GPS and bad neighborhood
 

This is one I have not seen before. Last Friday, we drove from a Boston suburb to an city restaurant with friends in their new car. The car had a Garten GPS. It took us by the most direct route, but that route inbound was through a very sketchy neighborhood and on the return trip took us right by Symphony Hall near the time the concert got out and the street was packed.

Now, with local knowledge, we could have ignored the route and gone a way that (1) we knew to be safe and (2) was likely to have less traffic.

But how would you know, in a strange city, whether to follow the GPS or choose a route another way?

You won't know. If you download directions from mapquest, it won't tell you which route to avoid or when a concert will be getting out.

If you are totally unfamiliar with an area, you normally rely on a map, mapquest, or a GPS. All 3 will show you a direct route. With the GPS, you can select a re-route option if you run into some traffic/accident.

BTW, I would think your friends would know a sketchy neighborhood and what to avoid.

When I use my GPS locally, going to a familiar destination, it will route me thru a roadway that has lots of lights/traffic. I avoid that area then the GPS recalculates.

BTW, I have a Garmin, and just love it. ((b))

Garmins can download self created POIs from the internet. Thus if anyone ever creates POIs to avoid you could add this to your GPS.

Another cool thing about Garmins is that some models check traffic tie-ups and route you around them. This feature is an extra charge tho.

I know. My mother-in-laws took the direct way through Cleveland and she was pretty nervous. I don't think they can make an "avoid bad neighborhoods" option like the "avoid freeways" option because you get into subjective territory of what is bad vs. good.

I guess in a big city I would check a real map to see if there are freeways I could take which are always safer than side roads.

A car navigation system usually has several routing options such as "all Freeways", "No Highways", "Shortest Route", "Quickest Route", etc. but unfortunately technology doesn't allow it to predict traffic patterns or to determine if a particular neighborhood is safe.

A car navigation system is still just road map (with a few bells and whistles) and there's no way, when you are in a strange city, for you to tell what neighborhood is "safe" or which route will have heavy traffic without a knowledgable person to give you advice. You face the same difficulties whether you are using the navigation system or the road map - unless you have knowledge of the area the route you take is the "luck of the draw".

I have seen this exact scenario happen with Chicago directions. I have alternated Mapquest directions for people here at least 10 times in the last year. And for very good reason.

I think a lot of people answering don't have a GPS.

Advanced GPSs are much more than a map. You can load info on speed traps, restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and any other POI created. There are web sites devoted to custom created POIs. I haven't found one devoted to places to avoid but it wouldn't surprise that they are available.

RBCal--Yes, those extra features can be really nice to have at times!

It would be nice to know ahead of time about some routes.

One thing we have plugged into ours is to avoid one particular road. It is a constant bottleneck. So when you near it, the navigation system has you take other roads to avoid it.

Also, Garmin GPSs are available with Fodors travel guides (for a cost of course). The portable GPSs can be carried around and are smaller than a book.

I don't work for Garmin or Fodors but I have one and they are cool travel tools.

I have asked Santa for the Nuvi 660 and I've been a very good girl this year. :)

WOW! You asking Santa for the "top of the line." You better have been a very, very, very, very good girl this year. :-) ((b))

I can vouch for OO! She's awesome good!

Joan, I don't doubt it in the least. :-)

RBCal, I've never used POI for the U.S. version of my Garmin. I have the European maps and can search, highlight, and select various points of interest, towns, hotels, etc. without using the search feature of the GPS itself, then download it to a card/memory before I leave for Europe. I have the C330 Streetpilot. How does the free downloaded version of POI work? ((b))

See

http://www.garmin.com/products/poiloader/POISource/

about half are free to download.

They said on TV, that family with 2 small children in Oregon got lost after following the Internet directions.

One way to avoid this happening is to look at the restaurant (or store, or concert venue) website a see what they give as directions. If it seems to be very different from the Mapquest or GPS route, that may be an indication that you'll be riding through a seedy or traffic-heavy area. Businesses will generally try to send you on the easiest, most pleasant route so you'll think, "Wow, that was easy to get to." That may not be the shortest route, though.

'Course, if you get stuck with only a GPS, you may wind up in a rough neighborhood -- but at least you won't get lost in there! :)