A while ago I was searching around Florida before a trip down there and randomly found in the Pinecastle Bombing Range somebody with probably too much free time on their hands, presumably “Fred,” had used shipping containers and vehicles to spell out their name: Google Maps
Apparently this is a known thing, judging by Googling “Pinecastle Bombing Range” and “fred,” but believe it or not I legit found this completely randomly on my own.
Then of course there’s the infamous giant pliers in the sky.
What are some oddities/fun things/cool things you’ve found (or just know about) on Google Maps?
I found me. One day while walking through my former neighborhood the Google car was at an intersection as I crossed and a few months later there was a series of pictures of me approaching the car, and going around it and then walking away. I was wearing a Steelers tee shirt which they had to blur. Eventually they did newer photos so my pictures are no longer the default but they are still there if you go back to past pictures.
Welcome to Shoreham - quiet little seaside town in Sussex. Some lovely residential areas - like this one. Plus, very conveniently, this is on a bus route!
The how: I was trying to figure out a quiet way to ride from the Downs Link cycle route to the seafront. Quiet most of the time.
Or the maintenance truck is doing some patching up. But yes, it is odd, because it is a really quiet residential street, and you would have thought a bus would need a proper head of steam to do that.
This is the best I could find, and it basically tells you nothing:
I bet that’s exactly it. You can see marks in the grass just to the side of the truck. The bus driver probably wasn’t paying attention and swerved around it at the last second.
This is England, ain’t it? They all drive on the wrong side? My guess is the car’s path was blocked by the construction, the tried to turn around, and the bus was coming at speed down the open side of the road, and couldn’t avoid the collision.
I’m thinking the car was parked in the driveway. That’s where I can see pieces of bumper and I’d think if got pushed from the road we’d see more skidmarks from it going sideways.
Now, go look at the people parked (looking towards the truck). All the people on both sides of the road are parked every which way. I’m not entirely sure how, or rather, why they’re like that. Even if they’re more lax about which way the car has to be parked, it seems like a lot of work to park it the ‘wrong’ way, and extra work to pull back out onto the road. At least on such a narrow road.
And I have no idea which side of the road they drive on. If you ‘drive’ down the side of the road opposite the truck, the “right” side, there are people following you, so they’re driving on the right side of the road. However, looking at them, as well as some of the parked cars, I’m seeing both right and left hand drive vehicles. So…I have no idea.
Now, someone go drive down that way a bit and tell me what the green jeep is. Is it a Jeep? It’s either a Jeep that someone customized or it’s an Army vehicle. Does/did the British Army use Jeeps?
It reminds me a bit of a modified Austin Gipsy, but I can’t quite find anything where the body types match exactly. I also had a look over at old Land Rovers, and can’t find a match there, either. I also looked at the Austin Champ, but none of those have that triangular hood/bonnet that this vehicle has.
Now that I look at it more, it reminds me more of 50s era Land Rovers, like this one. It’s not an exact match, but the parts seem to line up pretty good, with the headlights moved off to the side.
Yeah, looking at it more, it’s gotta be a Land Rover Series 1. The back of the vehicle even has the oval “Land Rover” plaque (though you can’t read it), where it should be below the left brake and turn signal lights.
Back to 30 Connaught Avenue. The bus was moving right along. Destroyed a car and pushed it fifteen feet. English journalism gets right to the point, too. “Destroyed” not “Badly damaged” as I believe American journalists would write.
