+AV Dezign Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 (edited) Drivers warned: Don't trust your Sat Navs Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:56AM EDT By Andrew Hough LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's first official road signs to warn drivers about the dangers of trusting their satellite navigation devices (satnavs) were introduced on Tuesday in a Welsh village. The signs, introduced by authorities in rural St Hilary, in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, to warn drivers about placing too much faith in the directional gadgets, could be brought in across the country if the trial is successful. Problems were reported after foreign drivers found it difficult to understand phrases such as "unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles" but could understand pictorial notices, media reported. The four signs have been introduced around one particular black spot in the village, where the electronic devices direct truck drivers to a shortcut between the main M4 motorway and Cardiff airport. The road is far too narrow for many to travel down, causing them to get stuck and sparking major traffic problems. More than a dozen large lorries had become stuck in the road in the past six months, according to traffic engineer Mark Simpson who came up with the idea for the signs. "We have had a series of problems with drivers getting into trouble by trusting their satnavs and we needed to do something about it," Simpson was quoted in newspapers as saying. "They can send drivers on the most direct routes which turn out to be narrow roads completely unsuitable for heavy and long trucks and lorries. Satnav can be a wonderful tool for drivers but it does have its dangers." If successful, officials plan a national roll-out of the signs to combat what is seen as a growing problem for frustrated motorists, with recent figures showing that more than four million of Britain's 32 million drivers rely on satnavs. Some have reported that software glitches have sent drivers down one-way streets or up impassable mountain tracks. One ambulance driver with a faulty satnav drove hundreds of miles in the wrong direction while transferring a patient from one hospital in Ilford east of London to another just 8 miles away. A spokesman for the Welsh Assembly regional government said that officials would be "watching closely" the trial's results before deciding whether to expand the program. He also said that officials from Britain's Department of Transport had been consulted and were also monitoring the experiment. © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Edited August 29, 2007 by AV Dezign Quote Link to comment
+scottpa100 Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 Yep, saw this story on the BBC's news website last week. Linky here. and with the pictures. Linky here. But we've been there where a GPS does take you down a wacky road - but , in theory, at least we can read the worded signs. And we just ignore them! "Must get the cache. Must get 500 metres closer" Quote Link to comment
+The Cache Hoppers Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 Hmmmm, got held up for nearly 20 mins once on the school run cos some truck driver had thought he would be able to get across a 6'6" wide swingbridge over the canal. Probably how it happened! Quote Link to comment
+Tiger-Eyes Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 On the way to a cache recently my sat nav took me down a road and just 500 yrds from where a wanted to be on the OTHER side of a river, used to be a ford many years ago but definately not now. A lot of reversing was needed. Quote Link to comment
+macroderma Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 Nothing to do with satnav, some drivers are just stupid! Lorries have hit the Ironbridge on the A30 in Cornwall for years despite warnings many miles ahead. Now they have built a bypass - want to bet they still hit it? Quote Link to comment
+minstrelcat Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 A similar thing happened in a village near me when a foreign driver couldn't use his normal route due to the Tour de France road closures and went where his sat nav told him to. Blocked the road for a whole day. Quote Link to comment
+sTeamTraen Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 One ambulance driver with a faulty satnav drove hundreds of miles in the wrong direction while transferring a patient from one hospital in Ilford east of London to another just 8 miles I think the word "faulty" needs to be moved four words to the left here. The crew wanted to go from Ilford to nearby Brentwood, their satnav knew about Brentwood (suburb of Manchester) as well as Brentwood (town in Essex), and they not only chose the wrong one, they also drove 3/4 of the way up the M6 before spotting the error. The satnav wasn't remotely "faulty". Quote Link to comment
+Birders Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 I feel for that ambulance man.... an aeroplane going to Heathrow once was told "You are 8 miles from touchdown", to which he responded "No, we're 173 miles from touchdown"... He was supposed to be going to Manchester!!! Quote Link to comment
+Phil and Ruth Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 Another reason not to trust your SatNav... http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/upload/82089-ne...st-sat-nav.html Quote Link to comment
+Team Sieni Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 Another reason not to trust your SatNav... http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/upload/82089-ne...st-sat-nav.html A funny story, but again if you go past a sign saying "Not Suitable for Motor Vehicles" you can have little cause for complaint. There's a helpdesk term PEBKAC "Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair" In these cases, it's a case of the less easily pronounced PEBSASW - Problem exists between seat and steering wheel" Quote Link to comment
+The Flying Boots Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 (edited) And here's another in Polperro Cornwall http://www.polperro.org/jammed.html This road also has signs at the top saying "Unsuitable for wide vehicles" Edited August 31, 2007 by The Flying Boots Quote Link to comment
+Archer4 Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 Just back from Cornwall where they're obviously getting on top of the situation! Quote Link to comment
+Delta68 Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 We use TomTom (on the Mio P550) to get close to caches. The thing that irritates me is the choice between 'Fastest Route' and 'Shortest Route' The other day we selected fastest route and it was a good ten miles longer than the shortest route which had an estimated journey time of an extra minute! How about a 'Common Sense Route' option? Quote Link to comment
+Pharisee Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 The other day we selected fastest route and it was a good ten miles longer than the shortest route which had an estimated journey time of an extra minute! How about a 'Common Sense Route' option? Kinda begs the question... "Why did you select it, then?" How about a 'Common Sence User' option? Quote Link to comment
+Delta68 Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Kinda begs the question... "Why did you select it, then?" How about a 'Common Sence User' option? Needless to say, we took a shorter route as Beeline said the cache was only about 8 miles away. Quote Link to comment
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