Why are GPS units so much trouble.

bfast54 wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

Robin1953 wrote:
I do find it interesting that many consult paper maps thinking they are superior to a GPS map. If you buy a new Road Atlas every year than you might have updated maps...maybe not. In a previous life I worked for the DOT here in WV and they bought new road maps only when the supply was down to about a 12 month supply. You had to have lead time for gathering the data and getting them printed. Well one of our governors bought about a million maps right before he left office as a parting gift to the opposite party governor coming in office. His picture was on the maps. That was about a 10 year supply. So if you happened to get one of those free maps that data could be as high as 10 years old. I suspect even getting my Garmin maps updated quarterly still does not guarantee up to the minute map data. I suspect even the Road Atlas data could be a couple of years old as well since it requires a substantial lead time to gather the data and get them printed and distributed for sale. Just some food for thought.

P
"geeky" folks who think a map is like their computer tend to "think" everything must have updates.

Folks just don't seem to get it.. Road building IS very slow and new "roads" now days takes 20 or more years before they even get 10 miles built.. Heck they cannot even get existing roads "repaired" in a timely manner.

We only replace our paper atlas when the PAGES wear out or about 10-15 years. Comparing the new map to the old map for the routes we tend to use we have never seen any differences between maps.

Now of course with GPS what you "might" get with updates is additional SMALLER secondary roads and perhaps DIRT roads. This additional info often is what leads folks into bad situations. For this reason folks NEED to use their built in GPS between the ears and CONSULT paper maps before driving 20 miles to a dead end on a dirt road on a cliff with no place to turn around..

Thats Quite Funny,that you say it takes 20 Years ,to build a road......In Michigan,by Three Rivers area.....there is a BIG NEW ROAD this spring,that was Not there in Oct of last year......it bypasses a town.
So much .....for your theory......:S

AND you haven't even discussed the routes that get renamed during the interim as well. I remember a co-worker and I were in Austin and he packed his high end Garmin that he got off eBay. He picked me up at the airport and promptly got lost on the way back to the hotel. Turns out that they had changed the name of one of the main thoroughfares to something different. He kept telling me that it was a Garmin "...the best there is..." I asked how old were the maps and all I got was the deer in the headlights look. I wonder how long it would be before the paper map got changed...:h