I would opine that as GPS for vehicles (and the database there for) evolves, things like railroad tracks and boat launches will be differentiated and you will hear things like “after crossing the railroad tracks, turn right at {whatever} Street.” I don’t have one of that variety yet. Maybe some already do.
As has been suggested, some people put their entire faith in their GPS. Or, they’re too lazy to actually look where they’re going and rely on the GPS to do their thinking for them.
I don’t use it often (at all, right now, since the external antenna got damaged and the GPS quit working), but when I did have the DeLorme atlas on my laptop tied to my GPS, I often had to trick it into taking me on the route I wanted or else I’d be all over the place as it tried to put me on the most direct route. Sometimes you’d rather drive a few miles “out of your way” to be able to take advantage of an Interstate as opposed to state highways.
Larry, perhaps you are just too independent for GPS? I have the same problem with Streets and Trips, and I wonder about some of its directions even locally–why does it not make fuller use of the interstate system within the county, but says I should get off at a certain point and wind my way on the streets.
“GPS will route you in accordance with the preferences you set within it’s option menus.”
I never program mine. It is simply a convenient moving map that saves me the hassle of having to carry local maps for everywhere.
I learned to drive long before GPS was even a pipe dream. I know how to read maps. I know what railroad tracks look like. I’m not going to follow the electrons blindly.
I did that when I was driving a van. The laptop fit nicely between the seats. Now that I have returned to automobiles, that would be way too intrusive and clumsy, so I use the one built into the car. It just has turn by turn directions, no map. I miss the map.
East Commerce Road and Wise Road (past the Nike base) to Union Lake, then Cooley Lake Road to Elizabeth Lake Road to M59 (unless we were going to the Pontiac Mall) and into Pontiac for shopping. No problem…
I worked for years in a very rural area. I had to deal with:
"You take the county road, turn left at Berry’s barn, go a couple of miles and turn just past where Ed McCoy used to live and it will be up near the top of the hill.