Sat Nav

[tim.....]

The correct Sat Nav might be, but the wrong one not.

I was with my friend and his new toy this weekend and taking his off the A roads was most enlightening.

We drove onto a B road to stop off at a small village on the way (we hadn't bothered to program this point). Yet despite the road ultimately going to the same town as the A road the Nav insisted on routing us back to the A road by whatever convoluted route it could find, even though the route back was almost as long as staying on the B road to the final destination.

I suspect that the average speed programmed into the machine for B roads was about 10 mph (we were averaging

55) and 60 for the A road. This might be programmable, but we couldn't find it.

I don't think my friend will be using his Nav much for local journeys.

tim

[tim.....]

AIUI the problem last Friday was actually getting off the M25, not finding the alternative route once you were off.

tim

[Stuart Noble]

To think that one lorry load of plasterboard could knock out Heathrow and Gatwick for a whole day in the middle of the holiday season. How fragile our arrangements are!

[Lurch]

On Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:19:39 +0100, "tim....." mused:

Mine does that. The trick is to know where you`re going before you start! If you know it`s going the wrong way just re-enter the destination and it recalculates a more direct route rather than trying t drag you back onto the main route.

You have to know how it works to get the most from it, sat nav isn`t just a plug and play device IMO.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Lots of 'cheaper' ones only have main roads in Europe - if at all. But with my Tom Tom you can buy additional cards for this.

[Bob Martin]

Don't blame the truck, blame the jobsworths who were supposed to handle it.

The police never seem to miss a chance to close the busiest roads for as long as possible given the slightest excuse. Someone should tell them what it costs.

[djc]

I could get extra maps for the Garmin, but I use it for walking really, having it on while in the car is but amusement: the tracklogs are interesting and can be transferred to Google Earth etc. The Garmin 'maps' look horrible, so I stick to paper for real route planning, and the GPS for position.

[Andy]

Would you care to name and shame?

Andy.