Only tangentially related, I know, but I see google maps quite differently. First and foremost I want to admit that I have no good comeback to the public trans

Only tangentially related, I know, but I see google maps quite differently. First and foremost I want to admit that I have no good comeback to the public transport schedules, that is a good feature. But regarding mapping and navigation, google maps does not treat you like a human being. It's essentially a catalogue of advertisements, much like google search. It's optimized to guide you to the "nearest pizza place" or what have you, and at least in my area, if you're not looking for a vaguely defined place to spend money and already know your destination you're screwed, quite ironically. Everyone I've talked to around here struggles with it and has developed the strangest procedures to trick gmaps into showing the route they want to see. I personally use OpenStreetMap and it works very reliably, admittedly after I reconstructed some roads and added some labels to places I visit. Luckily there are many active editors around here, so even when I'm going to visit a new area 99% of the time I get where I want without issue.