GPS directions and common sense

[+NeverSummer]

No sure how many people heard this story on NPR.

 

We all know that GPSrs can do a great job of getting us from point A to point B. But, as is demonstrated over and over, GPS devices are not the only thing we should rely on.

 

Common sense, as well as a good map and understanding of the area are always going to be important.

 

Be safe out there, and be sure to spread the word to friends and family to be safe when travelling to remote areas! (and bring a map and common sense!)

[+thecaswellfamily]

I just read that article online... hard to believe that someone would take a "shortcut" on something that was not an established road... and yet it seems to happen quite often. *sigh*

[+mpilchfamily]

Couple of years ago i heard a story about a person who purchased/rented an RV and went on a vacation. When they saw it had cruise control they set it them went into the back of the vehicle to make some lunch thinking the vehicle would drive itself. After the obvious crash they went on to sue the manufacture for the accident.

 

The older i get the more uncommon, commence since is in this world. For something that is suppose to be common its not as common as we would think. It looks more and more like common since is something that has to be taught and ingrained into our children and isn't picked up naturally anymore. I think something is lacking in society today thats leaving many without the skills necessary to making good choices on there own. We are a growing society of drowns.

 

So i say forget common since, cause you either have it or you don't. Those that don't have it also don't have enough since to know they are missing something and need to be told directly what good since is. Just be mindful or your surrounding and the people around you. Don't out right trust tech. The tech is only as good as the operator. So if your clueless then the tech isn't going to be of much help. When in doubt ask for help.

Edited July 26, 2011 by mpilchfamily

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

There have been other fatal and non-fatal (similar) consequences within recent years also... some funny, others not.

 

Sorry, reading a map (paper type) is becoming a lost art. I find few can tell you (with any degree of accuracy) N, E, S, or W in an area that they have lived in their entire life!

 

.... and woe be unto many if their GPS doesn't speak up and verbally tell them when/where to turn (a few have lost their vehicles due to thin lake ice, because the unit said "turn here").

 

Leaving now..... [walks away, slowly shaking head]

Edited July 26, 2011 by Gitchee-Gummee

[+NeverSummer]

Sorry, reading a map (paper type) is becoming a lost art. I find few can tell you (with any degree of accuracy) N, E, S, or W in an area that they have lived in their entire life!

Very, very true. I went geocaching out in the Tillamook State Forest in Oregon and had an OHV map, Forest map, my Streetpilot, and my handheld GPSr. If it weren't for the maps, my GPSrs would have had me stuck out there in the woods with no idea where I was. Many times they told me to "turn __", and I would look at the "road" and say "#&@* no!". The map was clear that there would be gates, minimum maintenance roads and more. My GPSr had NO idea about the hazards or closures or the such.

 

Common sense is a big factor in the linked story, I think. Driving in to a place using only a GPS leaves you disoriented when you try to leave. In a place like Death Valley, especially, one can get turned around rather quickly. It's VERY important to pay attention when you are driving around with a GPS, so that you can recognize landmarks or assess a road for hazards.

[+Panther&Pine]

I've only once allowed that sort of thing to happen with me in the car.

I ended up cutting across the Duckwater Indian Res. on my way from Portland OR to Abq. NM, Not the most ideal route.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I've had this happen several times, most often when a cache is closest to, say, the west side of a state park but the entrance is on the east side. I've followed dwindling roads that turned into rough forest trails or through somebody's pasture because that was the shortest way the GPS saw to get to the cache!

 

This happened fairly often when I was using a GPS that did not have maps.

 

The final straw that made me upgrade from a basic eTrex Yellow to a 60CSx was when I went to a weekend caching campout event in GA and the roads kept dwindling until I was within 600' of the event site and the road ran completely out. Since it was a campout I expected primitive conditions, so I parked and walked the rest of the way, only to find the event was in a state park with paved roads. It just happened that the roads my GPS brought me down were closer to the event site than the park entrance some five miles away on the other side of the park!

Edited July 26, 2011 by TheAlabamaRambler

[knowschad]

I think this quote from that article says everything that I was going to say:

 

 

In 1849, Death Valley got its name when a wagon train from the east tried to find a shorter route to California, and got lost.

 

"Somebody had a map, and somebody said, this is a faster way to get to the gold fields," Callagan says. "Deep down back in the brain, the common sense says, you know, this is not the wisest thing."

 

 

It is vogue to blame these things on the current technology, but it has been going on forever. Heck, Columbus got lost on his way to India and ended up in North America!

 

I will say, though, that I have had my Nuvi try to send me on some pretty ridiculous "roads" a few times.

Edited July 26, 2011 by knowschad

[+hzoi]

I caught most of this story. It reminded me of a news item I heard when I was in Arizona, about a family that tried taking a road through a remove area of Utah and got stuck. Wife and child stayed with the car and survived, husband went for help and did not, if I remember the facts right.

 

The manufacturers should do a better job deleting the old roads. I'm glad this ranger is making an effort to get them out of the database -- we need this on a much larger scale than just Death Valley.

[+A & J Tooling]

It is a sad craftsman that blames his tools for his shoddy workmanship, or something like that. The GPS is a tool. It still takes a brain to utilize it. I've seen people drive into rivers, into ditches, into ravines, gully's and a lot of other places, just by depending on their GPS device because it told them to go there. I know of some people who were driving at night and drove straight from point A to point B cross country with no headlights. It took a Chinook helicopter to go pick up their vehicle, it was so wedged up in a draw on the side of a mountain.

 

When I let my son use his gps to take us to a cache, we seem to take the worst route in. Usually because his face is so engrossed in that little screen, he dosen't see the change in the vegatation to see that there is a trail to it twenty feet away. I let him lead in. I show him the easier way out.

[Pup Patrol]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/05/07/bc-woman-rescued-nevada-penticton.html

[+NeverSummer]

I think this quote from that article says everything that I was going to say:

 

 

In 1849, Death Valley got its name when a wagon train from the east tried to find a shorter route to California, and got lost.

 

"Somebody had a map, and somebody said, this is a faster way to get to the gold fields," Callagan says. "Deep down back in the brain, the common sense says, you know, this is not the wisest thing."

 

 

It is vogue to blame these things on the current technology, but it has been going on forever. Heck, Columbus got lost on his way to India and ended up in North America!

 

I will say, though, that I have had my Nuvi try to send me on some pretty ridiculous "roads" a few times.

But to compare a completely uneducated group of settlers to a modern person exploring an area that has been mapped (and more, since it's a Park and all) is a little misguided.

 

The settlers made a "best guess" and thought that a valley through the mountains would be a good idea. They didn't have a good map, and certainly didn't expect the weather and lack of food/water to get them through.

 

Again, this comes down to common sense. Trusting your GPS only has proven to be a bad idea many times over. It comes down to being prepared and making good decisions...and not relying on technology to do everything for you. A vague settler's map in 1849 is very similar to someone relying on a GPS with a "bad" basemap version:

 

"...It was then that they heard about the Old Spanish Trail, a route that went around the south end of the Sierras and was safe to travel in the winter. The only problems were that no pioneer wagon trains had ever tried to follow it and they could only find one person in town who knew the route and would agree to lead them...It was a tedious chore getting the wagons across the canyon and took several days. In the mean time, the young man who had the map of the short cut got impatient and, under the cloak of darkness, left the group. Despite the fact that the group didn't have a map, they decided to continue on thinking that all they had to do was go west and they would eventually find the pass." http://digital-desert.com/death-valley-history/lost-49ers.html

[knowschad]

I think this quote from that article says everything that I was going to say:

 

 

In 1849, Death Valley got its name when a wagon train from the east tried to find a shorter route to California, and got lost.

 

"Somebody had a map, and somebody said, this is a faster way to get to the gold fields," Callagan says. "Deep down back in the brain, the common sense says, you know, this is not the wisest thing."

 

 

It is vogue to blame these things on the current technology, but it has been going on forever. Heck, Columbus got lost on his way to India and ended up in North America!

 

I will say, though, that I have had my Nuvi try to send me on some pretty ridiculous "roads" a few times.

But to compare a completely uneducated group of settlers to a modern person exploring an area that has been mapped (and more, since it's a Park and all) is a little misguided.

 

The settlers made a "best guess" and thought that a valley through the mountains would be a good idea. They didn't have a good map, and certainly didn't expect the weather and lack of food/water to get them through.

 

Again, this comes down to common sense. Trusting your GPS only has proven to be a bad idea many times over. It comes down to being prepared and making good decisions...and not relying on technology to do everything for you. A vague settler's map in 1849 is very similar to someone relying on a GPS with a "bad" basemap version:

 

"...It was then that they heard about the Old Spanish Trail, a route that went around the south end of the Sierras and was safe to travel in the winter. The only problems were that no pioneer wagon trains had ever tried to follow it and they could only find one person in town who knew the route and would agree to lead them...It was a tedious chore getting the wagons across the canyon and took several days. In the mean time, the young man who had the map of the short cut got impatient and, under the cloak of darkness, left the group. Despite the fact that the group didn't have a map, they decided to continue on thinking that all they had to do was go west and they would eventually find the pass." http://digital-deser...lost-49ers.html

 

Fair enough, but my point was simply that maps have steered people wrong, too. But trusting a map and getting it wrong just isn't glitzy enough to make a news story. People trusting their modern technology is.

[+NeverSummer]

Fair enough, but my point was simply that maps have steered people wrong, too. But trusting a map and getting it wrong just isn't glitzy enough to make a news story. People trusting their modern technology is.

Oh, but it is...

 

That story dominated news for a long time. And it was all about a map, snow, and an open gate.

[+aurght]

No sure how many people heard this story on NPR.

 

We all know that GPSrs can do a great job of getting us from point A to point B. But, as is demonstrated over and over, GPS devices are not the only thing we should rely on.

 

Common sense, as well as a good map and understanding of the area are always going to be important.

 

Be safe out there, and be sure to spread the word to friends and family to be safe when travelling to remote areas! (and bring a map and common sense!)

I have always been a little like the BC people, wanting to explore. But have had enough common sense cowardice to turn around.

 

Never trusted maps. Especially don't trust the GPS. They are made by people, and people screw up. "Keep your head outside the cockpit."

[+A & J Tooling]

[AZcachemeister]

YEP.

It often pays to be a little tiny bit smarter than your equipment.

[+DanOCan]

I just read that article online... hard to believe that someone would take a "shortcut" on something that was not an established road... and yet it seems to happen quite often. *sigh*

Uh, yeah, I know what you mean...

[mtbikernate]

I went on a hike earlier this year and was forced to use my common sense. I had lent the Nuvi to the wife for a road trip, so I had paper maps as my only street map source for the weekend.

 

My planned approach to the trailhead turned out to be blocked by a gate that wasn't shown on my topo map. Seems the area changed ownership at some point and the new owner somehow got the county to allow him to build a gate across the road. I had to backtrack and circle around navigating with my map in order to reach the trailhead.

[+fizzymagic]

Be safe out there, and be sure to spread the word to friends and family to be safe when travelling to remote areas! (and bring a map and common sense!)

 

Thanks for the lecture! You certainly saved my life. I would never have thought of using common sense if you had not reminded me!

[Suscrofa]

GPS directions are given by a woman arn't they ? So !

[+NeverSummer]

Be safe out there, and be sure to spread the word to friends and family to be safe when travelling to remote areas! (and bring a map and common sense!)

 

Thanks for the lecture! You certainly saved my life. I would never have thought of using common sense if you had not reminded me!

Lecture?

Perhaps you missed the point. Many non-geocaching and non-tech-savvy folks put a lot of trust in a GPS and [clearly] don't pay attention. It's not about you, apparently, but the many others out there that might not realize that their GPS doesn't have their best interests in mind...