#GetHomeFaster With New TomTom GO

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This post is brought to you by TomTom.

I live in a large town. The town has grown so much over the years that we have our own areas of gridlock, which I try to avoid if I happen to be silly enough to be in those areas at a certain time of the day. My town is also what used to be called a bedroom community. We’re located within an hour of two major cities, New York and Philadelphia, both of which are on the list of Top Most Congested Cities.

TOP MOST CONGESTED CITIES

1. Los Angeles

2. San Francisco

3. Honolulu

4. New York

5. Seattle

6. San Jose

7. Miami

8. Chicago

9. Washington, DC

10. Portland, Washington

11. Tampa

12. Houston

13. Austin

14. Las Vegas

15. Atlanta

16. Boston

17. San Diego

18. Orlando

19. New Orleans

20. Philadelphia

21. Tucson

22. Denver

23. Nashville

24. Sacramento

25. Riverside

26. Pittsburgh

27. Virginia Beach

28. Baltimore

29. Detroit

30. Providence

31. San Antonio

32. Dallas-Fort Worth

33. Charlotte

34. Memphis

35. Minneapolis

36. Louisville

37. Buffalo

38. Hartford

39. Raleigh

40. Cincinnati

41. Jacksonville

42. Columbus

43. Phoenix

44. Oklahoma City

45. Rochester

46. Salt Lake City

47. Milwaukee

48. St. Louis

49. Birmingham

50. Indianapolis

After looking at that list of the fifty most congested cities it struck me how so many people could probably say that if they didn’t live in one of those cities that they probably lived within a reasonably short distance to one, which means they probably spend time sitting in traffic. That’s a lot of people across the country, sitting in their cars wasting time. In fact, a 2013 study said that the average mom drives her children around for 1,248 miles per year, or the equivalent of two weeks … and that’s not counting the added hours spent in traffic.

Being stuck in traffic. It stinks. We all agree that time is valuable. It passes by quickly and you can’t get it back. The bad news is, traffic steals time away from you. The good news is that you don’t have to sit idly by (pun intended) and let traffic steal your time. There are things you can do to help minimize the amount of time you sit in traffic. One of those things is to get help from an expert – TomTom.

The TomTom GO 500 and 600 models use smart technology to help you manage traffic and get where you want to be when you want to be there. TomTom is the preferred traffic intelligence resource widely used by local government and traffic agencies to help solve mobility issues. The great thing is, the very same technology that is used by those agencies is available to you and I as consumers.

TomTom GO can help you in several ways. The database behind the TomTom Go covers 99.9% of roads, which is more than any other navigation system on the market. Access to such a massive database, including real-time traffic intelligence, helps you get where you want to go. TomTom MyDrive Cloud allows you to plan your route before you leave the house and send it directly to your GO device so that you are ready to go as soon as you get in the car. MyDrive Cloud technology has been recognized by multiple tech magazines such as ZDNet as “one of the best available”. Once you’re in the car, real-time instant traffic navigation alerts you of spots with heavy traffic or roadblocks and can redirect you to the fastest route available.

TomTom GO is super easy to install. It redefines the term user-friendly. The first thing you do is connect the unit to your computer, so that it can receive programming of the latest updates. While you’re doing this it makes sense to download and install the free TomTom MyDrive app on your mobile phone. Then you use the included windshield mount to install the unit in your car and plug it into the lighter. That’s it!

The TomTom GO has a large touchscreen with 3D display that makes for ease of use and very easy reading.  If you need to zoom in or out of the map all you have to do is press once. All of the menus are conveniently located in one spot and are very easy to use. You can set things up to your liking with one or two touches, including whether or not you want to hear voice prompts and if you want to change from day to night view. When you are entering a location the TomTom uses an intuitive search that helps decrease the amount of information you have to manually enter. Once you’re undwerway the display not only shows you the route to take, but it even shows you your current rate of speed and the speed limit.

I had a GPS years ago, which I only connected when I needed directions. I fell in love with my TomTom GO the first time that I used it. It’s been so helpful on several long drives. The one and only thing I don’t like about driving in unfamiliar communities is that sometimes you wind up driving in circles because street signs aren’t marked clearly or at all.  The GO will provide you with the most direct route, helping you to get where you need to be as quickly as possible. Not only does it help you get where you have to go, it also can give you valuable information you might not otherwise know such as the distance to the nearest gas station. The TomTom GO has proven to be so helpful, even in my own community, that I leave it connected all of the time now. It’s easy to use and makes getting where I have to go easier.

Spending less time on the road give me more time to spend with my family and do the things I love. The Tom Tom GO helps me spend as little time on the road as is possible.

How much time do you spend on the road and what would you do with the time you would save not stuck in traffic? Share your thoughts for a chance to win a TomTom GO!

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