Originally Posted by
mdilthey
Well-stated and I agree with most points, but I sincerely doubt that access to digital maps has resulted in a significant increase in cyclists getting stranded. I sincerely, sincerely doubt that the existence of the maps has had any influence on the number of incidents in any way.
I don't disagree. I'm just trying to make sure other people are clear about the limitation of digital maps.
Originally Posted by
mdilthey
People were stupid before, people are stupid now. And despite that stupidity, people are generally resilient and generally manage to figure things out, even if they end up with a bad story about how they had to walk their bike 5 miles in the dark.
Some "stupid" people actually die.
In any case, the idea is to try to avoid "walking their bikes 5 miles in the dark" (not to treat that as acceptable).
Originally Posted by
mdilthey
This idea that Google Maps is shuttling people to their death (obviously exaggerating) or somehow encouraging people to go get into serious trouble seems MUCH, MUCH less likely than the alternative, which is that most people aren't having issues.
"People being shuttled to their deaths" is more of an example (an
extreme example) of the sorts of problems that people can have. And it's possible that "serious trouble" is not common.
But even being inconvenienced is something useful to try to avoid.
Originally Posted by
mdilthey
Put it this way; I see absolutely no indication, on this forum or otherwise, that Google Maps ever caused an actual incident. The problems you're inferring are hypothetical. The only problem that comes to mind in 3+ years here is my own thread on needing a route south of Denver a couple of years ago... and Google Maps helped me figure that out (along with cyccomute).
Other than being inconvenienced, I'm not really "inferring problems". I don't think that being "shuttled to death" is a practical problem but the things that lead to that uncommon result can also lead to other more common minor issues (thus, the "shuttled to death" stories are "cautionary tales").
This thread is full of examples of people having expectations of Google that are not realistic.
I'm mostly trying to point that out.
Originally Posted by
mdilthey
...which is that most people aren't having issues.
Yes, most people don't have issues or significant issues. Driving actually obscures many minor issues that happen.
I use a Garmin (with OSM maps) and minor issues are fairly common. I understand how things work well-enough to work around the issues (not only to work around them but to go and fix the OSM data later).
I suspect many other people are mostly confused and think that the Garmins "just don't work very well".