Mandatory IQ tests for satnav users?

[bonj2]

If it looks wrong, it probably is. You can do stupid things with maps to, fords that are deeper due to rain, roads that are barely passible with 4x4s but marked as unclassified roads on the map etc.

Personally I have mine in map top-view mode & turn the sound off most of the time, I'm glancing at it for place names as a target then go by the road signs. I've had a fair few pax be astounded that I've completely ignored the sat nav. I even had someone completely ignore a perfect standing half donut in the lotus & comment that the sat-nav said we should go down that road... not with 135mm ground clearance you don't

i dont' like going through fords as i once went through one and it caused a massive wall of water as i hit it, a massive deluge poured in through the window and when i got home i discovered that it had knocked the front reg plate off! went back to find it but wasn't there, had to get another one from halfords

 

[Chuffy]

i dont' like going through fords as i once went through one and it caused a massive wall of water as i hit it, a massive deluge poured in through the window and when i got home i discovered that it had knocked the front reg plate off! went back to find it but wasn't there, had to get another one from halfords

Clarnet.

 

[ColinJ]

i dont' like going through fords as i once went through one and it caused a massive wall of water as i hit it, a massive deluge poured in through the window and when i got home i discovered that it had knocked the front reg plate off! went back to find it but wasn't there, had to get another one from halfords

I tried cycling through a ford once. It was on a bend at the bottom of a steep descent leading into a steep climb and I wanted to use my momentum to get me half way up the hill. Turns out that the ford was cobbled, the cobbles were slimy and had big gaps between them! My front wheel slipped into the gap between two cobbles and jammed. I fell heavily, ending up with cuts and bruises, was soaked and my bike was scratched. I walk 'em now!

 

[Globalti]

Using maps successfully also requires a little common sense and an understanding of how towns and villages tend to be laid out. Your map can show you the quickest way to reach a village but may not be much use for the last 200 yards. However if the address is "The Glebe" you should know that it's likely to be near the church, "Station Road" usually means the road that goes to the station and "High Street" is usually that old, narrow road through the village that the modern bypass wants you to avoid. If the address is on "York Street" it's likely to be on the road leading out of town in the direction of York. The same logic can be applied in any country where you're driving. How many yoof drivers have this understanding?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Slightly OT, but the one that sometimes gets me in the truck is when I'm given an address, say "Eurosonic, Unit 3 Magpie Lane, Ilford". So, I find Magpie Lane on my A-Z and pootle off there in the truck. When I get to Magpie Lane, which let's say is off the roundabout on the North Circular and the A12, I discover that there's a "6'6" Width Restriction" in 600 yards. Now, I've turned into this road because I've got a delivery along it. I'm driving a vehicle that's getting on for half the width again of the limit and is far too long to turn around (unless I'm lucky and there's a bus stop opposite a turning, which there was, as it happens). I have no idea - and this is the important bit - whether "Unit 3" is this side or that side of the width restriction, if you see what I mean, and that would apply equally whichever end of the road I turned into. I don't think a SatNav would help in these circumstances either, unless you can programme them to take account of width restrictions.

 

[Fnaar]

the usual English "Nether Bottom" type.

Scotland, apparently

 

[siadwell]

I don't think a SatNav would help in these circumstances either, unless you can programme them to take account of width restrictions.

Bit pricey compared to a basic sat nav but these (http://www.mynewcheap.co.uk/products/truck-sat-nav/) claim to know about height and width restrictions.

 

[Globalti]

Surely if a tatnav can log speed camera positions it should be more than capable of logging height and width restrictions?

It should be possible to programme your tatnav with the size and type of your vehicle so that it de-selects unsuitable routes.

 

[Globalti]

i dont' like going through fords as i once went through one and it caused a massive wall of water as i hit it, a massive deluge poured in through the window and when i got home i discovered that it had knocked the front reg plate off! went back to find it but wasn't there, had to get another one from halfords

With that kind of driving style you clearly need a 4x4.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Bit pricey compared to a basic sat nav but these (http://www.mynewcheap.co.uk/products/truck-sat-nav/) claim to know about height and width restrictions.

I must admit, I can see that being pretty useful.

 

[ColinJ]

Using maps successfully also requires a little common sense and an understanding of how towns and villages tend to be laid out.
...
If the address is on "York Street" it's likely to be on the road leading out of town in the direction of York. The same logic can be applied in any country where you're driving. How many yoof drivers have this understanding?

That doesn't always work though. This is London Road, part of the Pennine Bridleway/Mary Towneley Loop which several of us will be riding tomorrow on our MTBs. It isn't a road and it doesn't go to London!

 

[Arch]

That doesn't always work though. This is London Road, part of the Pennine Bridleway/Mary Towneley Loop which several of us will be riding tomorrow on our MTBs. It isn't a road and it doesn't go to London!

Indeed. London Road in Leicester may once have gone to London, at some time when there were no other roads in the city, but now it goes to...

The station!

 

[GrasB]

It works for older towns & villages that haven't changed much (just look at the houses as you go in). Many a roads now in modernised area end where they used to carry on & also as towns & villages expand aren't heading out of the village anymore, so 'heading in the general direction of' may be more appropriate for those.

 

[ufkacbln]

i thought it was navteq or teleatlas?

NAVTEQ derives data from Ordnance survey.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Stupid people will be stupid whether they are using GPS or maps & signs ...

These stories tell us nothing about GPS (which is an extremely useful invention, for cycling as well as driving) and everything about the intelligence of the particular people featured.