# Cars stranded on Dog Valley Road when Google Maps suggests alternate route to I-80



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

From News 4 (KRNV-Reno, Nevada):

*Cars stranded on Dog Valley Road when Google Maps suggests alternate route to I-80*


> Interstate 80 has been closed over Donner Pass at least three times in the month of January. Many drivers searching through an alternate route through the Sierra are ending up stranded in the snow on Dog Valley Road near Verdi.
> 
> "If weather conditions are bad enough and a major thoroughfare like I-80 is closed, what do you think conditions are going to be like on a single-track dirt road that winds its way through the mountains? They're not going to be safe."


FULL ARTICLE HERE

Use some common sense people. Maps and GPS are tools, they are not a replacement for thinking.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Ron White is absolutely right! "You can't fix stupid"!


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

Mark Holtz said:


> Use some common sense people. Maps and GPS are tools, they are not a replacement for thinking.


That sums it up! Enough said....

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Mark Holtz said:


> From News 4 (KRNV-Reno, Nevada):
> 
> *Cars stranded on Dog Valley Road when Google Maps suggests alternate route to I-80*
> FULL ARTICLE HERE
> ...


If I-80 is closed - it's time to find a hotel until it's open again.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

not that easy... totally depend where you are stopped ... been there, was lucky spent a couple hours waiting in a car before the road cleaned (on a way from Truckee to SF)

what I don't get is, WTH is Google doing ? how it possible to take rt 889 from I-80 ?!


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Route quality is only as good as the data provided. There was a Google Map Maker program, but that is discontinued as of March, 2017.

From Google Streetview - August, 2011:
Pavement Ends - No Snow Removal
Travel Advisory - Don't depend on computer-based routing tools

Of course, there is also the new signs that have been put up. See Washoe County on Twitter


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

The problem I see with Google and Apple maps is that when one road is marked closed the app will try to find an alternate route with no regard to whether or not the alternate should also be closed. If an untraveled road registers as "light traffic" instead of "closed" the computer may consider it a better route.

Someone at Google (and Apple) needs to program their maps to score travel on the side roads so the program does not use those routes.

I generally ignore my GPS when I know where I am going ... with the sound muted so I don't have to hear "recalculating - make a u-turn when possible" every time my route isn't what the GPS wants. Those side roads should be telling through travelers to turn around. Not reinforcing the decision to press on.


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## Eva (Nov 8, 2013)

It's bad when a GPS wants to take you through a lake!


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Eva said:


> It's bad when a GPS wants to take you through a lake!


Looks like you did try blindly follow your navigator there !


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

I know that if I'm going somewhere that I've never been before, I try to find driving directions from them directly, especially if it's more rural.

And then there's this story...
http://gizmodo.com/5975787/woman-drives-for-900-miles-instead-of-90-thanks-to-gps-error


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

it has to be in a brain, the fault ... 900 miles instead of 90 ... missing common sense ? or just ... ?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

There are people who probably should not be out alone with or without GPS.

I'd probably catch such an error because I look at the "time to arrival" part of my GPS' display.
But with a lower quality GPS or less knowledge of how it works a GPS reliant person could get confused.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

James Long said:


> There are people who probably should not be out alone with or without GPS.
> 
> I'd probably catch such an error because I look at the "time to arrival" part of my GPS' display.
> But with a lower quality GPS or less knowledge of how it works a GPS reliant person could get confused.


And the 900 mile woman had to refuel several times and went through several countries. Now I realize that in Europe the borders are more open, but the languages change.


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

The main function of GPS is to get you lost. And proper nagivation is but one, and a fairly simple one, of the MILLIONS of tasks the human brain performs every milli-second, when driving.

Which is why self-driving cars will remain a science fiction forever.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

SamC said:


> The main function of GPS is to get you lost. And proper nagivation is but one, and a fairly simple one, of the MILLIONS of tasks the human brain performs every milli-second, when driving.
> 
> Which is why self-driving cars will remain a science fiction forever.


I think people who get that lost with gps are the ones who can't read a map either and are absolutely terrible with directions in general. And that's why it doesn't even happen very often with a gps. These stories are far less than people getting lost back when they didn't know how to even read a map. I'll bet that lady who went 900 miles used to get lost anytime she went somewhere other than the grocery store or the like. Now she only gets lost once in a blue moon.

I'm not sure why you think gps is meant to get you lost. And self driving cars are here. They aren't sci-fi at all anymore.

Not to mention better gps accuracy is coming. Reality is gps isn't the problem anyway. It's the maps and navigation that need the most help.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

inkahauts said:


> It's the maps and navigation that need the most help


I would add - real-time updates is must !
Road closing due accidents, flood, mudslide (I recall a huge rock did slide to Hwy 1 near Half Moon bay), corteges, parades, etc
Heck, when Apple began build its "sourcer" they closed a few blocks of Pruneridge Ave in Santa Clara !


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

This is stupidity at is best. If you see the GPS is taking you more than a few hundred feet (or miles in the expressway) for a detour you better start questioning ad figuring out why.


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

My $60 Amazon BLU phone got me around Maui pretty well a few months ago in a rental car just using Google Maps and the built-in phone GPS. I just listened to the phone directions and didn't even have to look at the screen.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

There are GPS units that are practically unreliable. I would not but a unit that does not have lifetime upgrade on maps. (My first GPS requires an annual subscription ... which was expensive enough that I ended up replacing the GPS instead of the maps.) My current GPS is an older model that can receive traffic from participating radio stations ... no cellular data required but there are areas where there are no FM stations broadcasting the traffic information. In most cases I'd rather use it than my phone.

I have used my phone for navigation ... and it seems to do a better job of suggesting alternate routes (both Google and Apple maps) than the purpose built GPS. That GPS also comes on a device that I already have and update every few years. The down side is when I travel away from cell coverage I don't have maps. And I do not want to be restricted to "cellular service only" travel.


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

inkahauts said:


> I think people who get that lost with gps are the ones who can't read a map either and are absolutely terrible with directions in general.
> 
> I'm not sure why you think gps is meant to get you lost. And self driving cars are here. They aren't sci-fi at all anymore.
> 
> Not to mention better gps accuracy is coming.


None of that is really relevant. In what industry wants, which is unmanned trucks and buses, it is irrelvant that some people cannot read a map. Because EVERY vehicle will be 100% dependent on GPS. No human to make decisions.

The reason GPS gets you lost, is because a human can read a map FAR better than a computer can, particularly in the part of the country the person lives.

You can take any map program (in-car, phone, or computer) and run less than 20 theoretical trips and you CERTAINLY will find at least one (probably about half) where the computer will take you grossly out of the correct way, particlulary in the mountains or in urban areas.

Because people can read maps and understand the 100s of factors (safety, road quality, speed traps, trucks, mountains, stop lights, on and on) while computers cannot. And never will.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

It is not true that everyone can read maps. My daughter in-law cannot read maps and is dependent on her GPS. 
Another problem: Printed maps don't get updated as frequently as do digital maps.
Yet another problem: updates to personal GPS devices, whether smartphone or dedicated GPS, may depend upon deliberate action by the device owner in addition to the mapping service (w.g. Mapteq) making updates available.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

inability to read/use printed maps is rare
is there published research on the matter ?


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

About ten years ago I used Google maps to print out directions to a wedding in San Fernando Valley, about 30 miles from my house. The last direction told me to turn right and go two miles to get to the church. After about 2 1/2 miles I realized I was going the wrong way. That's the only time I've had wrong directions from Google maps or my phone and I would certainly not call that grossly out of the way.


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

P Smith said:


> inability to read/use printed maps is rare
> is there published research on the matter ?


There's a discussion here - Spatial Orientation and the Brain: The Effects of Map Reading and Navigation ~ GIS Lounge
People who have trouble with "spacial orientation" will have difficulty with both printed maps and GPS.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

SamC said:


> The reason GPS gets you lost, is because a human can read a map FAR better than a computer can, particularly in the part of the country the person lives.


Not all people are created equal in their map reading skills. Not all GPSs are created equal. My GPS generally chooses the route that I would choose to take.

There are mapping errors that one should watch for. Similar road names can be user error. The GPS directing you to the wrong block of a street is a database error. Occasionally an intersection is not programmed correctly and GPS wants me to make a turn that is not permitted (10 years ago my GPS suggested I turn right from a bridge to the road below. That map error has been corrected.)

If we had this discussion 10 years ago I'd make the same recommendation I make today. Buy a good GPS and pay attention to the road.

And don't get me started on how much trouble some people have reading maps.


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