Posted on 09/04/2017 4:15:08 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Can’t remember the exit he was looking for.
Unfortunately he drove for an outfit that docked the drivers for out of route miles. His Indy excursion put him over the limit so he was charged for out of route miles.
Thankfully everyone was still using paper logs so he could fudge his log book. If he had enough sense to.
LOL I use a 2008 GPS system to take long trips just to watch my truck icon drive over a bay? in NC that has a news bridge and listen to susie what’s her name keep repeating “recalculating.” Thank goodness it’s not a long bridge and I am so excited to see my son that I just laugh cause I’m getting CLOSER!
BTW, I always get updated printed maps. I like to SEE where I am going and not just blindly listen to someone else. I’m a visual learner.
A paper map would have worked no better as this was a road change.
I always check the path the GPS recommends before I take it. Back in the early days, I would ignore the GPS if I identified a better route on the paper map but I eventually found out that 95% of the time, the route recommended was faster that the route I picked on a map. I still double check because of the remaining 5%.
Despite the occasional error, I would not give up the GPS, It knows traffic conditions and road changes my now several year old map does not.
I don’t know what the solution would be in this case, I would hope that there was signage indicating the road change and the lost drivers just ignored or missed it.
Yea, I looked it up later. Gotta love the GPA addicts though!
The landowner for whom I'm doing an archaeological survey just retired from the Army. He said their field units (with algorithms to subtract out the encoded jitter) were good to <1 meter CEP...
What, people forgot how to read road signs?
I recently bought the Rand McNally US-Canada 2018 Road Atlas (good for this year, at least).
I had a problem with my map app during a road trip in 2014. Before I left Bellevue, Nebraska, I looked up my next hotel in Cheyenne by typing in the address and seeing where it took me. I ended up going to a deserted Wyoming ranch road about 10 miles or so west of town, and boy was it fun finding the hotel’s actual location, which was actually east of town.
Later on during my next road trip, I finally learned to locate my hotels by typing in their actual names (e.g., Ramada Inn Bangor) rather than their alleged addresses — duh.
Prolly too busy texting.
Apparently, you can use it for surveying. Apparently, using a local reference point can improve the accuracy (differential?). I have seen people with big dish antennas on their back.
GPS navigation is a useful assistive technology if you realize it’s usually gonna be wrong at least once from any given point A to point B.
They’re also nearly 100% wrong for choosing optimal routes when one has a good knowledge of local driving conditions.
I study and print out backup paper maps when I aim for unknown destinations, and between the GPS and the backup maps I usually do pretty well.
True story: The Capitol Beltway was originally designated as Interstate 495. However, a decision was made in the 70s or 80s to route I-95 around DC, using the eastern part of the Beltway, due to community opposition. So that part of the Beltway was renumbered as I-95. Unfortunately, a lot of drivers became confused after the renumbering, so sometime later, the I-495 number was added back in, giving that stretch a dual numbering system.
Also, US 50 (the John Hanson Highway) between the Beltway and Maryland 70 in Annapolis is also designated as I-595. However, the highway department does not dare implement the actual interstate signage for fear of confusing drivers.
I recently was in Vermont for a wedding. Used Waze to get there but had no internet access on the way back. Could remember the roads well enough to hit an east west road. Looked at the sun and made my way back to the interstate.
Sometimes it takes a week to update maps for changes. I’ve written a history of GPS, which my Dad invented. It’s important to use common sense when using GPS. My book website is www.gpsdeclassified.com
Just wait until they start renaming streets like the left wants. Confusion galore.
Allot can happen on an interstate;
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/morning-traffic-report/2870509?snl=1
I definitely got better accuracy by plotting the lengths and headings t from the deed description -- using Google Earth -- than he did with the GPS (or compass & chain, for that matter...) I demonstrated that I could "close" an irregular 12-leg 20 acre tract boundary to within 0.1 foot -- repeatedly -- using Google Earth's "line" measurement tool.
In fact, in that heavily-wooded, hilly old iron ore mine site ,the surveyor finally gave up on the GPS and went back to brush-cutting, transit, compass & chain...
One of the few good things he did. I remember people saying that it was no big deal to be off "a little bit" until the boaters said to try that in a harbor or some other waterway and see what happens.
“It’s important to use common sense when using GPS.”
Bingo!
“My book website is www.gpsdeclassified.com”
Cool!
The error was significant and made them marginally useful. And apparently they can still flip the switch and revert back.
Heck, the compass in my smart phone goes wacky sometimes. A functional compass is nice to have as part of a GPS unit because it takes over when the person is stationary (not moving). My GPS unit's compass is much better. Also, a true GPS will be able track multiple satellites, in a noisy environment, or lots of cloud cover or tree cover.
I'd never use a smartphone for navigation while hiking. I would have a smart phone or flip phone with me (in a baggie to keep it dry). You can call in your coordinates read from a GPS unit in a pinch. There are stories of people being lost or injured and calling the local police dept from their cell phone. I was hiking at the top of a 14teener once and called my wife from the top.
To survey a plot professionally, you'd still use the system that you mentioned and unfortunately probably a transit system.
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