Originally Posted by
Steve B.
I recall an article many years ago in The NY Times about a guy who worked for NavTech, or whomever the company is that Garmin hires to make the maps and routing. This guy would drive around metro areas like Boston and NY and develop what “he” thought was the best routes in these areas. He also was tasked to check on construction, etc., Botton line is you are at the mercy of somebody who thinks you should go a certain way, or at the mercy of what is now AI to generate routes. Often times they are wrong, though when Google Maps tells me to go a way I think is j correct, especially on long highway trips, I look carefully at where I think I want to go and often find big construction zones, accidents, etc….. Google is often correct. Garmin I have zero faith in, cycling or in a car,
I cant imagine how old that article must have, so long ago even the premise is ridiculous today. Modern routing algorithms are incredibly complex and reliable. They collect all ride data uploaded on their platform and utilize that information for predictive routing and that alone is transformative. They also aggregate other mapping data uploaded from various sources including bicycle route maps, OSM data and various Government sources.
I just spent 10 weeks on an unstructured bicycle tour around Europe. All my routes were built with RideWithGPS and on the Garmin Edge when needed on the fly. It had worked out extremely well much better than any alternative. There is been numerous occasions when needing to adjust my route to the various obstructions and roadwork the heat map feature clearly showed the alternative routes individuals were using. I have traveled many parts of the world and have only used a smart phone or tablet and a Garmin.
When highlighting the occasions that the digital routing platform was flawed is laughable when compared to the number of situation's which would occur if relying on paper maps which would be orders of magnitude worse.