on the Garmin DriveSmart 66, 76, or 86, it is easy to turn off all the traffic reporting, should it act up.

The 53EX is just a navigator, and since it doesn't have traffic reporting, there isn't any enable/disable option for it. This is good, because it eliminated any temptation to turn traffic reporting on. Were I using my DS76, the temptation would have been there. With the option to enable reporting not there, there's no temptation, and another stress point was eliminated.

Part of my reason for getting the 53 was to see if I could get along with no-traffic navigation or not.

From the drive I did over the weekend, I found out that yes, I can.

A lesson I learned is that when you bring tech into a car, don't add in any unnecessary complications.

Published 2025 Nov 3