Google Maps

Deregos.

Big 'pile a shite', directs me all around the place, across narrow boglanes and up windy boreens in pursuit of supposedly the quickest route, bollox.

Stresses me out . . I hate it.

Victor

Did you select by car? By foot? Some other means? Avoid highways?

Did you select shortest route or fastest route?

When it suggested a route, did you review it before setting off?

Deregos.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120194004#Comment_120194004

I'm not new to Google maps, been using it for years. But It hasn't got any better.

I was collecting around County Offaly today and was looking to go on to Athlone, I knew all I had to do was get on the M6 but it drove me in every fuckin direction but the right one.

Turned the piece of **** off in the end.

cuculainn

That's not a fault of Google maps it's a problem with Offaly....never gone through it that I didn't get lost....and there is a lack of accurate sign posts

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120194047#Comment_120194047

I used it years ago coming back from a relatives place and similarly it sent me down really crap roads.

It's not Google's fault that we have L roads that have 80km/h speed limits with grass growing in the middle. The problem is that we've roads with the same limit but of vastly different quality, Google just picks the quickest route using the speed limits it has no idea of the quality of the road just. Lobby your TD/councillor to have reclassify the roads with grass in the middle to something other than L and then the issue won't arise.

munchkin_utd

I've seen this too with Google maps and in the past few months something has definitely happened with it. Directions in the past used to be excessively optimistic and now it actually gives realistic timings. For bike directions it used to give copped on suggestions following bike paths and slightly longer quieter ways that you would take as a cyclist for comfort and safety, and now its just as if they draw a straight line and guide you on that regardless of how stupid it may be in real life

At this stage I use apple maps (which used to be dire but actually quite ok now) or the paid Tom Tom go app as they have more sensible directions, and I can set both of those to an irish accent to avoid being bossed about by a yank or a brit.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120195099#Comment_120195099

Google has HD photos of much of the public road infrastructure within this country. Would it be beyond them to apply an algorithm to this data and get an idea of road width and quality and then factor this into the routes which Maps generates?

bk

Wow, this thread is wild to me. What Google Maps does is almost magical. Just 30 years ago people couldn’t have imagined we would have something like it. I remember helping my dad plan out a route and navigate it using a big book of road maps!

And now people are just blindly following computer generated directions!

Frankly anyone living in Ireland should well know that if you are going to be travelling outside of the motorways and in particular the national roads, things are going to get rough very fast.

I do a lot of hiking around the country and when we are going to a new place, yes we will plan the route with Google maps, but actually spend the time reviewing the route via the Street view feature to see if it is a suitable route or perhaps try a different longer route instead. Only takes 5 minutes and can save far more then that time if you end up getting stuck.

Don’t just blindly trust the output of a computer, use some common sense.

Spook_ie

Two things

one, when I had my first ever Sat nav it was set to take the shortest route, fine if you wanted to see loads of sheep on your way to Claralara via the Wicklow Mountains

two, When I had a job driving around Ireland (pre Sat Nav), best bit of advice I was given was if a sign post has only one pole supporting it then treat it with a great degree of sceptism and only really trust those with two poles supporting them. (Gurriers found it more difficult turning around direction signs when supported by two poles )

Ronald Binge Redux

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120200242#Comment_120200242

Or use an OS 1:50,000 map. Paths, terrain and gradients are obvious and more quickly assimilated than playing guesswork with a limited point of view on Google Earth. And they don't need any Internet to work.

loyatemu

Google does have some idea about road sizes as can be seen on the maps - boreens are only visible if you really zoom in.

As well as "Avoid Highways" they could do with an "Avoid L Roads" option so it sticks to M/N/R roads except for the last mile.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120195099#Comment_120195099

There is no category below L road, and there are L road dual carriageways as well as every grade down to boreens. So no, that isn't the fix.

Victor

Aside from road category, number of lanes could also be used.

Google can probably access data on typical traffic speeds on specific roads.

bk

“Google can probably access data on typical traffic speeds on specific roads.”

This is would most likely be Google’s approach. Though not perfect, the fastest route might be a scary boreen, while a driver might prefer to take a longer and slower, but safer route.

Another issue is that locals who are familiar with a route can often drive much faster on crazy little country roads, at speeds which wouldn’t be suitable for others, thus skewing the data.

The biggest issue is that Google probably just don’t care! They are a massive world wide company, billions of people likely use Google maps, tweaking algorithms for Irish boreens probably never even enter their thinking, even though ironically a good part of the Google maps team are here in Ireland!

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120225682#Comment_120225682

They can make a new classification. There was no such thing as M roads, now we have hundreds of km of M roads. There's 22 other letters to choose from to reclassify boreens to.

Victor

There is no need to create a new classification. Councils have road schedules that already divide roads into local primary, local secondary and local tertiary roads, based on road qualities.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120227617#Comment_120227617

This is to make Sat Nav better for the public, not to keep the status quo for councils. Why do we have 3 classifications of L road instead of L, B, C roads?

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120225795#Comment_120225795

Contrary to statements above about using the speed limit as a guide, Google have data from everyone who leaves uses an Android phone and leaves location on, so they can estimate speed quite well. Local speedsters might bias the data, but local van drivers are as likely to have the feature enabled. If you do check a route then the speeds they propose are not ridiculous.

But driver preference in this case varies. Not all local roads are scary, many are quite drivable, and some people are happy to get out and and about rather than taking a 50% longer route. As an experienced Irish driver brought up in the country and with a decent medium size car I might have a different preference function than a naive American tourist with a 9 seater.

However there is a an issue and anyone should review the routes proposed and not follow them blindly, where ever they are.