Method of operating a navigation system to provide route guidance

METHOD OF OPERATING A NAVIGATION SYSTEM TO PROVIDE ROUTE GUIDANCE 5 A method of operating a navigation system (100) to provide a route guidance message for traveling a route is disclosed. A plurality of features visible from a road segment (204) of the route is obtained from a geographic database associated with the navigation system (100). An importance rating for each of the identified features is determined. The guidance message references the identified feature having a highest 10 determined importance rating. The importance rating considers a permanence or a seasonal dependency of the identified feature. The importance rating is adjusted to favor the identified feature closest to the lane in which the vehicle is currently located. 2773682vl 955610_Final COMPUTING PLATFORM 102 NAVIGATION SYSTEM 100 NON-VOLATILE POSITIONING NAVIGATION SYSTEM 12 PROGRAM 110 ROUTE CALC 124 I GUIDANCE 1261 MAP DISPLAY 128 I POSITIONING 130 I OTHER 132 __COMMUNICATION PROCESSOR j_04 SYSTEM j.20 USER INTERFACES DB 11j DRIVE 1_01|4j