The biggest thing about the Traffic is actually what you don't see. When you are on a route the Garmin (and almost all other standalone units) are constantly recalculating looking for faster or shorter routes. You can be casually driving along and the Garmin might make a routing change 200-300 miles ahead of you. It's the same with the Traffic. When it gets to within radio distance of a traffice service area finds out about a traffic problem, sometimes 50, 100 miles ahead, it will quietly make the necessary course corrections for you. Sometimes by the time you get nearer to the traffic problem, it will have cleared up, and the Garmin knows that, too, and will again re-route it the fastest or shortest way. It's a very kewl thing.
Of course, the CB is sometimes a better source for problems, especially in more rural areas not covered by the FM Traffic.
It's not something that is necessary, by a long shot. But, a few months back when my subscription expired and the FM quit working, there wasn't any bells and whistles to let me know it expired. But, it didn't take 2 days before I realized that it sure seemed to be missing a lot of traffic problems all of a sudden.
