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Sat Nav Disadvantages

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Coxster

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http://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=488&ArticleID=1982358

NOW TURN RIGHT...ON TO THE RAILWAY LINEA MOTORIST drove on to a railway track, causing rush hour delays, because her satellite navigation system told her to.

The un-named woman, aged 52, was crossing the Eastbourne to Hastings line at Normans Bay on Tuesday night when she made the wrong turning.


Her diversion caused delays to passengers for more than an hour as rail services were suspended.

Fortunately, Normans Bay is one of the last manually controlled crossings and the alarm was raised immediately.

A spokesman for British Transport Police said, ''As far as I know there has never been an incident of this kind in Sussex.

''At the moment we are trying to establish whether the fault lies with the satellite navigation system, the woman or a mixture of both.

''Once all our evidence is gathered we will be passing our file to the Crown Prosecution Service for them to decide whether this case goes to court.''

The woman, from Dorking, Surrey, had programmed the sat nav in her Ford Fiesta when she left the Cooden Beach Hotel.

As she headed across the crossing at Normans Bay towards Pevensey Bay the system apparently told her to take an immediate right.

In the darkness she followed the instruction which left her car blocking both east and westbound lines.

A spokesman for Southern Railway said, ''We were alerted to a car being on a track and all trains using that line
were suspended.

''The crossing patrolman raised the alarm immediately and to cause minimum disruption we brought in a bus replacement service.

''No passengers or trains were put in danger at any time.''

The incident happened at around 7pm. Services returned to normal around 8.15pm after the car had been towed away.
 
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Tom

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Haha - I've got a GPS on my new PDA but I'm just using that for measuring speeds!
 

Respite

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What a numpty,even blaming the GPS is a joke.It may have been dark but these car things have items called lights,they have been known to illuminate area's in front of the car thus showing where you are!:roll: Add to that the signage for the crossing being a major clue. Also what the hell is a "Crossing patrolman!" I've never heard of that grade before.

I now have a plan to hack the GPS system to direct all people who obey them %100 to the nearest cliff.:headbang: Mostly due to the fact that as a motorcyclist I'm fed up with people driving along watching their GPS & not whats happening around them ,attempting to kill me with their irrational driving style!:cussing:
 

Max

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I now have a plan to hack the GPS system to direct all people who obey them %100 to the nearest cliff.:headbang: Mostly due to the fact that as a motorcyclist I'm fed up with people driving along watching their GPS & not whats happening around them ,attempting to kill me with their irrational driving style!:cussing:

What's the alternative? Using a map would mean even less concentration on the road!

GPS is great, but this reminds me of when GPS systems directed people through a ford unsuitable for motor vehicles on a large number of occasions (was in one of the national newspapers!). Can't remember where it was, but I do remember that the residents of the village where the ford was made a nice profit by charging the many unfortunate drivers to be towed out and for blankets and a nice cup of coffee ;)
 

Guinness

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There are move disadvantages to (most) Sat Navs with another problem been in HGVs. My Dad is a Truck Driver and he obsoletely refuses to use one for one good reason.

They don't say anything about Low Bridges. A Bridge Bash is a disruptive element to the Rail Network in the UK.
 

kettlefan

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the fact she apparently made no attempt to get off the line (and as a result the car had to be towed away) annoys me the most. If it were me (and I don't drive thank god!) I would make a beeline back to the crossing and get out of the way, before my "gps" killed any passengers!
 

kettlefan

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What's the alternative? Using a map would mean even less concentration on the road!

GPS is great, but this reminds me of when GPS systems directed people through a ford unsuitable for motor vehicles on a large number of occasions (was in one of the national newspapers!). Can't remember where it was, but I do remember that the residents of the village where the ford was made a nice profit by charging the many unfortunate drivers to be towed out and for blankets and a nice cup of coffee ;)


I remember that being in the Telegraph!
 

David

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What's the alternative? Using a map would mean even less concentration on the road!

:roll:

No it doesn't.....

Having a map means you have planned your route in advance, so you know where you are going. If you need to check the map again, you pull over off the road....

There are move disadvantages to (most) Sat Navs with another problem been in HGVs. My Dad is a Truck Driver and he obsoletely refuses to use one for one good reason.

They don't say anything about Low Bridges. A Bridge Bash is a disruptive element to the Rail Network in the UK.

That's both a good point and a bad point. The older versions of sat-navs didn't have bridge heights or weight restrictions in the database. The newer versions do. I am also a van (and occasionally, lorry) driver, and I don't have aa sat-nav either. The main reason is that if I get caught in a traffic jam, it's a lot easier to pull over quickly, and find another route. Sat-navs can take several minutes to do that.
 

Tomnick

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I refuse to use GPS too, for the reasons already given. Is it really necessary? At least I know that, having no computer to rely on to give me directions, I need to plan my journey in advance (and also have a reasonably good idea of what alternative routes are available, if only so I can be heading in the right direction before finding a safe place to stop and look at the map in more detail).

Of course, if you're 'forced' to plan your journeys using a good old-fashioned paper map, you'll quickly get a much better appreciation of the country's geography anyway...which tends to make things a little easier. Clearly it helps you retain a bit of common sense while driving too!!
 

Tom B

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How stupid can you get? I don't see any point in the systems - I don't drive, but when I have to plan a route anywhere I use a system called the map. Takes all of two minutes normally.
 

jonb

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Well I have a TomTom and its a great piece of kit IMO - For when your going into an unfamiliar place its great especially around the towns... If you don't like then fair enough...
 

AlexS

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A coach driver I know was told to drive down a road into a former quarry in North Wales - with a 100ft drop on the other side - this being when he was off duty in a car towing his caravan.
 

Nick W

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I've witnessed a GPS attempt to take someone through an enforced bus-gate. After diverting it managed to find the right way though.

I was rather suspicious when it chose the old route over the new by-pass.

I think the lesson is to update often.
 

16CSVT2700

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Sod SatNav tat!

Nothing wrong with a good old Mapbook!!
Myself and my dad are the navigators in my family, we don't have SatNavs, no need for 'em when you have 2 people fully capable of reading a map!

SatNavs are, in my opinion, for lazy people not to mention are far from reliable!!
We all have brains, use them and figure out a proper route and back up using the map!

:protest: JUSTICE FOR MAPS :protest:
 

Ascot

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Sod SatNav tat!

Nothing wrong with a good old Mapbook!!
Myself and my dad are the navigators in my family, we don't have SatNavs, no need for 'em when you have 2 people fully capable of reading a map!

SatNavs are, in my opinion, for lazy people not to mention are far from reliable!!
We all have brains, use them and figure out a proper route and back up using the map!

:protest: JUSTICE FOR MAPS :protest:

Compramise, Memory-Map! Great for CAA maps as well.
 

WhiteVanMan

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I was in a car with one yesterday i can say there not special i wouldnt get one :lol:


As it was my car that you were in, it got you home didnt it...;)
Anyway, I think SatNav is brilliant - you dont need to look at the screen as the voice tells you the directions in advance leaving you to concentrate on the driving.
Its the few idiots, like this woman, that gives SatNav's a bad name.......<D
I like my TomTom..........;)
 

afterburner

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I have a TomTom as well, and it's brilliant for some things, and average for others. Where it is very good is driving point to point to somewhere you haven't been before. It is also very good for getting you to points inside cities, where there may be a rapid series of turns during which you don't have time to look for a map. It also gives you an idea of what the junctions ahead are like and you can get ready for them. Mine also warns of speed cameras which is very handy.

Another thing they are useful for is figuring out distances to destinations - I used mine for this last weekend when I was driving around in Kent and Sussex. It was good to figure out how far and how long a place was away we were travelling to.

It's the people who don't mix their use with a bit of common sense who get into trouble!
 

The Gricer

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I too have a TomTom. I've had it for about a year now and wouldn't be without it. I think that used correctly they actually increase road safety. It's great when driving in unfamiliar territory, letting you see in advance the layout of junctions and roundabouts, bends in the road and the distance in yards (or metres if you prefer) to the next turn. It also gives a speed readout which is much more accurate than your average car speedometer. (Car speedos invariably read fast.) The latest update even shows the speed limit for many roads alongside your actual speed.

I've also found the estimated journey time to be remarkably accurate, even on long trips.

They can of course get it wrong sometimes, such as on new roads or where road layouts and one way systems have been changed, and of course you do need to use a little common sense rather than just follow it blindly, but in my humble opinion mine was well worth the money.

Frank

p.s. It is a much better navigator than the missus and if you do go wrong it just quickly and quietly recalculates the route without calling you all the names under the sun and saying "I told you we should have turned left back there" when in reality she didn't tell you until too late!
 

Mojo

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It's very good for people who have to make deliveries, like my Dad. A map book can't tell you postcodes, and although an online map site can, printing off numerous pages of the surrounding roads would be very time consuming.
 

mbonwick

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Have you ever see a rally driver using a SatNav?
No. They use good old maps and notes....yet another reason to dislike SatNav!
 

matt

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Have you ever see a rally driver using a SatNav?
No. They use good old maps and notes....yet another reason to dislike SatNav!

They have a co-driver telling them where to go though
 

jonb

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Have you ever see a rally driver using a SatNav?
No. They use good old maps and notes....yet another reason to dislike SatNav!

Oh please.....How can you compare Rally Drivers to Sat Nav.....
 

yorkie

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I think we all know why emergency services don't use it.
Some did, occasionally with disastrous results. They were not designed for it, and sent them to places that were inaccessible to large vehicles.
 

HSTfan!!!

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I have a Tomtom in the car.... tbh its not that good! in fact i'd be better off going to rac.co.uk, asking the route finder thing on there and printing it out, so far its only really helped me out properly once - when i got lost in a lane in the middle of nowhere... pulled over, got it out and it got me home... all the other times i've used it its taken me miles away from better routes to get to places - and what the sat nav decides is the faster route isn't always true - it doesn't seem to take traffic lights into account
 
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