Re: [Paddlewise] GPS Navigation

On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 3:06 PM, Bradford R. Crain <crainb_at_pdx.edu> wrote:

>
>  I do not understand why the GPS units would recommend these people
> leave the safety of standard major highway routes and turn off into
> the National Forests on roads that aren't even maintained in winter.
> What's going on here?
>
> I have no less than seven GPS units but only two of them are specific for
highway use. Both of them offer several options for routing and as far as I
know all GPS units for highway use offer at least some variation of them:

1. Fastest route. This is generally a combination of freeways and major (US
or state) highways. No short cuts. It assumes - perhaps wrongly - that you
will get there faster on roads with higher speed limits. On my trip to
California it wanted me to go to Portland and down I-5 even though that
would be 120 miles further than taking US97 through Bend. I took US97 and it
finally figured it out.
2. Major use of freeways. This will route you on freeways as much as
possible and then use major highways only if a freeway does not go to your
destination or very close to it even if you have to drive a long way out of
your way.
3. Minimum use of freeways. This routes you via major highways and avoids
freeways whenever feasible.
4. Shortest route. This gives you the absolute shortest route to your
destination without regard to what sorts of roads they are. They may be
county roads or even city arterials. The algorythm makes no allowances for
such things as mountain passes, narrow twisty roads, or weather problems.
Use this with caution.

If a person is not sophisticated in the use of an automobile GPS they might
choose the last two methods thinking, erroneously, that if it's the shortest
then it must also be the quickest.

Most industry pundits are now predicting the end of "stand alone" GPS units
such as the ones we now buy for our automobiles. They assume that
smartphones such as the iPhone or Blackberry - which do include GPS
capability - will supplant the single-purpose units. This may be so but the
smartphones will have to get a LOT better than the one I have (iPhone). The
screen is too small, the voice is too weak, and the GPS goes off if the
phone rings. I think that over the next few years stand-alone GPS units will
get a lot more sophisticated and will understand not to route people across
roads that are not maintained in the winter. These are probably available
now but not in the $100 range.

I just finished a 2500 mile trip down and then back up the west coast with
freeways only for about half the way and I got to thinking that in some
places you really should have some clue where you are going as the GPS is
not always right. This is especially true if the unit is a year old (or
more) and not updated recently. It pays to have a map as a backup or, better
yet, some knowledge. Or even some pre-planning. Nahhhhh.

So the short answer is that the GPS units aren't smart enough to know that
it's winter and/or the operators aren't smart enough to understand what
roads they should be on.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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