running a garmin drive 53 with traffic reporting

I've been using Garmin GPS automotive receivers for over two decades, own a pile of Garmins spanning from 2005 all the way to current models, know how to make my own maps from OpenStreetMap data, and so on. I know a lot about these things.

Something I do wonder is how a flat earth believer thinks GPS works. Do they believe orbiting GPS satellites just circle around the top of the dome? Probably.

My daily driver is currently a 53. For a few weeks or maybe a month by this point I've been using traffic reporting via the GTM36 charger+traffic cable.

For the United States specifically, Garmin did offer a "53 & Traffic" model for a while. All that meant was that it came with the charger+traffic cable. The 53 is still for sale, but now it's only available as a no-traffic model, and that's the one I own. However, since I already have a GTM36 cable, using that puts back in the traffic reporting.

I had avoided doing this for a while just because I wanted to run the 53 as-is. Then I said screw it, I own the cable, it wasn't cheap to buy, and this is probably the cable the 53 needs for traffic reporting. I was right, traffic reporting was enabled, and have been running the 53 that way since.

To be clear, this is not traffic data acquired via internet because the US model 53 has no ability to connect to a phone or wifi. All traffic data received is over FM, and the traffic reports are mainly for highway travel through major cities.

Does the traffic reporting work? Yes.

Does that make the drive any better? Debatable. And this can be said for anything that reports traffic aside from Garmins. Infotainment, phone app, whatever.

Complications are bad

The whole point of GPS assisted navigation is to make driving easier by knowing where the hell it is you're going.

Any complication that's added into the mix tacks on stress to the drive. Traffic reporting is a complication. Pairing a smartphone to the navigation system (which I don't and won't do) is a complication. Anything that adds in bleeping, blooping, notifications, needless animated crap and so on are all complications.

Something that is within my ability to do is get everything back to the basics. I could take one of my old nuvi models, purposely use OpenStreetMap maps that I make myself, and have a total no-frills setup. No speed limit displayed (meaning no nag for going 1mph over the limit), no lane assist animations, no junction view, no traffic reporting, purposely use a basic voice with no text-to-speech, no voice control. Just a dirt simple A-to-B navigation system. I could daily that, and it would work just fine.

There's been no wonky crap going on with the 53's traffic reporting, so I'm sticking with it for the time being. If things get weird, the traffic feature can be disabled. Or I can just go back to an old model like I described above.

It wouldn't be a bother to drive without traffic reporting if that's what I have to do. I drove without traffic reporting for the first 13 years I used GPS navigation, so it's not like I'm inexperienced navigating that way.

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