Always Trust Your GPS

[lsyorke]

This happens with pretty much every hotel with a "Boardwalk" address in a GPS. The main entrances are on Boardwalk, but the parking lots on on the opposite side of the hotel, which has a different street name. This actually happens a LOT with people who don't know the area.

 

[smiths02]

At least when they were less accurate, I would question the directions. Now that many of them give you traffic, I find myself listening to the GPS more again because I think it is doing some weird maneuver because of traffic.

 

[LAB81018]

And now how much rent does he have to pay for landing on Boardwalk with all of those hotels?

 

[Julie's Haircut]

The Boardwalk is technically a public street, although restricted to pedestrians, bicycles during certain hours, and authorized motor vehicles only. (Police, maintenance vehicles, etc.)

I'm sure the driver realized something was wrong almost immediately, but there was no way to back up once he made the right turn.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Second truck in 2 months according to the article. No word if the first truck driver was using GPS. Sounds like they need a barrier and or warning signs too.

There are warning signs at the entrances to the Boardwalk, but as one can see in the photo posted at Albany Avenue, they're usually quite small. Easy to miss for someone unfamiliar with the area, especially at dark. Many of the ramps to the Boardwalk aren't wide enough for motor vehicles anyway, just certain ones to allow access for construction, maintenance, police, etc.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Luckily we've never been in such a precarious situation as this, but we certainly have been "steered wrong" by GPS before. We rely heavily on it when we travel and we've found the hardest thing in most cities is just getting out of the airport! 8 times out of ten the area will be under construction of one kind or another and the "lady in the box" doesn't seem to know it. I try to acquire a real paper map whenever possible and not just the rental agency ones either.
?

Paper maps and road atlases are superior to GPS. I have a GPS, but like the maps better. I've been using maps on road trips for close to 40 years. I want more than just specific driving directions. I like to see where I am in relation to other locations, and like having an available reference in case of detours or other issues.

The truck driver just delivered a load of materials to a location in Atlantic City. Since he was unfamiliar with the area, wouldn't it have been smarter to ask the receivers the best way out of town rather than rely on a GPS?

 

[rastahomie]

My mother and stepfather went from some town in upstate New York to some town just across the Canadian border, to this bed & breakfast they wanted to stay at. When they made their reservations, the hotelier gave them specific driving instructions, saying that untold guests had gotten lost following GPS, turning a 20-minute drive into a two-hour drive.

Sure enough, they decided to trust their GPS and, what do you know, a 20-minute drive took them two hours. At one point, Mom said, they were on gravel roads and going through parking lots.

 

[xlxo]

Thoughts....

• I wonder what GPS product he was using? Was it in "pedestrian" mode?
• I noticed there are dedicated trucker GPS products, I wonder if such a product would have avoided the problem. https://buy.garmin.com/en-CA/CA/on-the-road/trucking/cOnTheRoad-cTrucking-p1.html
• not a fan of paper maps.... but I do double-check my destination with Google Maps and street view... especially for parking situations and the latest traffic congestion.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The majority of the time GPS is awesome but there are those other times...like when my husband and I several years ago went to Eureka Springs, AR...the GPS took us to a bumpy, gravel, through the forest road (that was clearly only used by a handful of people who lived right in the treed area) and then promptly told us "your destination is on the left".....uhhh yeah right. GPS wasn't all that useful there in Eureka Springs for multiple other incidents lol.

There are also multiple times where GPS is going off of the actual physical location without respects to actually getting into the parking lot (as it's designed to do). For example in my own area it will tell you to go to the light and do a U-turn....or I could just use the turn lane right into the area I need to be in rather than going up to the light and doing a U-Turn.

 

[scrapquitler]

In our rural area, there are a number of places that show up on the town maps as 'roads' but they are nothing more than a cow path thru a field on a farm. Somewhere along the way when the maps were translated to the GPS realm, some of them weren't removed. So if you come to visit us, there are a couple places where blindly following the GPS could put you in the middle of a field surrounded by cows.

And a bit further up north, near my friends house, is the famous Smugglers Notch on Mt. Mansfield. There's a road, which closes for the winter. It's very narrow and at one point, its exactly one car wide with rocks on both sides. There have been a number of instances this year where trucks have gotten stuck because they have to follow the optimized time/distance route that their GPS system tells them to go, and that system tells them to use the Notch, despite all the 'no trucks allowed' signs, and unfortunately, some don't pay attention when they should.

 

[lovesmurfs]

Turn right, then make a u turn to turn left (it's set up to be done that way)

We called these "jug handles" in New Jersey -- they're all over the state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jughandle

 

[HarperLeigh]

The majority of the time GPS is awesome but there are those other times...like when my husband and I several years ago went to Eureka Springs, AR...the GPS took us to a bumpy, gravel, through the forest road (that was clearly only used by a handful of people who lived right in the treed area) and then promptly told us "your destination is on the left".....uhhh yeah right. GPS wasn't all that useful there in Eureka Springs for multiple other incidents lol.

There are also multiple times where GPS is going off of the actual physical location without respects to actually getting into the parking lot (as it's designed to do). For example in my own area it will tell you to go to the light and do a U-turn....or I could just use the turn lane right into the area I need to be in rather than going up to the light and doing a U-Turn.

Sometimes, common sense has to overrule technology.

 

[Albort]

reminds me of this commercial...

lol.

 

[lanejudy]

Since he was unfamiliar with the area, wouldn't it have been smarter to ask the receivers the best way out of town rather than rely on a GPS?

He may not be allowed to override the GPS. We had an issue with that a few years ago. My neighborhood essentially dead-ends into a circle. These big rigs were frequently (2-3 times per day) coming through, and then had to back out. We talked to a few of them. They said as soon as they turned they knew it was wrong but they aren't allowed to deviate from the GPS route. It was ridiculous! It literally took police involvement contacting the trucking company to fix the route. A narrow neighborhood street with lots of kids, and big rigs getting stuck and trying to back out.

 

[MrJT]

View attachment 271236

I was just thinking of this.
I used to have a Garmin, and it didn't seem to updateable, so it was notoriously wrong. It would tell me to turn left onto the freeway, even though the ramp was on the right, it would list places that were out of business before I ever got the machine.

 

[RedAngie]

We called these "jug handles" in New Jersey -- they're all over the state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jughandle

While many jug handles are a PITA, sometimes there are unexpected benefits, such as the "straight ahead on red" trick. It depends on the setup of the jug handle, the amount of traffic, and the timing of the lights. If you're on the main road and see the light turn yellow, you can veer right into the jug handle, make the left turn onto the side road, and then turn right when at the intersection, thereby beating the red light.

Not that I would ever condone or endorse such a maneuver.

 

[sam_gordon]

We called these "jug handles" in New Jersey -- they're all over the state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jughandle

I'm not seeing the benefit. Instead of being able to turn left at a controlled (one with a light) intersection, now you take a ramp and turn left across traffic with NO control? What's the point?

 

[NHdisneylover]

We called these "jug handles" in New Jersey -- they're all over the state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jughandle

that's not quite the same as a Michigan left (as pictured by Colleen) which would require a true, 90 degree right turn then true U turn. Jug Handles are interesting though---very common where my dad lives in Mexico too

 

[CarolAnn856]

I'm not seeing the benefit. Instead of being able to turn left at a controlled (one with a light) intersection, now you take a ramp and turn left across traffic with NO control? What's the point?

Yup. That can definitely be a huge annoyance.

The worst part to me, though, is that you often don't know whether an upcoming left turn will be a jug handle or not. So, you end up with people guessing which it will be, and then swerving across traffic when they realize they are wrong. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. My kids know that what I hate about living in NJ these past 13 years is the (not-Dis-friendly-word) jug handles.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

CRST - figures