Passing the hat...

[Grizwaldo]

Did you ever wonder what some money would do to help a situation? I don't have GPS,just maps so periodically I think about passing the hat or maybe a 5-gallon bucket here and sending it back to some road and bridge dept to buy some signs to post around and let people know where they are and how to get to where they are going. Old fashioned I know. Anyone else have a pet peeve that may be improved with passing the bucket?

[tdump]

Oh the County Mile paddle.I used to love those things. Then when I got my job with DOT in the sign department,I got the depressing orders to remove them as found as the state was no longer maintaining them. I have a couple of them saved .They said people had maps now and don't need them. Gps is not as good as some people think. It has sent me in circles more than 1 time.

Many a time a county mile paddle saved the day for me when I first got my license in 85.

[fschrope]

Speaking of GPS's, years ago when they started becoming common, I read where some crooks would steal a car with a GPS in it an punch the home button. Often there was a garage door opener. Likely no one was home as the person was where it was stolen from. The thief could just drive home, open the door and do his thing.

To prevent this from happening to us, we set the home to the house across the road and down a couple hundred yards. The guy that lives there is about 6'2" and about 220 pounds and tough as nails. You wouldn't want to get caught breaking into his house.......doubtful you would survive.

What now makes this even more interesting is that now if you type in my address to Google Maps, it will take you to the house across the road. Figure that one out.

[Wayne Sheldon]

No joke! Google maps a few years ago had a major thoroughfare between two small towns (about 40 miles South of Grass Valium) where if you followed the directions given, would make you turn down a side street, then left into a strip-mall parking lot before heading back out onto the road you had just left! I sometimes wonder if the guy driving the google van stopped for a soda?

For us personally, I don't know which of the various GPS map services it is, however on one of them our driveway is shown on the map and given as instructions to connect to the road below our house (we live on a hillside). One would need to drive about a hundred feet down a very steep hillside to make the connection. It isn't happening as often as it used to, but we still get delivery trucks and private cars coming down our driveway almost every month. A few years ago, one jerk got irate with ME because my driveway didn't connect the way his map service said it did. Usually they just get close to the garage, see it doesn't go anywhere else, then turn around and drive back out.
And by the way, farther back on the road is a "not a through street" sign. As well as a "private driveway, do not enter" sign at the top of my driveway.

[Dallas Landers]

GPS!!! My wife was a 911 dispatcher for 20 years. They changed US 20 in our county by about a mile. Straightened a bunch of curves. A few years ago my wife gets a call from a lady crying. She was on US 20 "well marked" and GPS said turn around and take old 20. After doing it GPS told her to turn around and go back. After 4 times the lady called 911. She was lost in a mile stretch of US 20 . Some people are easily fooled.
The wife retired from the county and now works for the State Police. No more 911 calls.

[Norman Kling]

We live on a gravel about 1/4 mile from the paved road. This road is named and the sign at the corner of the main road has the name of our gravel road. This road ends at another road which goes due south. That road is also named a different name from our road. To get to our house you continue down the gravel road straight ahead but technically it is a driveway easement, not actually the continuation of that gravel road. Our driveway goes past one house, and then turns due south to our house which is a dead end. At least once a week we get someone who thinks our driveway and our house are on that other road which goes south. Even the google maps show the road ending there so the drivers go right by the end of the actual road and down our driveway.
Norm

[DLodge]

...To prevent this from happening to us, we set the home to the house across the road and down a couple hundred yards....

Fred, I did the same thing when I first got a GPS. Set "Home" to a place a little over a block away. All I needed was to get into the neighborhood. Three years ago, I downsized into an apartment so now I just use the actual address. "Home" would take someone to the building, but so what? He still doesn't know which apartment is mine.

[Oldav8tor]

I use GPS all the time but like to check a map for better positional awareness. The attached photo shows a truck stuck on an ORV trail near St. Helen's, Michigan - the driver told the DNR that his GPS told him that was the shortest route.

[Burger in Spokane]

According to my former truck-driver employee, SWIFT stands for

Sure Wish I Finished Training

Can you imagine the phone call that happened when that truck came to a stop there ?

[tdump]

Shortest route on a horse maby! Sheesh,could that dude not tell the road was not fit for a big rig before he got that far into it.Looks like he made it a mile off the road!

[Oldav8tor]

I've driven that trail in my 1952 Army Jeep a couple of times. I wouldn't try it in anything but a 4x4. The trucker made it in a couple of miles before getting bogged down so getting him out was a challenge, especially since he was pointing away from the route back to the highway.

[Dallas Landers]

In Indiana that is a good road ! And he did have 4 wheel drive!