GPS has turned motorists brain dead.

For over a week I 40 in NC has been blocked by a rock slide, clearing time has gone from 3 weeks to 4 or more months.
For a 100 miles that I know of there are numerous signs saying Rt. 40 closed at exit 20 and give directions for detour with a lot of signs when you get to the turn for the detour, yet people are still going on and when the are stopped at the barriers the say, "My GPS didn't tell me there was a rock slide." Did they miss all the signs saying so, or did they think the DOT was wrong about needing to detour you don't want to try to find your way around, these are narrow mountain roads and a small town that cannot take the traffic.
Worst still some drivers are going around the barriers only to find they cannot get through. The are now going to issue a Federal summons for this infraction, I don't know what that is but it will cost them $150.00 because of their stupid stunt.
Of course a lot of people don't carry maps anymore or don't know how to read them so they could not look to find out where exit 20 was or look to see where the detour would take them.

I reckon that only happens in America

If ever the satellites go down due to a solar storm, the western world will just be full of idiot motorists just randomly driving around until they get to their destination by pure chance ;D

louishen said:

If ever the satellites go down due to a solar storm, the western world will just be full of idiot motorists just randomly driving around until they get to their destination by pure chance ;D

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That happens every year from March to November when the rest of the country comes here on holiday. No need for a solar flare.

I call them The Islington Cornish. ;D

Not so much brain dead either. Dangerous
I do long distance truck driving and the boss had a GPS in all his trucks. I never used it, until i got to Melbourne. Luckily i knew where i was going but i put the destination and the stupid thing sent me onto the East Link and they where still 3 months off completion.

I didnt go onto it, but the point is YES the stupid motorist would have still tried to get onto it and me if it sent me somewhere say down a little street where my 26 mtr monster wasnt allowed to go i would get fined or worst of all block roads as i wouldnt be able to turn it around...

Hate hate them i do

Never used one again ...lol

louishen said:

If ever the satellites go down due to a solar storm, the western world will just be full of idiot motorists just randomly driving around until they get to their destination by pure chance ;D

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Wrong louishen! They is already here!

The only time I have used the GPS part of my iPhone is to show people how accurate it shows where I am! I can find my way anywhere without using one. If I am going somewhere I have never been before, I usually check a map really fast but never use a GPS.

I guess a GPS could come in handy from time to time if you really are lost somewhere you have never been. Maybe I am old fashioned, but I like doing things my way and using my senses.

Actually, I do not use the GPS unless I absolutely do not know where to go, and because I drive alone about 99.99% of the time, I am not going to read a map and drive simultaneously, that's almost just as bad as using a cell phone while driving. And usually once I use a GPS, I can remember the names of roads, interstates, exits, etc. So I wouldn't actually call myself a braindead motorist. A GPS in my opinion is a useful tool. I have needed it many many times for long distance traveling and such. And in a way, the GPS isn't really much different from a map, it just has arrows telling you where to go, and where your next turn/exit is.

And I turn off that annoying woman who speaks the directions. I do not need "turn left in point nine miles" "turn left in point six miles" "turn left in point one mile"

OKAY!! We got it.

The only thing I have against the GPS is that the people giving the directions are annoying and not really necessary. I really do not even understand why the voice should be even included. That pretty much cancels out the point of having a screen, especially those un needed wide screen GPS. If your going to have a voice tell you where to go, just record yourself calling out MapQuest directions. Really. Looking at the screen to find out where to go is much better anyway, you get visuals, and you don't have to listen to that annoying computed voice that tells you when to turn every tenth of a mile. And the voices also give the most obvious directions. It will tell you to turn left. As you are turning left. C'mon. The most useless feature of a GPS.

/rant

I agree with the braindead motorist part.

GPS can be a nice thing to have, especially in areas where you have never been, the GPS can at the very least get you close to your destination. But for the most part they aren't that necessary for navigation.

I grew up taking lots of trips with my mom, and learned to check the map before and during the trip.

Anytime I make trips now, I use Mapquest for directions, but also print out maps of the area as well, in case I have to make detours. Yes, Mapquest is still kind of cheating, but printed out directions still require the driver to be active and look for his own turns and streets.

I'm looking at getting a GPS for my motorized bicycle, primarily for an accurate speed reading. The maps and directions part of it will be nice though on long road trips, but again, printed maps and directions work just fine....for those of us with functional brains...

USA...United States of Absent-intelligence..

tattooedmac said:

Not so much brain dead either. Dangerous
I do long distance truck driving and the boss had a GPS in all his trucks. I never used it, until i got to Melbourne. Luckily i knew where i was going but i put the destination and the stupid thing sent me onto the East Link and they where still 3 months off completion.

I didnt go onto it, but the point is YES the stupid motorist would have still tried to get onto it and me if it sent me somewhere say down a little street where my 26 mtr monster wasnt allowed to go i would get fined or worst of all block roads as i wouldnt be able to turn it around...

Hate hate them i do

Never used one again ...lol

Click to expand...

There was a case here a year or so ago where the GPS was taking trucks and autos through a residential area, obviously the trucks could not turn around and had to follow the directions but got the word out to the truckers coming behind them to let them know not to follow GPS directions.

Lycoming said:

That happens every year from March to November when the rest of the country comes here on holiday. No need for a solar flare.

I call them The Islington Cornish. ;D

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Ah ha, a fellow Cornishman I presume

What's GPS?

G3XOI said:

I reckon that only happens in America

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Perhaps, but I've nearly been hit by a motorist passing up hill, on a blind turn, at night, with their lights off.. on the a59.. so stupidity behind the wheel abounds everywhere.

I live in an area of NZ that is popular with motoring tourists. I also live close to an intersection where bewildered travellers stop to read the utterly inadequate signs.

I get collared repeatedly to explain to some tourist driver in a campervan, whose English may not be good, why s/he shouldn't travel that narrow, winding, unsealed road with precipitous drops and occasional rock falls ... "when the GPS clearly shows it as a passable route". One cannot argue with a GPS! Nor a map, many of which I've had waved in my face.

A GPS is essentially a live map. If there people driving into the rock slide were using a map instead, they'd probably being doing the same thing.

I think it's America's poor licensing system that's at fault here. I mean, the written test is ten questions like "Who has the right of way in this situation". My actual driving test had the test giver in the car while I went 1/4 of a mile down the street, turned around, and then parallel parked. Not much of a test if you ask me.

Is it true that you don't have to do 3-point turns in the US test

My driving test was as follows:

Get in, buckle up, start car, leave the DMV parking lot, take a right down the road, a mile up take a right at the stop light, a left two blocks down, 3-point turnaround, a right at the road, back to the light, through the light, a left two blocks down, parallel parking a few blocks down from that, a left a couple blocks down, a right back onto the main road, and back to the DMV.

What sucks is that I failed the test the first time because I hesitated at the stop light. The instructor didn't see the other car in the intersection, was too busy staring at her judgement clipboard to pay attention to the road she was instructing on...

OnlyTimeWillTel said:

My driving test was as follows:

Get in, buckle up, start car, leave the DMV parking lot, take a right down the road, a mile up take a right at the stop light, a left two blocks down, 3-point turnaround, a right at the road, back to the light, through the light, a left two blocks down, parallel parking a few blocks down from that, a left a couple blocks down, a right back onto the main road, and back to the DMV.

What sucks is that I failed the test the first time because I hesitated at the stop light. The instructor didn't see the other car in the intersection, was too busy staring at her judgement clipboard to pay attention to the road she was instructing on...

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My driving "test" was hysterical. I spent the entire night before the test learning how to perfectly parallel park, and then the next day, my instructor said "you're good, we can move on" when the car was about halfway in the space. It was ridiculous. And then he marked me off because I didn't hold the steering wheel right. I still passed, but I mean, just wow.

I don't think it's GPS. I think the licensing system here in the States is abysmal. We let waaaaay to many people that have no idea how to operate a car have a license anyway. ****, when I moved to Georgia and had to retake the license test, we never had to leave the parking lot. I just drove around some cones and parallel parked in a space you could have easily fit a tour bus in.

And then they make the MC test hard for inexperienced riders, which deters many from even wanting to get a license.

They need some kind of tiered licensing system. I mean, I rarely ever see anyone stop at a stop sign anymore, use turn signals, or obey the right of way which is essential to keeping things moving.