maps.google.com — Blindly following online/GPS driving directions flies in the face of common sense for sure, but recent news proves it happens daily. Get directions from Grants Pass, OR to Gold Beach, OR from Google Maps, Microsoft Live Search, or Ask.com and they all direct you on the same insane route the Kims took. Mapquest, Yahoo and Rand McNally fare better.
Dec 5, 2006 View in Crawl 4
liquidpenguinDec 5, 2006
Clearly the algorithm they use don't actually account for additional factors. Primarily, whether the road(s) in question are actually open or closed and the season.I dropped using Map Quest when it actually led me onto a dirt road that required a 4x4, over a river sans bridge and into some guys driveway (which he happened to name, no idea why). Where I really need to go? I should've turned right, instead of left, onto a paved road and there was my destination. At the time, Google directions stopped at the intersection (both MQ and Google go to the correct location now). This happened in the summer time. In the winter time, the dirt road is snowmobile accessable only.Human beings drive these routes to verify their validity, but AFAIK, they generally aren't locals, especially out in the boonies. If they drive the road in the summer time, they'll never see or realize what the same road would be like in the winter time. On top of that, they probably drive at all hours of the day, so driving a road at 2pm with zero traffic probably never struck them as strange, even if they recorded that kind of information.
xavarriDec 5, 2006Submitter
This road isn't really suitable for general travel purposes even in the summer. Problem is some of these map services have it flagged as a major road so it gets used in directions just like any other road.