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Are road signs toast?
Have been driving around these last few days using my trusty GPS and started to wonder, as ubiquitous as GPS’s are becoming, whether road signs will be obsolete in five or ten years?
The GPS has already replaced maps, (I don’t event have a paper chart on my boat) Can roadsigns be far behind??? -
59 Replies
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I have a GPS and good as it is, it isn’t perfect. The amount of building of new streets round here means the map providers will have a hard job keeping up. Even with GPS, it’s still nice to know you’re going the right way by seeing a roadsign confirming it. How ubiquitous are they anyway? I only know one other person who has one.
One good thing: mine tells me when I am approaching a speed camera. 😎
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quote Andy Gorman:One good thing: mine tells me when I am approaching a speed camera. 😎yeh, 2 minutes notice before you come to it and you still cant slow down fast enough to not get caught :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:
my dad has one, its brill.. he doesn’t use it unless its a long drive to the back of beyond. i think signs will always be around ever. after speech, its the next best thing in communicating. 😀
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Maybe it’s different over here where you have endless highways and lots of time to make a decision.
I have to make deliveries all over the place and it’s a great tool. I see them so often and more cars already come with them. Wouldn’t be surprised if they’re standard equipment in a couple of years.
I wonder if we’ll get pressure to get rid of road signs just from an ecological standpoint.
Luckily we don’t have speed cameras in many places – I already use the stuff you put over the number plate just in case, plus a radar detector and contemplating a radar/laser blocker 😀 -
Lucky ol’ you Carlos. With all that kit in the UK you’d be banged up so fast, GPS wouldn’t be able to guide you! :lol1:
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they are chucking up a couple of satelites over here to make GPS more acurate or something… i think GPS systems will runs cars eventually.. I think motorways will be turned into monorails and the car will be more of a cube where you dont need to drive, you could sit back with the family and watch TV… then again, could replace housing…
..am i getting carried away here?
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The other day, I happened to come across a car going the wrong way up a one way street, I informed the driver of the error of his ways.
He just said “yeah mate I know, but this is the way my TOM TOM told me to come”!!!!!!Peter
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i heard bad reports on the TOM TOM…. they should have listened to the PETER PETER.
To be honest, can anyone here reconmend a good GPS system that is proven to be error free?
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I would give a thumbs up to the new Tom Tom One. £219 and it works straight out of the box. It goes a bit wrong occasionally but that is the little lady inside it 😀
I think they all have slight faults. We have the Origin b2 speed camera detector as well, and that is the dogs danglies. Much better than map locations on a GPS system.
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I’m with David on this one, I think that the Tom Tom one is great value for money.
Dave, as far as being proven to be error free, there are very few things in life that are error free maybe except for the mimaki.
Anyway my Tom Tom was great value, I won it in a competition run by Robert Horne 😀 😀 😀 😀
Peter
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I have a navman myself. Be lost without it now. I saw the Tom Tom at the store, but the sales guy said the navman was better, and the same price. Apparenty they have 5 to 1 warranty complaints against the Tom Tom v Navman.
Navman being a New Zealand company with good Australian representation was a plus too.
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As far as mapping errors go, they do exist but will be across the range. I believe the maps are provided by Teleatlas, mostly. Mine tried to take me down a no-entry, but soon made up another route as soon as I avoided the turn. I’m quite impressed so far.
Another handy feature is the ability to instantly calculate the mileage on a journey – helps with costings.
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quote Shane Drew:I have a navman myself. Be lost without it now
😀
So how come you werent löst before they came out Shane?Anyway I think they are a waste of money and a dangerous distraction when driving. If you dont know where you are going Dont go!!!!
😉
Peter
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actually I WAS lost all the time Peter. My dad used to be my navigator, but he is pretty ill right now and I have to leave him at home. Given that I do 150klm round trips most days, stopping on the side of the road to check the map all the time is both distracting and dangerous to me and those around me.
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i used at satnav many years back on a hire vehicle.. all in built in the car.. certainly wasn’t a distraction as it has voice.
No different to looking at the speedo /fuel etc
or in your case peter, the alt meter or the gear light. -
Dave R,
I go back to my comment about the guy on the one way street,
He wasn’t looking for, or at the no entry sign. He assumed the nav system was correct.Its perhaps just me, but I think all these gadgets in a car add up to a false sense of security.
There is no substitute for being aware and alert to your own surroundings and conditions when driving.
There have been quite a few air crashes when the pilot has believed the instruments, rather than his own instinctsPeter
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I’ve been using various guises of TomTom for years, (PDA & on mobile) and a brief venture into ‘Garmin’ country (before it got nicked from van).
It’s saved my neck a couple of times – no more “lost in [insert city] / back of beyond”. Sure it has limitations for newly built roads and houses, but that’s the fault of the planners giving their ‘out of date’ info to the software developers. And it can take you the most ridiculous routes “because it was shorter”, but on the whole excellent piece of technology.
ps. it’s a hoot on twisty B roads, KNOWING what’s up ahead or the corner combinations.
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quote David Rogers:ps. it’s a hoot on twisty B roads, KNOWING what’s up ahead or the corner combinations.
Thats exacty what I mean, Dave it may lead someone to believe they can go faster if they can see the corners etc, unfortunatly none of the systems on the market can point out the 40 ton artic parked just out of sight. Now thats a hoot, when you smash it up the R’s
Peter
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quote Peter Normington:Dave R,
I go back to my comment about the guy on the one way street,
He wasn’t looking for, or at the no entry sign. He assumed the nav system was correct.There have been quite a few air crashes when the pilot has believed the instruments, rather than his own instincts
Peter
I think the guy in the one way street was probably dangerous anyway. He probably would have gone up the wrong way reading a map too! You can only provide so much help, then common sense must kick in sometime.
It is interesting your comments on flying tho Peter. Not that I doubt you for a minute, but I had this very same conversation last month with a Qantas Pilot.
I asked him what it was like to have all those people relying on him to make the right decisions in flight.
He told me that the most dangerous pilot was the one that did not rely on his instruments. He said that training to be a Jumbo Pilot meant that you had to over ride your emotions and trust the computer and instruments as it meant your life and those of your passengers, because they were not ‘moved’ by emotional reactions.
I suppose it is all relative, and we didn’t get into the nitty gritty, but it struck me at the time that computers rule, even in the air.
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Shane,
I agree, jumbos and most modern planes woudnt even fly without puters,
And instruments must be relied upon. trouble is a lot of car drivers are plonkers and not pilots.
But when instruments go faulty the pilot, given all available info, plus sight,sound,and feel will then decide what action to take.Peter
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quote Peter Normington:Shane,
I agree, jumbos and most modern planes woudnt even fly without puters,
And instruments must be relied upon. trouble is a lot of car drivers are plonkers and not pilots.
But when instruments go faulty the pilot, given all available info, plus sight,sound,and feel will then decide what action to take.Peter
I can only hope I am not on the Jumbo when the puter goes faulty 🙄
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quote Peter Normington:quote David Rogers:ps. it’s a hoot on twisty B roads, KNOWING what’s up ahead or the corner combinations.
Thats exacty what I mean, Dave it may lead someone to believe they can go faster if they can see the corners etc, unfortunatly none of the systems on the market can point out the 40 ton artic parked just out of sight. Now thats a hoot, when you smash it up the R’s
Peter
What I mean is, it’s no different to “knowing the road like the back of your hand or having a co-driver” – if you are an idiot and drive like a hoon, no amount of satellite gismos will make you any better. It’s just a navigation aid, and is the equvalent of having your missus there saying “there’s a sharp left hander coming up after this blind corner”,…but it can read maps…. :lol1:
As for that 40T lorry – the sat nav wont make you drive faster, but I agree someone WILL be given a totally false sense of security by it….only the easily led though, and those that don’t think for themselves, ah, that’ll be millions of them then 🙄
I drive to what I can see, or reasonably expect to stop in. But a little advance warning of the road layout always helps, as does KNOWING there is a straight section coming up for that possible safe overtake of the 35mph back road mobile-chicane-geriatric-incompetent-spinless-shouldn’t-be-allowed-out-on-the-roads numptie as reducing time in the first part of your “Oh, look! I’m on a straight bit….it’s clear….bugger, too late”
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I don’t think that they’re that much of a distraction. Before these things I was perennially lost and now the nice lady reprimands me constantly for my wayward ways.
It cost me in an unusual way the other day when the State Trooper pulled me over. With my best innocent face I told him that I was unaware I was speeding. He looks over to my GPS and it said Average Speed 75.8mph Highest Speed 115 mph 😳
At least he wrote the ticket for the average, else I would have had to commiserate with His Honor. -
Had a new washing machine delivered yesterday, the driver had a sat nav of some kind but he rang me from miles away to say he was lost.
Bearing in mind he had my full address he must have been a complete numpty, he had gone past the road entry to our village by 7 miles, this road is an old railway line with about 5 roads off it in total, 2 of which come into our village.
He then got lost coming back, turned up a road 3 miles before us.It always amuses me when folk say “wow your hard to find”, how do they manage in a city? there’s only 4 houses here, how many doors do they need to knock on?
I think some people should just stay at home or use public transport.
rant over
Steve -
quote Carlos Cavanagh:He looks over to my GPS and it said Average Speed 75.8mph Highest Speed 115 mph 😳
At least he wrote the ticket for the average, else I would have had to commiserate with His Honor.:lol1: LOL, you should have told him the average was no good as you’d done the top speed on a private road.
Steve
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quote Carlos Cavanagh:He looks over to my GPS and it said Average Speed 75.8mph Highest Speed 115 mph 😳
At least he wrote the ticket for the average, else I would have had to commiserate with His Honor.😀 😀
I thought you guys had an ammendmen that pevented you incriminating yourself!!
😀
Peter -
I had the garmin street pilot 3 myself but got rid of it as i felt i wasn’t really using it to its full advantage (more l;ike a toy to me really 😳 } Wish i never got rid of it a couple of days later i had a few jobs in Glasgow & Edinburgh a nightmare especially in Glasgow if you miss that turning off the M8 😀 .What really amazes how even after a couple of years buying that how dated that particular model is .I’m int rested to here you say that about the Navman Shane …..what particular model have you got ?
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Hi All, Tom Tom are Great! I’m on my second one now, I bought my first one when they had just come out, and i bought My second just before Xmas, I only bought the second because its got traffic info on it so if there’s any traffic on my journey it’ll route me around it! The guy going the wrong way up a one way street must have had old maps installed! these can be downloaded nowadays, Ive had lots of gps units from a trusty ol Garmin emap, an ipaq with satnav a garmin street pilot3 and now the tomtoms, The latter being the Best by Far! I even used just the basic routes of Europe maps that came with the first tom tom to get me down to the villa in Spain last June, all the way through France (inc those horrible roads thru Paris) with no problem!
Big-Pete
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[quote=”
I thought you guys had an ammendmen that pevented you incriminating yourself!!
😀
Peter[/quote]We do! The nice lady in the GPS testified against me! I’ll change the language to German or something, that’ll learn her 😀
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what happened to the good old sense of adventure 😀 getting in your car and driving off and having fun 😀 i dont like those things….i like getting lost, makes the journey more exciting i think 😀
nik
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trouble with that now days Nick is your more likely to drive into a dodgy area ….be mugged by a group of undesirables and have that nice pick up of yours taken away from you ….sorry if i sound a cynic 😀 😀
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quote Brian Little:.I’m int rested to here you say that about the Navman Shane …..what particular model have you got ?
I got the Navman PDA Brian. Got all the features of a PDA as well as the GPS.
Lets me have my excel price list with me, my contacts details and my notes on each call.
Cost the same as a dedicated gps too, which I thought was a better way to go, althoiugh the concession is that you don’t have the extra features of the gps like red light cameras, speed cameras etc. Still reroutes and all that stuff, and the woman telling me what to do sounds like my wife, although she does not go on as much when I miss a turn…..
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quote Nicola McIntosh:what happened to the good old sense of adventure 😀 getting in your car and driving off and having fun 😀 i dont like those things….i like getting lost, makes the journey more exciting i think 😀
nik
more exciting on personal time nik, but clients don’t take kindly to you being lost in the city and being late for appointments.
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how much roughly is that one Shane …or is that classified ? …like you could tell me but then youd have to kill me 😀 😀 Its just im looking for one @ the moment
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quote Brian Little:how much roughly is that one Shane …or is that classified ? …like you could tell me but then youd have to kill me 😀 😀 Its just im looking for one @ the moment
I paid $au800 Brian. Comes with maps, car carrier, 240v and 12v power leads, outlook 2002 and sync software for your computer to download calendars and everything else. Lets you run a work diary on your PC then down load it to the pda to take with you. Just like other dedicated pda’s.
Good value I thought.
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no its not bad Shane perhaps i don’t need one as sophisticated as that tho .These things are like everything else the more common they get the price tends to drop
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Hi Brian
you can get a basic PDA style for just under £200. Makro and various other places were selling them. Nothing fancy, but does all the basic routing, re-routing etc. Actually I think Tesco had them too. 🙂
No quite as good as say TomTom, but the GPS is built in to the device which is always handy.
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Cheers david …shows how much i know about them …i thought that garmin was great but as i said its probably bean updated several times
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I bought my hubby Tom Tom for christmas. It’s great! It’s been extremely up to date with new roads and roundabouts and he uploaded the speed camera info into it too, priceless!
He’s had no need to consult a map at all since he put this in the van, it can even take you to a specific number in a street, that accurate!As time goes on they can only improve too, so I think we all be using GPS as standard procedure in a few years time.
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Marcella …is the speed camera thingy standard with the tom tom or is it just that particular model ………theres bonus points on this question 😀 😀
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Hi Brian,
not standard on any, but this info is a free download from;
look for the main speed camera download page which is updated regularly. This works for Tom Tom and most other sat nav systems. Invaluable!!!!!!
Ours also gives you the location of the camera (static or mobile) and gives you the speed limit. -
Cheers marcella ….very imformative . I notice that our local rag tells you where tayside police will be placing there mobile speed cameras . A bit pointless from there point of view . Ive heard about new cameras that will clock you and then calculate howlong its taken you to get to the next set of cameras I think there on the m8 somewhere
Brian
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The ‘speed cam’ files can only be added to the major sat-nav programs. (classified as ‘points of interest’) I would recomend spending a little more and getting TomTom as it’s a doddle to use & install. Look to spend about £250.00 for a decent setup, or buy one of the stand-alone units online. (Halfrauds are just a rip-off, handy in an emergency though!)
I’ve bought a couple of pieces of kit from these guys:
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/PDAGB-Store worth a look. -
mmm im always a bit wary of ebay …after buying a dodgy digy camera ..but ill have a look …cheers dave 😀 😀
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http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/152539
only £155!!
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sounds good dave ..had a look but whys it so cheap
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quote Brian Little:sounds good dave ..had a look but whys it so cheap
……because there’s not £100+ worth of TomTom branded software in it 😀
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mm good answer cheers dave 😀 😀 😀
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Brian, you might want to look here. I’ve bought (a LOT) of stuff from Ebuyer for PC equip etc.
And you can check the user reviews to see if it’s REALLY any good.
You do need an account to order though, but worth it.
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products … =71&stid=3
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yep Dave i was looking @ them and speaking to “trucker types” this afternoon they all seem to think that the 300 is the way to go so ill look at this ..Cheers dave
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Brian, I was in Asda tonight and they are selling off Garmin i3‘s for £149 which isn’t bad.
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mmm ive kinda been converted these last couple of days dave …..im kinda leaning towards the tom tom 300…around the £260.00 mark 😀 😀
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Good choice – but remember to NOT keep it or the bracket visible in the car/van as they are prime target right now for thieves (I know – I had the works streetpilot nicked)
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yeh i know Dave …when i had that street pilot i was paranoid about it ..cared more about it than me motor !!. 😀 😀 I think that ones got a sucker on it for the window.I was kinda put off TOM tOM a couple of years ago when i was talking to “tricky types” they said it had a bad name (what do they no …should stick to there yorkie bars and fairy lights for the dash :lol1: } but it seems to come up trumps now
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I’ve got the TomTom Go300 and am very happy with it. As well as removing the bracket from the windscreen, I also wipe off the mark the sucker leaves on the screen. Apprently, thieves are looking for tell-tale signs of GPS and are breaking in on the off-chance there’s one in the glove box!
The Go500 & 700 works as a hands-free mobile phone by interacting with your blue tooth phone.
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tom tom for me , tried the pda version first , then moved onto the dedicated version….
i must agree , they can be a distraction though , i seem to go into a trance and do anything it asks me to….
the worst is coming to a set of traffic lights and i want to turn right….
a demanding voice tells me “turn right now !!” , i find myself nearly tricked into taking the turn without checking the red light !!you can get a bit carried away with making sure you dont miss a turn , although i shouldn’t as it we re adjust the route anyway….
i would be lost without it though , more often than not , directions i get from customers have something missing , so i always ask for the postcode, i plot via that only , this doesn’t always work , but you can bet i’m not far away when i ring them up saying i’m lost….
i think another advantage to satnav is potential fuel saving…….
i drive about 300 miles a week , i recon without the satnav i’d probably end up doing more like 400 in the area i live , thats about £500 a year wasted.
another advantage is when i use it for places i know how to get to , strange i know , but if i’m running late , the customer calls me , or i call them , i can give them a pretty good eta….
one pet hate for me on the tomtom though , is its shape , filliping awfull , hard to find a pocket big enough , it needs to be a bit more shallow (like me i suppose)
sd
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do you have to download anything from comp for tom tom 300….and if so will it work off windows 98…im in the dark ages here
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only downloads would be updates to maps etc , unless you need speed traps and postcodes (think 300 has codes anyway)…
as for windows 98 , i dont think it will be a problem , as the tomtom has an sd card in it , all you need to able to do is write to it , e.g if you connect the tomtom it adds itself as a drive letter , then drop files onto it , or any card reader will do the job , and sure that card readers are good on 98…
so the minimum spec really is a USB port !!
sd
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Cheers Steve 😀 😀
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sorry wrong part of post 😳
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