Re: [Paddlewise] GPS Navigation

   I should probably add that one couple was headed to Reno, Nevada, and
the other was shooting for Maupin, Oregon. I believe both destinations
are close to vast tracts of wilderness areas, which might be a factor in
getting impractible winter routes out of their GPS units. I don't
recall their points of origin.

Brad Crain

Quoting Craig Jungers <crjungers_at_gmail.com>:

> 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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