New Software upgrade available

wrote:


I have 2011.1 and really don't see any difference with 2008. A new
bridge and road built in 2006 still isn't on there - it keeps trying
to get us to turn into a field and drive into the Intracoastal
Waterway! Also most streets in Frisco, TX are missing. This is a
fairly new town, but I don't think it's that new.

I think the major additions are POI's.

One thing I did notice is the routing after 2009 seems a bit flaky.
Trips that were fairly straightforward on good roads now seem to
meander about and take some pretty bad roads. Also, go from A to B one
route, but then when you go back from B to A it comes up with a
totally different route.

I'm thinking of putting my backup copy of 2009 back on.

Rick

Bob Martin wrote on Aug 1, 2010:


Yes he did misuse that expression, but it doesn't negate his argument. As he
said it depends on how much you travel. In Europe road layouts are often
altered to improve traffic flow, junctions are changed, new roundabouts
built, one-way systems are changed and so on. Having a GPS with an up to date
map makes navigation easier - that's all. To me the cost seems minimal
compared to other driving expenses.

--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire
mike_lane at mac dot com

On Sun, 1 Aug 2010 22:52:10 +0100, Mike Lane wrote:


Heh. Considering that the sum total of having an out of date map and a
driver with the brains the good Lord gave a dog is a minute or two of
time lost, hearing the GPS say "Recalculating..." and spit out a new
route, I don't consider it a justifable expense. And while road projects
do happen often, the rate at which a randomly chosen section of road
changes is infinitessimally small.

--
86. I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly
grounded.
        --Peter Anspach's list of things to do as an Evil Overlord

On 8/1/2010 6:09 PM, Peter H. Coffin wrote:


As the comments here show, I suspect that the bottom line on this
"argument" is simply: "Different strokes for different folks" or "YMMV."

It's not difficult for me to accept (although with some incredulity)
that some people buy a GPS unit to use exclusively in their home area or
to obtain a route from City A to City B.

In my case, I need it to find specific street addresses, generally
outside of my home area... addresses that may be quite new and
addresses to which I have never been to nor is it likely that I will
ever return to after this one excursion. I don't worry about panic
attacks when I hear "recalculating" as I have been blessed with an
internal dead reckoning system that works quite well. (My GPS is set
permanently to "Avoid U-Turns" since I know intuitively how to do them
and return to the general area which I'm looking for should I overshoot
a turn or be blitzed by a construction detour).

I simply want the best maps of all streets in the many and varied areas
in which my business takes me. Back in the day, it was easy to find
fairly up to date street maps of individual areas of the Chicago Metro
area. I could and would update those maps as often as they were
released. I would spend ~ $40 annually on them until some enterprising
publisher came out with an atlas for the same area at ~$65 a year. Much
better having it all in a large book form. So I would buy that every
year and it worked well FOR THE CHICAGO AREA.

Now I spend about 50% ONE TIME and have a similarly capable mapping
system that contains most all of the streets for the entire country in a
nice small package that actually does a pretty decent job of guiding me
from my current location to a specific address regardless of whether or
not that address is 16 miles down the road or 1,600.

Either you wish to buy it or you don't, but it makes no sense to make
the broad statement that it's (the lifetime updates) worthless. While I
have to agree with Peter's comments, I think he's looking a bit too
closely at the trees rather than seeing the forest.

        Here in US road projects are usually everywhere, everyday, and almost all
4 seasons (less in some winter months). But 99.99% they don't just take
down the old street, building, bridge, forests etc. to make a new route, but
reparing the old ones.

        And if there is a major project then it usually take several years to
complete. So, it's pretty much up to the owner, or it's nice to have a
newer map every 3 months, but may not be neccessary and you should be fine
with 1-2 years old map (3-4 years old won't kill ya either).