GPS makes some bad drivers worse!
I'm a huge fan of GPS. I've used one in my car for 8
years now; I have one on my mountain bike
(principally to track my workouts, not to navigate).
They're awesome. What a magnificent product for
consumers, and it came from the U.S. military.
However, while today's consumer products can help
many drivers, I've seen them make some drivers worse.
WAY worse. Here's how...
I often use a sedan service to get to/from airports when I'm traveling. I've noticed in the last year that my service provider has outfitted all of their cars with dashboard GPS devices, like the ones from Garmin, Tom Tom, and Magellan. Great stuff, and they're finally at a price/usability point for many average consumers.
The problem comes in when the driver follows the directions given by the GPS too closely, and fails to exercise common sense -- like reading the traffic signs. There's one BIG intersection, in particular, near my house that drives me insane when I get one of "these" drivers. It's the highway intersection of I-95, I-395, and the DC Beltway, I-495. This intersection, also known as the "Springfield Mixing Bowl," has recently gone through an EIGHT-year redesign.
You guessed it, most GPS devices still know the OLD "mixing bowl," not the new one.
TWICE now, my driver has followed the GPS directions precisely only to take us on a significant and unplanned tour. Today's drive to Dulles airport included a drive in DOWNTOWN DC, past the Lincoln memorial. This detour added close to 30 minutes to my drive. If I hadn't planned for a long airport wait time, I could well have gotten into serious timing problems.
But more to the point, in each case, the highway signs clearly (to me) indicated where the driver should have gone, but the driver listened instead to the GPS. THIS is the problem.
GPS is great, but they work best for drivers who already have a fair "feel" for the vicinity and know more-or-less where they're going. When you blindly follow the GPS directions, you're bound to go places you hadn't intended, and perhaps didn't want.
So yes, it still helps to be a good human navigator if you want to use a computer to help. The GPS software is improving rapidly, so perhaps some of this will improve with time, but for now, pay attention to the street signs FIRST and THEN to the GPS.
Cheers,
Ken
I often use a sedan service to get to/from airports when I'm traveling. I've noticed in the last year that my service provider has outfitted all of their cars with dashboard GPS devices, like the ones from Garmin, Tom Tom, and Magellan. Great stuff, and they're finally at a price/usability point for many average consumers.
The problem comes in when the driver follows the directions given by the GPS too closely, and fails to exercise common sense -- like reading the traffic signs. There's one BIG intersection, in particular, near my house that drives me insane when I get one of "these" drivers. It's the highway intersection of I-95, I-395, and the DC Beltway, I-495. This intersection, also known as the "Springfield Mixing Bowl," has recently gone through an EIGHT-year redesign.
You guessed it, most GPS devices still know the OLD "mixing bowl," not the new one.
TWICE now, my driver has followed the GPS directions precisely only to take us on a significant and unplanned tour. Today's drive to Dulles airport included a drive in DOWNTOWN DC, past the Lincoln memorial. This detour added close to 30 minutes to my drive. If I hadn't planned for a long airport wait time, I could well have gotten into serious timing problems.
But more to the point, in each case, the highway signs clearly (to me) indicated where the driver should have gone, but the driver listened instead to the GPS. THIS is the problem.
GPS is great, but they work best for drivers who already have a fair "feel" for the vicinity and know more-or-less where they're going. When you blindly follow the GPS directions, you're bound to go places you hadn't intended, and perhaps didn't want.
So yes, it still helps to be a good human navigator if you want to use a computer to help. The GPS software is improving rapidly, so perhaps some of this will improve with time, but for now, pay attention to the street signs FIRST and THEN to the GPS.
Cheers,
Ken
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