GPS preference questions

[kinzel]

Hi there, traveler ...

have you got the blues?

You say that roads you used ten years ago now go someplace else?
You say that roads you never heard of go where you want to go?
You say that roads that used to be friendly local scenic byways
with speed limits on the slow side of 40 now sport dazzling multi-span three-high bridge interconnections
with 8 lane roads that didn't exist in 1997, all moving at 78 miles an hour wall-to-wall?

is that what's troubling you, Bubby?

In other words, while we were never lost, we were discommoded several times by the rapid change in roads; we came across places where the road we needed to be on was now... continued on the other side of a superhighway, with no bridge to be found... and where the cross street now feeds a barrier littered road with one way signs and a mile-long Robin Hood's barn round-trip to go 40 feet.

So, talk to me of GPS, and of features. I note we have no bluetooth phone, so we prolly don't need that, eh? And who expects the map to sing? Not the most urgent feature for us, that ...

Thanks!

Comments

[scaleslea.livejournal.com]

I have a Garmin Zumo, which I use to navigate in both my car and my motorcycle. My wife thought it was so useful she got a Garmin Nuvi. The route plotting algorithm has some oddities about it. Once you understand them, you can correct if you halfway know the area.

Things I have noted: it will route you on a faster road with traffic over a slower road with no traffic. It assumes that all traffic lights are green and there are no stop signs, speed bumps, or other delays. It knows NOTHING about parking lots. It will guide you down side streets because the database says that the side streets are a few feet shorter than the more direct main road.

You can buy an accessory antenna that will pick up traffic information from XM radio or from an FM network. The Traffic antenna is worth it to avoid delays, but is only useful for major roads. Secondary roads aren't monitored for traffic, so the GPS will route you into snarls it doesn't know are there.

A GPS give the pilot more useful information. It is not an autopilot. The pilot should know to never follow the GPS blindly, but to use the information to plot a safer, more effective course.

Doc