2 ms·

The other day, I was in Whistler and tried to use Google Maps to route back to Vancouver. It wanted me to take logging roads through the back country.. roads th

by ttul 5y ago

The other day, I was in Whistler and tried to use Google Maps to route back to Vancouver. It wanted me to take logging roads through the back country.. roads that are actually deactivated and impossible to traverse unless you have a trail bike perhaps. That’s Canada for you…

Jagerbizzle 5y ago
I've had similar things happen to me before because I somehow managed to toggle the "avoid highways" setting without realizing it.
- mynameisvlad 5y ago
  Bingo. There is literally one way to get from Vancouver to Whistler: the Sea to Sky/99. And it’s a highway. There are no other links, which is why even when you choose “avoid highways”, you still get put on the 99 between Squamish and Whistler, since that’s literally the only road that connects the two. You get put on some alternative backroads between Squamish and Vancouver, which are horrible to use (it was the only option at times while the 99 was being upgraded for the Olympics)
  - vl 5y ago
    > Bingo. There is literally one way to get from Vancouver to Whistler: the Sea to Sky/99. Figuratively. Technically from Whistler you can go north on 99 and then south on 12 and west on 1 and be back at Vancouver.
    - mynameisvlad 5y ago
      I mean, sure, it's over 3 times longer. Even if you were going from Lillooet to Vancouver, no map is going to give you 12->1 as the route, it'll tell you to take 99 down. Plus, that's basically all highways.
klyrs 5y ago
I'd say "that's Google for you" but really it's whatever variant of Dijkstra's algorithm they (and other map services) use. If somebody puts the roads on a map, there will be network conditions that suggest they might be useful... whether or not they actually exist in a usable condition.
- ghaff 5y ago
  I've never had Google try to take me anywhere really ridiculous and I've played with its routing algorithm in places like Death Valley and it does seem to avoid "interesting" shortcuts if there's a more reasonable alternative. But once you get below well-traveled paved roads, you probably want some local knowledge because there's not a lot of mapping data that differentiated between a well-graded, good condition dirt road and a potentially seasonal road that you probably want high clearance 4WD for (and know how to use it).
  - jeffbee 5y ago
    I have a suspicion that gmaps infers roads from photographs, and some of the roads are not roads at all.
    - ghaff 5y ago
      There's something called the TIGER database. [1] Of course, that needs to be populated and updated somehow and Google probably applies various corrections. But there are plenty of tracks, especially in the American West, where their status as a "road" is somewhat a function of weather and opinion. [1] https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-geodatabase-file.html https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series...
      - tablespoon 5y ago
        >> I have a suspicion that gmaps infers roads from photographs, and some of the roads are not roads at all. > There's something called the TIGER database. [1] Of course, that needs to be populated and updated somehow and Google probably applies various corrections. That's for the US though, it wouldn't cover Canada (though Canada probably has an equivalent). IIRC, Google actually has a fairly large team of cartographers keeping Google Maps up to date. In addition to satellite and aerial photographs, and other maps, Google also has the benefit of Street View cars to give it on-the-ground data plus GPS tracks of customers using Google Maps on their phones. On OpenStreetMap, there's a layer that shows all the GPS tracks that its users have uploaded, all superimposed on each other (though last I checked it hadn't been updated in some time). It's pretty easy to make out real roads from that data. This website has some pretty good essays about Google Maps and other mapping services: https://www.justinobeirne.com/ https://www.justinobeirne.com/.
seanmcdirmid 5y ago
We made a go of getting back from Mt. Hood in Oregon to Seattle without taking I5 or I82. The only route viable was on US Forest service roads though the mountains, with around 40 miles unpaved.
deanCommie 5y ago
While Google does do this all-too-often, last summer I drove from Pemberton to the lower mainland over the backroads by Lilllooet Lake and Harrison Lake. I have an AWD Subaru, but other than a couple spots the road would have been fine in any FWD sedan. That's probably not the road you mentioned but nonetheless.

by ttul 5y ago

Jagerbizzle 5y ago

I've had similar things happen to me before because I somehow managed to toggle the "avoid highways" setting without realizing it.

mynameisvlad 5y ago
Bingo. There is literally one way to get from Vancouver to Whistler: the Sea to Sky/99. And it’s a highway. There are no other links, which is why even when you choose “avoid highways”, you still get put on the 99 between Squamish and Whistler, since that’s literally the only road that connects the two. You get put on some alternative backroads between Squamish and Vancouver, which are horrible to use (it was the only option at times while the 99 was being upgraded for the Olympics)
- vl 5y ago
  > Bingo. There is literally one way to get from Vancouver to Whistler: the Sea to Sky/99. Figuratively. Technically from Whistler you can go north on 99 and then south on 12 and west on 1 and be back at Vancouver.
  - mynameisvlad 5y ago
    I mean, sure, it's over 3 times longer. Even if you were going from Lillooet to Vancouver, no map is going to give you 12->1 as the route, it'll tell you to take 99 down. Plus, that's basically all highways.

klyrs 5y ago

I'd say "that's Google for you" but really it's whatever variant of Dijkstra's algorithm they (and other map services) use. If somebody puts the roads on a map, there will be network conditions that suggest they might be useful... whether or not they actually exist in a usable condition.

ghaff 5y ago
I've never had Google try to take me anywhere really ridiculous and I've played with its routing algorithm in places like Death Valley and it does seem to avoid "interesting" shortcuts if there's a more reasonable alternative. But once you get below well-traveled paved roads, you probably want some local knowledge because there's not a lot of mapping data that differentiated between a well-graded, good condition dirt road and a potentially seasonal road that you probably want high clearance 4WD for (and know how to use it).
- jeffbee 5y ago
  I have a suspicion that gmaps infers roads from photographs, and some of the roads are not roads at all.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    There's something called the TIGER database. [1] Of course, that needs to be populated and updated somehow and Google probably applies various corrections. But there are plenty of tracks, especially in the American West, where their status as a "road" is somewhat a function of weather and opinion. [1] https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-geodatabase-file.html https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series...
    - tablespoon 5y ago
      >> I have a suspicion that gmaps infers roads from photographs, and some of the roads are not roads at all. > There's something called the TIGER database. [1] Of course, that needs to be populated and updated somehow and Google probably applies various corrections. That's for the US though, it wouldn't cover Canada (though Canada probably has an equivalent). IIRC, Google actually has a fairly large team of cartographers keeping Google Maps up to date. In addition to satellite and aerial photographs, and other maps, Google also has the benefit of Street View cars to give it on-the-ground data plus GPS tracks of customers using Google Maps on their phones. On OpenStreetMap, there's a layer that shows all the GPS tracks that its users have uploaded, all superimposed on each other (though last I checked it hadn't been updated in some time). It's pretty easy to make out real roads from that data. This website has some pretty good essays about Google Maps and other mapping services: https://www.justinobeirne.com/ https://www.justinobeirne.com/.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

We made a go of getting back from Mt. Hood in Oregon to Seattle without taking I5 or I82. The only route viable was on US Forest service roads though the mountains, with around 40 miles unpaved.

deanCommie 5y ago

While Google does do this all-too-often, last summer I drove from Pemberton to the lower mainland over the backroads by Lilllooet Lake and Harrison Lake. I have an AWD Subaru, but other than a couple spots the road would have been fine in any FWD sedan. That's probably not the road you mentioned but nonetheless.