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Unless you take the time to find a good GPS unit, they're generally as unhelpful as a paper map (to the GPS users, at least). I don't want something that's not even made in the US to steer me into gridlocked traffic or make me drive five miles when one will do. In that case, GPS's don't help anyone at all, except maybe Big Oil. As well as Rump and Hellary, who have vested interests in Big Oil.
who cares where it's made as long as it works.
a gps is just a more detailed live map that knows exactly where you are.it's better than a map in every way almost 100 pct of the time.
you don't think a paper map can make you take a crappy route? my gps more often than not gets me around traffic- a map can NEVER do that.
to say gps don't help anyone at all is completely idiotic. they help hundreds of millions of people far more than a paper map ever could.
The McNally is for planning ahead of time and for emergencies. Never had to use it for emergencies.
I do not have GPS in my vehicles.
I have an outstanding memory which should be obvious from what I wrote.
Certain types, like you and the other fellow, absolutely need GPS and others prefer not to use it. Like Me.
I gave room for GPS users in my post. But you folks want to be fascists about it? WTF is wrong with people that they cannot live and let live even when it comes to GPS. Why do you need to know this or that? I do not care what you do. I was answering the OP. Is what I wrote unclear to you? If so, too bad.
Effin ridiculous. Society has become full of D-bags
even if your memory is outstanding
1)it's wrong more often than a gps
2)you can't memorize somewhere you havent been
3)you're wasting time pre planning a trip
4)the maps you use aren't nearly as detailed
5)your maps can't tell you when there is a huge traffic backup/accident ahead
6)you don't have to pull over to read them when you make a wrong turn, need a bunch of side streets etc
I'll give you an example of a short trip. I had to go to queens a few weeks ago. My destination was nowhere near a highway. Why on earth would I waste time finding a detailed NYC street map and plotting out my trip, writing down directions to try and read when I'm driving when I can instead take 0 wasted time and just use the gps?
No extrapolate that for much further trips and you're saving tons of time and effort.
Who needs to remember "make a left at the shell, go 6 miles, make a right at bobs resteraunt etc. for miles on end? It's a waste of time tracking it and it's an even bigger waste of time planning it.
And then when something unexpected happens time to pull over and waste even more time reading a map, planning a new route (which you won't memorize) and attempt to read this map while you're driving.
No thanks I'll live in 2016.
What's next why look something up on the internet when instead you can go to the library and waste tons of time to get the same answer?
1) Sends you onto a gridlocked expressway, in the middle of a construction zone with two closed lanes.
2) Ignores a perfectly normal surface street running parallel to that expressway.
3) Tells you to take three turns to go a certain direction (make a loop), when only one will do (just turn).
4) Sends you five miles out of the way, when a fully-functional direct route is right there.
5) Tells you to get off an expressway and get right back on at the same damn street.
6) Screams "recalculating!" when you try to drive the normal person's way instead following its prompts.
Need I say more?
P.S.: Yes, I know they came from crappy, possibly outdated, GPS software, but they're still mistakes. Asked and answered.
these mistakes almost never happen anymore. i'll grant you ten years ago they happened a lot.
the technology has gotten a lot better.
as for ignoring streets that get you there faster-rarely happens with gps and happens a lot with maps.
See, that's the whole problem I have with this, in a nutshell. Why would I want GPS to run my lawnmower? How much better can a lawnmower be?
This whole "anything that's new must be better" mentality is out of hand. I'm an avid bicyclist, and for many years I used a pump with an air gauge. The seals wore out about 15 years ago, so I went to my bike shop to get a new pump. I wanted one with a simple analog air gauge, but they didn't have any. Every pump they had came with a digital gauge, with a computer chip in it. I didn't want that, because I knew that when the chip failed, the whole pump was unrepairable, but it was all they had, so I bought one.
Sure enough, a few months later the chip failed, and the 30 dolllar pump went straight to the dump. This time, i bought an analog pump online, and have been using it ever since. The addition of a computer chip was a completely useless weak link, but everyone was ga-ga for them because somehow a digital readout is better than a dial gauge.
It's crazy. There's no point to it. Not every single aspect of daily life needs to be computerized, or for that matter necessarily even benefits from it.
newer is usually better -not always I'll grant you that.
but people like you love to cherry pick examples to prove your conclusion. you'll wait until the gps loses signal on the extreme rare occasion as an example of why a map is better ignoring how much better the gps is in every other instance.you'll point out the rare occasion the gps takes you on a dumb route (again this is very rare in 2016) and say "see my map would have gotten me there quicker" which may true true for that isolated incident but ignores all the times a gps gets you around traffic and saves you time that a map doesn't or all the wasted time in planning a trip using a map.
if you were born earlier you would be mocking people for using the internet instead of books and then find rare examples where a book would work better.
Then use it! I don't have a photographic memory either but it really isn't that hard to find a street address on a particular street.
I live in one of those subdivisions and I can attest that it can be a pain in the arse to find a particular street at times but the majority of places are not that far removed from the main artery. Even in my complicated community, it isn't hard and doesn't take more then a minute or so to look at a map on my large computer at home and zoom in to the street and leaving the house i'll know that once I hit x street I make a rt and then make the third left on y and the number will be somewhere on the rt a few houses down. Not hard to figure out the order of street numbers. taxis use GPS all the time back here and they are constantly taking the long way and passing my house, which sits on the corner at the end (or beginning) of the street. Not much simpler then that.
I just believe it is another tool that is dumbing us down. I know people who won't leave their house without punching an address on their GPS. I mean, do these people really need a GPS to tell them how to get to the main road outside their community? Really? It is happening! There are people like that. Here they use GPS to get to the highway in which there is only one main east/west and one main north/south one. You pretty much need to use them tp go anywhere beyond a short trip to the grocery where they, yep, punch in the address to every time. God help them if there GPS craps out (which at some point probably will because no matter how fancy you think it is it is still nothing but a piece of electronics which has gotten far too complicated).
As an example, I live at a main coastal resort for the Mid-Atlantic. Does one need a GPS to leave their home in city the to get here!? Really. Folow the highway untill it ends and your there. If you've gone to far you'll be wet! Really! A GPS for that? Come on people! Likewise, does one need to punch in his GPS the address for a hotel on the main drag in Ft Lauderdale upon getting in his car in some Mid-Atlntic or Northeast city? Yea, getting to I95S from ones east coast city home is quite complicated I guess! But there are people who need it for just that purpose.
These things are for boats and planes and delivery people. If you need one in your car for regular driving, you probably shouldn't be driving.
oh that's right i forgot every single trip is just a straight shot! way to cherry pick your examples of "going from the northeast to ft lauderdale where your hotel happens to be right off of 95" because those are the only trips anyone takes ever.
and just bc some people rely on them too much does not mean they aren't extremely useful anyway.
I like to use my Garmin GPS only when I go to places that is new or when I travel through Portland, OR. Otherwise, I just depend on my memory to get me where I need or want to go. I've been in Cowlitz/Clark County of WA State for at least 14yrs and so I know my way around without a GPS most of the time.
I like to use my Garmin GPS only when I go to places that is new or when I travel through Portland, OR. Otherwise, I just depend on my memory to get me where I need or want to go. I've been in Cowlitz/Clark County of WA State for at least 14yrs and so I know my way around without a GPS most of the time.
Which makes total sense but you wouldn't need a map in those cases either.
There are times where a gps may get someone lost and times where gps vs map is neutral (like the example you just gave) but overall a gps is better more efficient and save time and they're only going to get better.
Most of the examples people trashing gps are giving are simply terrible or flat out lying.
"Well this one time I tried to find a jersey mike's with a gps and it wasn't there anymore this gps is crap"examples are comical. Everyone once in a while yes a place is no longer there and hasn't been updated. But 95 times out of 100 it is. Maybe even 99. I'll take those odds vs a map where I can never try and find something like a specific store.Of course then he has to lie and pretend the gps tried to take him to a few more places that weren't there anymore on the same trip and thinks it strengthens his horrible argument.
And get this-if you're that worried about a store being closed call it first. if it's there then go. you'll get there a lot faster than trying to find it on a map.
Last edited by djohnslaw; 09-23-2016 at 11:33 AM..
Some of you must be using outdated units if they are directing you to closed businesses all the time. I use GPS to find nearest restaurant, gas station, etc and I can't recall anytime it has sent me to closed business. Try doing that with paper maps
Exactly. This used to happen to me maybe once a month 7-8 years ago. Now it's once a year if that often.
Cue the But that one time is so inconvenient the map is so much better people.
4. (The highway numbering system is) I think odd numbers run north-south, and even numbers run east-west. There's more to it, but I don't know it.
5. (Mile markers indicate the) Distance from the endpoint of the current interstate.
4. You're correct ...Conventional (surface level) U.S. highways with odd numbers, run north-south, with numbers starting on the East Coast. (U.S. Route 1 - Aroostook, Maine to Key West, Fla), then Routes 13, 15, 17, 81 are some others I'm familiar with. However, 3-digit highways don't fit this pattern (for example, 194, 301, 252, 322 come to mind). Those with even numbers run east-west, with numbers starting on the north (Route 2, 6, 30 , 40 , 50 , 60 , 66, 90 are some of the major ones)
1- and 2-digit Interstates with odd numbers, run north-south, with numbers starting on the west coast (I-5 Vancouver to San Diego) and ending on the east coast (I-95, Maine to Miami). Even-numbered interstates run east-west, with the lowest number in the south (I-10, San Diego to Jacksonville) and the highest in the north (I-90, Seattle to Boston).
Some interstate numbers such as I-195, I-295, I-695, I-895, are repeated to designate short sections of various, completely unrelated highways in several different states, which can be confusing.
5. Not quite true. The tiny mile markers on interstates measure the tenths of a mile to or from the next State Line.
Last edited by slowlane3; 09-25-2016 at 09:17 PM..
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But there are people who need it for just that purpose.
