Damn you, GPS, damn you to hell!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I bought tickets to Bill Burr’s Boston show about 3 months ago. I have been a huge fan of his for a while and have been really, really looking forward to seeing him live.

About a week ago I got a call that a past friend’s mother died and that her wake would be the same night as the show. The other guys I was going with also knew him, so we all decided to cancel the show and attend the wake.

Well, one friend did the math and figured we could still make the show after the wake, but miss the first performer. Hmmm, I thought. It would be close, and we’d probably get there as Bill was performing, but it was worth a try.

So we attended the wake (which was really, really nice, and great to see people I hadn’t seen in a long time). We left with about an hour to go before the show, and it seemed likely we’d get there only 15 minutes late, tops.

One of the other guys drove, and the other friend punched the address into the new GPS that my driving friend bought. And off we went!

Now, I drive to Boston quite a bit and can get there without much trouble. This time, I was in the back seat talking away, not really paying attention. After about 40 minutes I started to wonder why nothing around me looked familiar. I asked to see the GPS, which said we had about 10 minutes to go, which would put us there about 5 minutes earlier than the show started!

Ok, I guess the GPS took us on some super high teck route that would somehow shave off gobs of minutes.

Hmmm…

It didn’t make sense. I just didn’t recognize anything around me (not that I could see anything with the now pouring rain).

About this time we hit a wall of red brake lights. Yep, the far left lane was closed for construction, and that, coupled with the heavy rain, had people slamming brakes and bringing the whole highway to a crawl.

But no biggy, we’d be early!

My curiosity got the better of me. Having still not recognized anything around me, I pulled out my iPhone and checked where we were on the map.

W…T…F…!

We were about 10 or 15 miles south of Boston in Braintree. BTW, we came from NH, which is way north of Boston.

I asked to see the GPS again, cleared the address my friend put in and re-entered the address: 660 Washington Street Boston, MA.

It said we were within 5 miles of the location and about 8 minutes from arrival.

It turns out that the GPS does not realize that Washington Street is really, really long and passes through a bunch of towns.

It also turns out that, despite putting Boston as the town, the GPS sent us to Dorchester.

Long story (and long traffic) short, we got to the theater close to 8:15 and decided to give up, park and grab dinner. I have missed seeing my favorite comic live. :frowning:

sigh

But we salvaged the night with dinner and some various oddities (like an incredibly small parking garage in China Town better suited for motorcycles than cars).

Hopefully, I’ll get to see him soon.

2

Yup that sucks alright.

3

I was driving my parents’ car a few months ago and experienced some serious difficulties with their GPS. I had driven down to Albany, NY to drop off some family members at the airport. While I was down there, I wanted to make a side trip into the adjacent town of Schenectady - a trip of only a few miles.

But my parents had recently visited Maine and apparently the GPS had somehow become fixated on Maine. I was at the Albany airport and typed in a street address in Schenectady and the GPS was giving me a ten hour route that went from Albany to Schenectady by way of Maine.

4

(long, low whistle)

That’s a long ass trip.

5

May I ask both of you guys, which GPS?

I always use Garmins. Not once has it led me astray.

6

Sounds like you still had a destination in Maine set, which then became a “via point” when you entered an address.

Whenever I enter an address in the GPS and it works out the route, I always zoom the map right out to show the entire route to make sure that it ends where I expect, and doesn’t go in an obviously stupid direction. Better to take 30 seconds to do that at the start of the journey than wonder halfway why all the road signs are now in Welsh when you wanted to go to Norfolk… :slight_smile:

7

I thought you were gonna say something about the GPS navigating badly through Boston, which I totally understand. But to not even put you in the right city?? Maybe the GPS was scared of Boston drivers and so its self-preservation instincts kicked in.

8

My parents’ GPS is also a Garmin.

So now you know not to take yours to Maine.

9

It was a Garmin, which is strange. I have a Garmin and it has never taken me so far off.

10

If you ever find yourself in Las Vegas and decide to take a side-trip to the Grand Canyon, make sure you specify to the GPS which SIDE you want to go to!

By the way, did you know that the national park on the north side of the Grand Canyon is closed for part of the year due to the possibility of snow on the roads?

On the plus side, you do get to see a lot of beautiful country when you make the trip AROUND the Grand Canyon to the national park on the south side.

11

:eek: That’s pretty far off.

At least it took you to the right Washington Street. There are several more.

There’s one in Jamaica Plain, but here’s the thing – at one point it jumps over by a block, and there’s no indication that it does so.

12

Well, it’s a painful but useful lesson. When a GPS plans a route for you, always thumb ahead in the directions and check to make sure you’re going where you think you are.

13

Whenever I have time, I check my route with Google Streets before I leave the house and check that against Mapquest. Auto GPS units are fairly stupid. I also find it is easier and more reliable to select a destination by zipcode, instead of city name.

14

In this case, the OP’s friend could have looked up a cross street with a name less generic than Washington. Lagrange St. probably would have gotten them there.

15

A short cross street is good and my GPS can search by intersection also. I also wouldn’t count on my GPS knowing which streets are one way when I’m going downtown. I would also like to know the direction for the parking garage and not the auditorium.

Where I live, most of the county is unincorporated, so using city names is problematic.

16

Yeah, I use Reagan’s “Trust by verify” approach to my GPS.

17

I have a Garmin Zumo 550 that I’ve been using since 2007. It has never, ever taken me a wrong way, either here in the States or the 3 times I have brought it to Ireland.

I had a Magellan unit at work that took me the loooong way a few times. My ex had a TomTom that screwed up a few times, too. I really thought Garmins were bullet proof.

Oh well.