They do put a lot of "access roads" that are not open to the public.
My new favorite is google maps telling me a route is shorter but it tells me it’s a toll road. But in reality, it’s a ferry across a river that’s only available certain hours during part of the year.
The reason we often have to tell visitors to not trust Google when trying to reach us, is that it often takes them into a really steep valley that is densely vegetated with prickly plants on both sides on the road, with water accumulated at the bottom in the winter and really large and long holes from the water running down the hills. If they don't get the hint that maybe google isn't always giving the best suggestion they risk getting stuck or having their car damaged.
Lmao I experienced the same thing a few years ago, except it's not a ferry, but an actual bamboo raft operated by the locals.
At least with open street map, you can login to openstreetmap.org/edit and mark the bad road as private/gated or even delete it entirely. I did it on a bad road segment in my neighborhood and ride-sharing drivers no longer made wrong turns there (Grab apparently uses OSM instead of Google Maps data).
You can actually do this with Google maps too. It can take time for them to actually make changes though
We had this same problem and did just this. 3 years later still no changes. Until my dad happened to be complaining about it at a party and was introduced to a friend of a friend that worked at Google with the maps team. Was finally fixed a week later. So yea a path exists but 3 years is a long time to wait for a simple fix.
I'm always divided about it. At one hand, I want to help people not getting lost, but at the other, I don't want to contribute to google.
You can... IF other people do it too.
You can also make submissions to Apple Maps.
Even though these are massive corporations, they kinda do rely on feedback here.
Crowdsourcing is nice but I'm not happy about the "don't mark temporary hindrances" thing in OSM, some of them last for months and I can't warn others. Sometimes I even forget the hindrance myself and feel real
unsmartdumb.I may not longer live in Vermont but man I've been wanting to get Google maps updated on all the roads that no longer exists also now I live in Florida I'm finding none of the bike lanes are recognized
Nice. The only place I know uses Grab is Vietnam and other se asian countries like maybe Indonesia
Google might be wrong, or a farmer might be trying to prevent people from using what is legally a public footpath. They sometimes buy the land and then want to take away legal public access to it.
For example: https://fix.bromley.gov.uk/report/3122960
Or https://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/23063746.frances-payne-blocked-footpath-set-appear-court/
You can also submit corrections to Google maps. If they won't correct it, there may be a reason. (Not to say which side of a dispute is right.)
Permanently Deleted
"when there's a sign, there's history"
That sign has so many practical applications!
I'm impressed by the kerning on that sign given that it's entirely handwritten in a large font.
You can submit edits to Google Maps. I've done it on a handful of roads in our neighborhood and they were approved within a few weeks...
I've done it a few times, usually by your fifth submission about an issue over a year or two they finally don't say no we're right you are wrong and edit the driveway\farmers field\60 meter drop into a gully to not be drivable.
The university here had someone change a building name to Bladee Hall and no one ever fixed it.
I've seen a ton of these sort of signs on the national "funny signs" group. Usually they have shitload of drama in the comments.
I love it
They are consistently horrible at navigating downtown Providence.
I live at the end of a cul-de-sac and the main road runs next to my house. However you cannot access my house from the main road. The roads do not connect and there is a wall and fence. That doesn't stop every GPS and delivery app from telling people you can get to my house from there. I can't tell you how many food delivery drivers who never read my directions about turning into the neighborhood. A few have been so dense that I've had to go climb the fence and meet them at the main road because they just couldn't figure it out.
I remember years ago I went to a concert with a friend, we used Google Maps to get back home. It told us to drive straight through a cul-de-sac. I am sure the home owners wouldn't have appreciated it.
This happened to me at my old apartment randomly. After giving the correct directions for month, one day Google decided “no, you have to go to this OTHER road and walk through the alley!”
But of course, there was no alley.
That being said, I put in the request with Google Maps to fix it and it was fixed in about 3 weeks. Took 2 weeks to even figure out why all my deliveries were being delivered a street over, though.
Should have bought a squirrel.
I get that reference. Rat Race!
Hey Lois remember that one time I drove my car off a bridge because the map told me to?
jokes on you, I use osmand :)
“I did my own research!”
The weirdest shit GPS/the post office has done to me in terms of addresses is a certain two small towns I have to verify the address is in the correct city, because for some reason a couple neighborhoods in one of the towns, which is like 20 miles away from the other, have an address that says the other city's name and not the one they are actually in. If you go to the address and it's the wrong city, there's a good chance you'll just be taken into the middle of an empty field.
I've reached one of these spots before
🥀
That's why Apple Maps, HERE WeGo and OpenStreetMap exist.
