Some British Communities Fed Up With G.P.S. Units
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 12.11.07
G.P.S units are good for so many things: tracking global warming, recovering stolen bikes, finding green services and renewable landmarks, and so on. But for many small communities throughout England, G.P.S navigation systems are responsible for an influx of large vehicles that have been "hitting fences, shearing mirrors from cars, and becoming stuck" on roads originally designed for horses and carts. The reason for this influx is that drivers looking for shorter routes are often being routed by navigation systems through towns too small for sidewalks, often with humorous results.
For instance, last month a driver from Slovakia carrying "22 tons of paper. . .ended up wedged on a tiny lane between two houses. . .whereupon he had a panic attack, jumped out of his truck, and burst into tears." By the time authorities had removed his truck, he had "also knocked down the village's power cables, cutting off the electricity."
For many villages, the problem has become unbearable. One community is seeing 15,000 vehicles a day pass over its roads, causing property damage as well as noise, traffic and pollution headaches. All this had led some villages to ask to be taken off the map entirely, while others are working with G.P.S. manufacturers to "make it clear what roads [are] not appropriate for trucks, and to install signs saying so." It could take years to update all the information, but something needs to be done. In Somerset County alone, 82% of communities have reported issues with traffic because of G.P.S. routing for large trucks. In the meantime, villages are finding various means of warning drivers not to turn onto rural roads. So far this has been ineffective, primarily because "people increasingly rely more on G.P.S. systems and less on maps, common sense or their own eyes."
Via: ::NY Times
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haha! this reminds me of that episode of "The Office" (US version) where Michael drives into the lake because he is blindly trusting his car's GPS unit.
I think the technology is great, but the actual GPS companies have to work on finding the best routes for everyone involved.
Seems that there is a market for a navigation system specially for trucks.
I read a report where that really happened somewhere in the UK. Followed the GPS right into the river.
Mapquest used to do the same thing. I got directions to a paintball field outside Pittsburgh and Mapquest sent us the wrong way down a one-way alley behind a restaurant. There was an actual road one block away.
Yesterday i had to wave down a couple driving the wrong way up a one way street as they were waiting at the traffic lights that were facing the otehr way to turn onto a motorway the wrong way round. And yes, they had a sat nav system on their dash.
There is such a simple solution to this. Weight, height and width restrictions (for all vehicles except local delivery) Very cheap to implement, 100% effective (and if ignored the driver is breaking the law so is prosecuted!) Put up warning signs early enough and problem solved! (+ much less local pollution!)
I don't trust my GPS sytem at all. She's clearly not a native.
They did indeed Tim:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/26/subaquatic_merc/
There's another village called Luckington where apparently tractor owners make quite a tidy living extracting stuck vehicles:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article707216.ece
Scatter,
Reminds of of an old joke that goes something like this. A couple driving down a quaint country dirt road sees what appears to be a puddle in the road and starts driving through it only to sink in and get stuck. I local farmer resting near his tractor in the adjacent field shouts to them "I'll pull you out of there for fifty bucks." The couple agrees and after being pulled out just before driving off another car comes along and does the same thing. The couple jokingly asks the farmer, "With all these cars getting stuck you must have to stay up all night to do your farming?" To which the farmer replies, "No, I spend all night digging these holes and filling them with water."
There is a service providing details of suitable routes suitable for provided by the Ordnance Survey.
Unfortunately many companies with these sorts of vehicles are either not aware of this service or don't want to spend the money on it.
Great idea ecobore! I wonder if people would just lie when entering information though, to see what sort of routes pop up and which is the shortest in the end. Hah, it looks like Pieter may have a business idea on his hands :)
A woman and child died in Canada last year because the GPS directed them to take a mountain pass which is not drivable in the winter. The car got bogged in the snow and they died of exposure.
I just thought of two ideas (features) a GPS could have. Unless they already do.
When you first turn it on, you select what type of vehicle. A. Truck - B. Car - C. Motorcycle.
And since I assume most of these devices have either USB or Bluetooth. Why can't they connect to the net on your computer at home and update things like weather, traffic, etc?
There are three major players in this universe, all of whom need to adjust what they're doing to reduce the incidence of these problems: Localities, Map Data Providers, Software/Device Manufacturers, and Drivers.
- Localities need to properly indicate the restrictions on their roads. This, however, is usually not the issue -- most localities have already done a very decent job at DEFINING this (whether or not their signage is good). - PASS
- Map data providers (such as NAVTEQ, TeleAtlas, Automotive Navigation Data (AND)) and others, who are the primary source for the maps and road information used in these devices, need to properly reflect real-world restrictions on their devices. Again, most localities' restrictions have already been properly reflected on map data providers' databases. - PASS
- Software/Device Manufacturers: these folks, such as Garmin, TomTom, Trimble and so on, are very well aware of what data map providers have at their disposal, and in fact have plenty of applications and devices that can indicate which roads have height, HazMat, weight and/or traffic restrictions. In fact, this is a very significant business for these providers. However, these providers of consumer devices are probably not doing a good-enough job at telling people that these devices should not be used for commercial navigation (PASS - barely)
- Drivers: ultimately, the people driving vehicles need to take responsibility for their road choices, particularly if they are commercial drivers. If a trucker chose a "civilian" map to select a road to go on, we'd find the trucker at fault. It's no different here -- they're choosing a "civilian" GPS device rather than spend what they need to on the commercial device ... or spending some more time looking at road signs.