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Country Bumpkin meets Google Maps

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

We moved to NW Norfolk just over 5 years ago. We already knew that there wasn’t much in the way of mobile signal in the area. The cottage that we had previously rented for summer holidays had a map on the noticeboard, showing where to go to find a signal for the various networks, and we were familiar with the rural legends about businessmen going bankrupt while holidaying in the area because they mistook the lack of calls for peace and quiet.

 

I finally took the plunge and bought my first smartphone about 2.5 years ago, but realistically as a very portable wifi device with occasional use as a mobile phone, rather than anything else. Last week we had to visit Norwich for various reasons, including delivering several crates of books to the Oxfam Books & Music store; the latter was going to be challenging, as we needed to get close to the store, which is in the Lanes, a pedestrianised area where it is easy to get lost on foot, and where taking a car sounded like the height of folly. However, needs must, and we pored over maps of Norwich anxiously, trying to figure out how to break into the Lanes. Eventually I had a bright idea – my phone included Google Maps, so perhaps it understood the Lanes? We asked it for a route, which looked completely baffling, but no worse than anything else we had thought of, so we’d give it a shot.

 

As we set out, I switched on GPS and mobile data, selected our preferred route, and pressed Start. Within minutes we had lost signal, and Google Maps sat there like a pudding for the whole of the journey; however, as we passed Norwich Airport, about 3 miles out from the city centre, it suddenly sprang to life, flashed madly across the county, and started giving us directions. The detail was impressive, knowledge of obscure rat-runs amazing, and the speed of re-calculation startling when we missed a very narrow turning in an industrial estate. And then we were in the Lanes! That was a bit alarming, as pedestrians made no allowance for us at all. Then a church appeared, in the middle of the narrow path down which we were driving – which side to try to squeeze past?? But that was fine – “The road swings right briefly, then left again” so we drove round the RHS of the church without catastrophe. And suddenly “You have arrived at your destination, which is on the right” – well, we still had to turn right and drive a further 50m, but neither Google Maps nor any sane motorist would drive down there!

 

Then we finally surrendered our university text books to Oxfam (which took even more courage than driving through the Lanes), Google Maps re-located us as we exited the narrowest Lane, and guided us safely to our target carpark. An absolute revelation, which probably comes as no surprise to all you city slickers with your 4G and other urban refinements.

 

Tomorrow I have an appointment in the centre of Nottingham. I know the route like the back of my hand, even the final stages, but I think I’ll give Google Maps another whirl!

10 REPLIES 10

thesoupdragon
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion
What a great story.... 😄

Have you tried "Here Maps" originally Nokia Maps but now available for Android.
You actually download the whole map so you don't need WiFi of network signal, just GPS.
You can even use an Android Tablet if you want a big screen!

🙂

jeffkinn
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

I am completely dependent on sat nav these days and I make sure I have a full sat nav app on whatever phone I happen to be using. There are good free sat nav apps that download the entire UK map to the phone but I have usually chosen to pay for sat nav. On my Android phones I had TomTom UK and Western Europe. When I went on a driving holiday to the heel of the Italian boot and back TomTom was fantastic, other than its attempts to pronounce the names of European places.

 

When I swapped back to the iPhone last autumn I was able to download Navigon as I had bought that some years ago when I had the iPhone 4. This is also an excellent app and gets me from A to B quite successfully.

 

Another adjunct to sat nav to think about is speed camera apps. I have a stand alone unit in the car called an Indic8r that uses GPS to warn me of fixed camera locations and make a very annoying beep when I need to slow down. But there are plenty of smartphone apps that do the same thing. I don't know why all drivers don't use them to ensure they keep a clean licence.

 

Sometimes I use Google Maps to navigate somewhere if it isn't too far and I know I'll have a decent data signal for the journey. Also, after a very publicly dodgy start, I now find that Apple Maps are good as well.

Jeffkinn_Sig.png

Nabs
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

@jeffkinn Navigon is owned by Garmin are they not?

 

@thesoupdragon @Annie_N  Offline Google Maps https://support.google.com/gmm/answer/3273567?hl=en-GB

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

@thesoupdragon wrote:
Have you tried "Here Maps" originally Nokia Maps but now available for Android.
You actually download the whole map so you don't need WiFi of network signal, just GPS.
You can even use an Android Tablet if you want a big screen!

I believe that you can save the maps to your phone with Google Maps, so that you can manage on GPS alone, though I did struggle to access a saved map the time I tried it under less pressured circumstances (like at home with the wifi on). But I confess I was a little startled by the absence of an adequate network signal for the whole of the journey from home to just outside the Norwich ring road. It might have been a bit better if we had used the A47 route, but why add 30+ minutes to your journey in order to sit in traffic jams? And signal by the time you reach the ring road is enough, as you can get as far as that with any old map, or even just following road signs.

thesoupdragon
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

I live in quite a rural area too, I use Google Maps mostly but when I'm travelling through the wilderness I do use Here Maps. It's very useful having the Maps pre-loaded.

I don't think there is an option to pre-cache maps in google any more, not sure though?

hrym
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

I've been using navigation and route-findiing software since the early days of Autoroute.  I had a rather unofficial copy of version 2 which I liked to much I bought the latest one and kept it up to date, right up the to Windows 3 edition which used the improved graphics capabilities to provide much better maps.   It was an excellent program and it was a great shame that, having bought it, Microsoft didn't know what to do with it and killed it off.   I also had it on the Psion 3 (the deal went through just before the MS buyout), which gave me an on-the-move implementation.  None of these was an actual navigation system, of course, but were all handy for estimating journey times at the very least.

 

When the Psion 5 came out, the only mapping software was En Route, the forerunner of TomTom.   I gave up on this as its mapping was out of date and didn't have the junction of the newly-opened A14 with the M1/M6, which is rather essential to me.

 

Later, when I updated my PDA (remember them!?) to a PocketPC-based HP Jornada, I gave what was now TomTom another go and was very impressed.   Although I didn't use it, it did now have a GPS capability (you needed a separate unit) so that you could see when you were on the pre-prepared route.  Spoken directions weren't a feature yet, though.

 

I've also used a couple of versions of AA Milemaster, which had some interesting features, including the opprtunity to include waypoints and stops, as well as some of the first street-level mapping.  It's main downside, though, was that it twice sent me in completely the wrong direction at roundabouts, a cardinal sin in navigation terms.

 

One of my tests of navigation devices is to set a route from where I live to Peterborough.   A good system will send you down the A14, using major junctions, and then up the A1.   Poorer ones turn off down very minor roads to cut off a corner (they can't tell that a dual carriageway is faster than a single-track lane) or use unsuitable junctions to join the main road for no discernable reason.  Google does this latter, even now.

 

Consistently, since the PocketPC version, TomTom has used what I'll call the "sensible" route (avoiding the endraringly-named Mad Bridge) and it does this generally.  I have it set for the quicket route (a lot of sat nav "blunders" are, I suspect, caused by people setting the shortest option).  It does occasionally have trouble distinguishing a minor road from a really minor one, but it's usually obvious when that happens and it's frankly rare.  On occasions, if you take its advice in favour of what you think/"know" to be best, it turns out not to be so far off the ball.  And, of course, trying to find your way round a strange town, any advice is better than none.  Just watch out for No Entries that have sprung up since the map was updated!

 

Any navigation system is only as good as its mapping and its routing alogrithm, so a bit of planning with an atlas won't go amiss.  Nevertheless, following spoken instructions is always going to be safer than trying to consult a paper map and drive at the same time.

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

@hrym wrote:

Any navigation system is only as good as its mapping


Having discovered the joys of Google Maps, I've been using it for the fun of it, even when I didn't need it. I later had to visit an office in a rather magnificent country manor house. I'd been there before, and it's an easy journey, but still, let's give it another whirl!

 

As I got near, I was surprised to be told to turn off the obvious route, but did as instructed. When it then wanted me to turn down a cart track, I decided that enough was enough, stopped to look at the screen, and hastily returned to the obvious route. After my meeting, my host and I went on foot to investigate, and discovered that there was a track of sorts where Google wanted to send me, but a good tractor would be essential to make it through.

 

On closer inspection, the problem was that the mapping of the driveway was incomplete, and that there was no apparent way in from the front gate to the house. The company is now a little worried about visitors wrecking their cars in an attempt to obey Google Maps, and is trying to get the mapping corrected, but I gather it's proving something of a struggle. In the interim, the company has removed the navigation link from its website, and put up some sketch maps and a description instead - not quite the state of the art image they want, but better than having clients above the axle in mud. 

hrym
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Tom Tom is normally reliable, but I had an interesting postcode hiccup on holiday last year.  Every time I tried to find the hotel, I ended up in a cul de sac on a housing estate.  Turns out the hotel was only a few yards away, but there was no direct route from where I was.  The owner said a lot of people had the same trouble and we agreed a note on their website might be handy.  

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

@thesoupdragon wrote:

I don't think there is an option to pre-cache maps in google any more, not sure though?


It still seems to be lurking there, under "Your Places"