a word of warning on the gps gaget!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[parnold]

Common sense is not that common!

I've had gps lead me astray.

[Verna]

Hey, it happens in town, too!!!

I deliver Meals on Wheels (by another name, though), and GPS sent me 6 blocks south of the address I needed to deliver a meal. Luckily, Indianapolis has a logical house numbering system and I was able to find the address. According to my brother, who lives close to this address, he sent Map Quest an update request a couple of years ago.....I guess they don't always listen to logic

[awg1011]

This past fall while camping in Michigan's UP, we were on the road with our vintage camper, our destination was a straight line but the GPS told us to turn left ahead. I was a little confused and slowed down a bit, but knew I needed to go straight, we end up passing a little 2 track heading off in to the woods, so we laughed and keep going straight. The GPS then wanted me to turn around. After a while, it replanned the route, and next thing I know, it's telling me to turn left ahead again and yup, another 2 track. I ended up turning the stupid thing off because it keep telling me to turn left on to every 2 track to the left, and we still had over an hour to our destination.

I was, however, impressed that every 2 track going off in to the woods was even in the GPS.

[KCStudly]

Sister and I were coming home from settling dad's affairs in Washington. We were out in the middle of a wide open stretch of highway in Wyoming and the GPS pops up and says take the next right in 3 miles. This was in December and there was a good foot of snow on the ground. I said to sis, "Well, I can see for three miles and there isn't anything there."

Sure enough, we get three miles down the highway, the GPS says "turn right now", and there is gate in the fence on the other side of the gully, the same fence that has been running along side for the last hour or so. Didn't even bother to slow down.

Wasn't much of a decision to stay on the highway and keep heading east towards Connecticut.

I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night!

[Dale M.]

GOOGLE search for "Death by GPS"....

Dale

[firemaniac]

Recalculating!!

[Wimperdink]

I'm going to take a wild guess that close to 2/3 of the drivers on the road today have some sort of GPS. Only a select few of those people have gotten into a situation that was dangerous. I believe paper maps can do the same thing if you don't buy new ones every year. I don't think we can blame the gadget so much as blame the operator. I'd laugh if someone blamed paper maps for issues like this and suggested we go back to using a sextant. I'm not against charging someone for a rescue effort for being stupid and continuing off the pavement in an area they don't know, and in adverse conditions, but I can hardly justify advising against a technology that is extremely helpful when used with a little common sense.

[glenpinpat]

last year while camping in Michigan bought a paper map of the state. Unfortunatly it did not destinguish between dirt roads and paved roads. Afeter driving 2 hrs on gravel roads that sucked we finally turned on the gps and 20min later where at the park we were heading to. Gps has also made it alot easier finding my way around cities. It depends if you have a good system or not. By the way the guy could not have been that dumb or ill prepared as he did walk 8miles in a snowstorm and then got help.

[angib]

Over here the problem is with big trucks following satnavs (as we call GPSs) and getting led down unsuitable roads, like this:

[IndyTom]

Those are great pictures Andrew. They are graphic proof that common sense if far too uncommon.....

Tom

[Dale M.]

I'm going to take a wild guess that close to 2/3 of the drivers on the road today have some sort of GPS. Only a select few of those people have gotten into a situation that was dangerous. I believe paper maps can do the same thing if you don't buy new ones every year. I don't think we can blame the gadget so much as blame the operator. I'd laugh if someone blamed paper maps for issues like this and suggested we go back to using a sextant. I'm not against charging someone for a rescue effort for being stupid and continuing off the pavement in an area they don't know, and in adverse conditions, but I can hardly justify advising against a technology that is extremely helpful when used with a little common sense.

I disagree... I was riding with a friend that was not from my area, and we had already visited location where he wanted to go... So we KNEW where we were (also my local stomping grounds) and to make long story short we took back way (short cut) back to my home, and GPS unit kept recalculation trying to find any route possible to get us to the original "location" ( we did not turn it off after getting to his destination) anyway it kept trying to find a way back through some of the worst forest tracks and routes no 2 wheel drive vehicle should ever be on..... UNITS are dumb, they do not know most of the time what road condition actually is... All they try to do is connect the dots, point "A" to point "B" and do not have a clue to road conditions...... I am seeing more and more signs in local area that say "No Access to Yosemite" on various back roads because S&R has had to rescue many people who blindly follow the clueless unit, they are same people who can not read maps but if they would just read and follow a road signs....

When a GPS unit takes you off a 4 lane highway onto a two lane road, the a one lane road then a dirt track and you are going to a nationally known even world famous landmark -- YOSEMITE NP -- I would think if the roads keep getting worse some alarm bells would go off in peoples heads...

Dale

[rebapuck]

Maybe the alarm bells are too loud and they can't hear common sense.

[jstrubberg]

Exactly the same thing would have happened with a paper map.

GPS is not the devil, people are just silly about trusting directions.

[Corwin C]

I use a GPS regularly but I turn the "directions" off. The GPS simply shows me my location on an electronic map. I've never seen a case where the location wasn't accurate within a few feet. The maps, however, can often leave a lot to be desired, especially if they haven't been updated recently.

Currently when traveling in unfamiliar territory, I've updated to running TOPO! software on a laptop with the GPS indicating my location on USGS maps. This provides the best detail available (at least here in Utah). I can also print out the exact maps that I want for a manual backup.

I still have to engage grey matter and choose routes carefully. There is no substitute for this. Conditions, can and will change on a moments notice, and preparation to deal with those possibilities is very important.

[BPFox]

My daughter moved to Virginia last year. We helped her move and I brought along my gps unit. I don't use it much on how to get there, but it is helpful getting around town once you do get there. That said, we were heading to the Holiday Inn where we were staying and when I got to the road the hotel was on my gps kept telling me to make a u-turn as soon as it was safe to do so. The problem was, I could see the Holiday Inn in front of me a few blocks down, but that darn gps kept telling me to turn around. Well I didn't turn around and kept driving towards the sign I could clearly see. When I got there and pulled into the hotel parking lot my gps proudly told me "you have arrived at your destination". The wife and I had a good laugh over that one. The bottom line is they are great aids but they are no substitute for pre-planning and having a pretty good idea of where you are going before you leave.