Adirondacks puzzle GPS published by TIMES-UNION

[BlackSpruce]

Units can guide drivers far off the beaten path in remote mountain areas
By BRIAN NEARING Staff Writer TIMES UNION

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Adirondacks-puzzle-GPS-1032617.php

***
And Looking back on outdoor adventures gone wrong
February 26, 2011 - By MIKE LYNCH, Enterprise Outdoors Writer:

http://www.adirondackdailyenterpris...n-outdoor-adventures-gone-wrong.html?nav=5046

 

[iceNsnow]

LOL! reminds me of the time I descended off Jay/Saddleback in the winter and found a minivan up to it's axle on the Jay Mt Road. The woman's gps said it was the shortest way from LPlacid to VT. It is - just not in the winter w/o a snowmachine. The road was hard packed in the AM, but turned to slush the higher she climbed. The town tracko towed her out.

Luckily w/ all the activity I was able to hitch a ride back to my car! Nice silver lining!

 

[DougPaul]

Yawn...
Stupid is as stupid does.

Doug

 

[iceNsnow]

Hey! The more people that use these, the cheaper the price and the more fool-proof they will be. All good to me!

 

[DougPaul]

Hey! The more people that use these, the cheaper the price and the more fool-proof they will be. All good to me!

I fear that such will also result in more careless implementations. And, of course, the more people that use them, the more people that will misuse them.


A consumer GPS is a complicated device which contains an errorful map. (All it knows about the world is your current location and whatever is in its map.) If you blindly follow its directions it may lead you into unpleasant and dangerous situations.

It is the human's job to be in command. As a tool under the command of a human it can be very useful, if you cede navigational control to its auto-routing function then you have a fool for a navigator.

The smart way to use a GPS for navigation is to manually enter your chosen route, or at least manually check the entire auto-route before traveling it. (However, the auto-routing function can usually renavigate during the trip.) Another alternative is to simply use it to tell you where you are and do your own navigation--this can be very helpful when it is difficult to read road signs eg at night or during precipitation.

Doug

 

[Paradox]

Hey! The more people that use these, the cheaper the price and the more fool-proof they will be. All good to me!

If you make something foolproof today, someone will make a better fool tomorrow.

 

[BlackSpruce]

Another smart GPS user!


Missing Université de Sherbrooke student calls home, safe and sound
Montreal Gazette March 2, 2011 The distraught father of a missing 22-year-old Université de Sherbrooke medical student was being interviewed when the phone rang. It was Pierre Parent’s daughter, Stéphanie Parent, who left Sherbrooke in her car Sunday but had failed to arrive at Bathurst, N.B., for a four-week internship at the regional hospital. “My daughter is not dead, my God thank you!” he exclaimed. As she explained it, her GPS directed her to follow a secondary road, rather that heading south on Highway 185 at Rivière du Loup. She got stuck in the snow and was rescued by a New Brunswick man on a snowmobile. Her cellphone failed to function in the remote area, and she survived for almost three days on the food her mother had prepared.


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news...e+safe+sound/4374112/story.html#ixzz1FYKDWyZh

 

[Tom Rankin]

... and she survived for almost three days on the food her mother had prepared.

Good mother!

 

[Remix]

How about posting signs stating "Road Closed/Unplowed In Winter" instead of suggesting that GPS's put people in danger. I mean, lets say the people in the articles had paper maps....would the outcome be different?


My Garmin can route using ferries and I am waiting for the next article about the guy whose GPS "directed him" to drive into Long Island Sound....

 

[DougPaul]

How about posting signs stating "Road Closed/Unplowed In Winter" instead of suggesting that GPS's put people in danger. I mean, lets say the people in the articles had paper maps....would the outcome be different?

Wouldn't work--people would have to actually read the signs...

My Garmin can route using ferries and I am waiting for the next article about the guy whose GPS "directed him" to drive into Long Island Sound....

It has already happened at other ferries.

Doug

 

[Raymond]

‘‘Take a jet-ski across Lake Champlain...’’