MetroGuide Canada V4 Accuracy?

[+ShawTeam]

Hello from a new (1 week old) geocacher. I received my MetroGuide Canada V4 CD yesterday, installed it on my computer, and, naturally, immediately looked for my address. The map is off by about 500m! When you hover along my street (a short one of less than 1 km long), the addresses it gives as you hover are *all* wrong. I tried the location of my wife's office, and it was wrong as well. What gives? Is an update or correction available?

 

Mike

[Stroover]

Try turning your gps off and switching it on again, and trying it again. Sometimes when you put in new software on your gps, it needs to re-set itself. That's happened to mine already, and this corrected it right away.

[+ShawTeam]

Hi Stroover:

 

I haven't even gotten to the point of downloading the maps to the GPS yet. The innacuracy shows up when I look at the map on my home PC.

 

Mike

[danoshimano]

My address in MetroGuide v4 is bang-on. So are other addresses I have tried... spot on. But the map is not perfect and never will be. You've just hit a few rough spots.

 

There are two major mapping suppliers whose names I can't remember (but if you search the forums I am sure you will come up with them). I believe Garmin uses one for their products and Magellan uses the other. In each system you can find inaccuracies.

 

I also tried it in City Select North America NT v7 and Metro Guide North America v6 and both are accurate for my address and a few others I checked out.

[Stroover]

Hi Stroover:

 

I haven't even gotten to the point of downloading the maps to the GPS yet. The innacuracy shows up when I look at the map on my home PC.

 

Mike

 

Ohhh... That IS odd! If I were you, I would try uninstalling it from your pc, then re-installing it to see if it's better. If not, then 1) if you bought the software and still have the receipt, I'd try to exchange it for another one, or 2) if you "acquired" the software, I'd try to "acquire" it from a different cd and try re-instllalling it. Otherwise, I'm at a loss and will let more knowlegeable folks in these forums take a crack at it.

[danoshimano]

Hi Stroover:

 

I haven't even gotten to the point of downloading the maps to the GPS yet. The innacuracy shows up when I look at the map on my home PC.

 

Mike

 

Ohhh... That IS odd! If I were you, I would try uninstalling it from your pc, then re-installing it to see if it's better. If not, then 1) if you bought the software and still have the receipt, I'd try to exchange it for another one, or 2) if you "acquired" the software, I'd try to "acquire" it from a different cd and try re-instllalling it. Otherwise, I'm at a loss and will let more knowlegeable folks in these forums take a crack at it.

 

There's nothing wrong with the software that reinstalling or exchanging is going to solve. Sometimes roads are in the wrong place. Sometimes the address numbers are out of synch. It's inevitable with maps.

[+JDandDD]

 

There are two major mapping suppliers whose names I can't remember (but if you search the forums I am sure you will come up with them). I believe Garmin uses one for their products and Magellan uses the other. In each system you can find inaccuracies.

 

The major suppliers for both Garmin and Magellan for Canadian data are Navteq for street mapping and DMTI Spatial for topo. Magellan used to use Tiger (I think that's the name) for streets but switched to Navteq for better accuracy.

 

Dano is right. Maps are not accurate everywhere. There are geometry errors in both DMTI and Navteq maps. This isn't really anyone's fault. Sometimes numbers are changed by the municipalities, sometimes the original souorce material (government maps, surveys, etc.) are inaccurate. In my neighbourhood, for instance, the original survey was wrong by about 2 meters in altitude and in places as much as 50ft horizontal. We had floods in our basement when I was a kid because the drain pipes were laid according to the survey but that meant they were too high for the surrounding landscape and couldn't drain properly.

 

It happens.

 

JD

[+chris-mouse]

My Magellan maps show similar sorts of errors. Hwy 60 through Algonquin Park is shown as much as a kilometer south of where it really is.

[+lordfishman]

My Magellan maps show similar sorts of errors. Hwy 60 through Algonquin Park is shown as much as a kilometer south of where it really is.

 

Thats nothing! When I went on a business trip to Bathurst NB earlier this year the hotel according to the GPS was about 6 km away than it really was. I find for highways it is not all that bad except for the 407 between Burlington and trafalgar road (if you have ver 4 try driving along that part of the 407 following a route and watch the fun ensue!)

 

Here is a picture of mapsource of the area of the hotel I stayed at, note the distance marker

 

 

Needless to say it was quite confusing when the GPS told me I have arrived at the hotel only to find a tim hortons

Edited May 11, 2007 by lordfishman

[+ShawTeam]

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I will live with it, but it is certainly disappointing that the first two entries I try are so wrong!

 

Mike

[danoshimano]

...it is certainly disappointing that the first two entries I try are so wrong!

 

It won't affect your cache hunting!

[+Couparangus]

There's a half-mile section of road conspicuous by its absence in my neighborhood. This isn't a new road either I think it was laid down ca. 1910!

 

I can understand some of the residential streets being a little behind.

 

I just picked up Metroguide North America V8 on Friday but haven't had a chance to load it up so can't comment on accuracy. Interestingly enough, North America doesn't include Mexico in Garmin's world.

[+akela_jamie]

I have been using Metroguide Canada V4 for about a year now, and other mapping software as well. I have noticed that the maps become increasingly more inacturate the closer you come to the edge of a defined map area. On a recent trip to Niagra Falls the map was out by a large distance, (but was right on the edge of the selected map. Areas closer to the center tend to be more accurate.

 

The maps will only be as good as the data that the map maker had at the time the maps were made. The map data in metroguide V4 was based on the maps available in 2004, however if those particular maps were not updated since 2000 the data in the New Software could be out by quite a bit. In the case of the city I live in, a major road built in 2002 doesnt appear on the map at all in a product released in 2004 telling me the map used in metroguide was at least 2 years older than the product itself.

 

I have also used magelin products and have found similar issues. My laptop (Work provided) came loaded with Microsoft streets and trips 2006 with GPS guidance, (Travel for a living) dont waste your money unless you like frustration and getting lost.

 

Hope this helps you out.

[+simplyred]

As with all maps, there will be mistakes. New roads and highways are are always being built, hotels and businesses are forever changing locations, so mistakes are to be expected. For the most part, I think they work very well. I can travel anywhere without the worry of getting lost. You do have to use a bit of common sense.

[+Fish Below The Ice]

dont waste your money unless you like frustration and getting lost.

Sounds like a typical day out geocaching for me.

 

dave.. remarkably good at being on the wrong side of the river