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I wonder how this happens, though. Normally, finding a route for cars will try to follow increasingly larger roads. This has practical reasons to avoid scenario
by ygra 11y ago
I wonder how this happens, though. Normally, finding a route for cars will try to follow increasingly larger roads. This has practical reasons to avoid scenarios outlined in the article and also performance reasons to avoid searching the complete graph of roads.
Getting a route that follows many small roads usually only happens if you tell the GPS to find the shortest route (and really the shortest one), or by using its bicycle or pedestrian routing.
It also requires the user to ignore any signs along the way, putting way more trust in a bunch of males that's hard to keep updated properly than is healthy. (For topographical maps in Germany (I guess road maps have similar problems) it is sometimes normal for certain regions not to receive an update in a decade or two, thus sometimes showing very outdated features. OSM these days is luckily either very up to date or simply very sparse, depending on the region and how many people with local knowledge are contributing.)
- pkaye 11y agoYou would be surprised the routes the GPS suggests when you are traveling in less populated areas. I've seen a lot of this near national parks. Often times the route seems reasonable enough but slowly it narrows and becomes worse. It takes some time for you to eventually question your decisions.
- maxerickson 11y agoIt's because of TIGER! It groups a huge variety of roads together as something like 'minor road, open to the public'. A dirt trail all the way up to a nice highway that they haven't noticed was rebuilt. Most digital US maps started with it and low traffic areaas are not a priority to update to something more sensible.
- ghaff 11y agoThere's also enormous variety which may change with the season, weather, washouts, and how recently the road has been repaired across large stretches of the US West, among other areas. Even with a map, the difference between well-graded dirt road and competent high clearance 4WD vehicle and driver needed is often far from obvious. Furthermore, some visitors not familiar with such areas tend to assume that, if a road is on the map, that means it's fine to take in their passenger car.
- ygra 11y agoThank you; I honestly did not know that. I've worked in routing previously, but in Europe it seems most road data is much better categorised. It also helps to have less area and fewer roads, of course.