More evidence to support the theory that sat navs encourage drivers to disengage their brains.
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1020280_sat...y
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And of course this sort of thing never happened before SatNavs did it? Oh thats right it did, the good old paper map was just as bad for this type of thing but that does not prove to be good media cannon fodder though!!!
It is not the maps (either electronic or paper) fault, it is the person using them - they have the ultimate say in whether or not to use a certain route.
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I do understand that sat navs often suggest wrong routes. But how the hell that lorry driver crashed into a building? Did he not see where he was going?
Or his eyes were glued to sat nav screen rather than on road?
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As TU states, before Satnav's folk would either join the queue or get a roadmap out.
Neither a Satnav or a map can advise whether a right of way is suitable for a 40 tonne HGV, that's down to the driver and to a certain extent the highway authority; We've all seen signs that say unsuitable for HGV's on some roads.
IMHO, Satnav's are a useful driver aid, you do have to apply some reverse logic sometimes though. If there's a major problem, everyone's Satnav will normally route them down the same alternative which is a problem in itself.
I've taken to looking at the area and routing in an illogical direction (by Satnav standards) to avoid the problem.
I've used Satnav extensively in the UK and Europe and backed up by a map, it's a huge
confidence booster. I know where I'm going and I'm 100% confident that my Satnav will get me within a 50 metre radius.
I remember struggling to find locations on obscure trading estates which no-one had heard of using pink fluffy dice poor directions, never again!
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 18/10/2007 at 13:37
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IMHO the lorry driver should be charged for driving without due care or attention.
It was his decision to take his lorry somewhere where it wasn't going to fit, the sat nav wasn't forcing him. If he saw he couldn't fit, just work out a way round it.
Sat navs are brilliant (I can keep my eyes on the road more than looking over at a paper map on the passenger seat, or having to pull over to read the map), but they aren't a replacement for common sense...........
Chris
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It's becoming a bit of an epidemic on one country lane about 10 miles from where I live:
tinyurl.com/2lomsg
You'd think drivers of big artics would be somewhat more aware....
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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i can give a 100% answer to this question
i live on a lane
at the end of this lane there is a very low bridge and no way to turn round the road is also a dead end,however 400 yards to the right there is an industrial estate across some scrub land
Since sat nav came out we get at least 2 waggons a week usually foreign that follow their sat navs,they have to reverse for 1/2 a mile when they get to the end,so far there is no damage to my property but wing mirrors seem to be getting broken lately but i dont know if its the trucks doing this or not,my neighbour has had his wall knocked down so many times he has now given up,ive lived here 10+ years now ,we never had a stray waggon prior to scat nav
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Before sat nav was widely used on the road, there was GPS and chartplotters for the boating community.
The charts for many GPS sets and chartplotters come with waypoints for passages through popular boating areas included. The results is the same as here - multiple boats converging on the same patch of water, at risk of collision 'because the computer told us come here, and if the computer says it, it must be right'. So nothing new there, then.
The solution is nothing new, either: GPS and sat nav are an aid to navigation, not a replacement for it, but the responsibility is on the user to apply common sense in using it! Closing a narrow road, for example, isn't going to solve the problem if people blindly drive down the next alternative narrow road that isn't closed off.
BTW, my GPS came with a prominent warning both on the set and the charts I got for it: "THIS DEVICE IS NOT TO BE USED AS AN AID TO NAVIGATION". I know its a disclaimer, but maybe its not just the end users who need to engage their brains? :-0
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I would think that this sort of problem is more prevalent with sat-nav. Sat-nav is more likely to be used than a map (it's so convenient), AND it's so capable that users have absolute faith in it, especially if a voice is giving instructions.
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As a delivery driver, I use both maps and a sat-nav, I actually hate relying on just my sat-nav.
I had one instance of an HGV following his sat-nav blindly a couple of days ago. Driving through Bradford on Avon, near Bath, followed a wagon carrying concrete blocks. If anyone knows Bradford, it is narrow and has a 17t weight limit across the ancient bridge in the centre. Despite 3 or 4 weight limit signs on the road in, this driver ignored all of them. He was clearly over the limit.
I have seen several lorries get to the bridge and then realise they shouldn't go across, causing chaos in the town.
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What would be ideal is if there was a database that had weight limits for the whole of the country - there is a downloadable POI for bridge heights, but the systems are not clever enough to auto route around them.
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They don't make my life a misery.
I haven't got any and don't mean to obtain any.
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These things tend to lead to grief when set to 'shortest route'. Much better to set to 'quickest'.
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