rhetorical Q re google-for-mobile maps

[ghostjmf]

I understand why they give you the least congested route for time of day you make the search. But on the mobile version, or my mobile version anyway, you don't get the alternate routes choice. When going someplace new & unfamiliar I want the least complicated route, darn it, even if it will take 5 minutes longer at time of day I search, which will not be time of day I drive, anyway.


I will go to library & print out chosen route, & will make sure near-destination closeup is my latest mobile search for when I get close, just in case T-Mobile 4G chooses that moment to conk out; even in that case maps still shows most recent search.


But if I were programming this app I'd have made sure "least complicated route choice" was in.

[Bob Juch]

I don't use Google Maps on my phone but know the desktop version does not have any time-of-day logic in its routes. When driving I use my Garmin that has real-time traffic. I always use it to drive from home to my granddaughter's place downtown because it will give me the fastest route.

[ghostjmf]

I was surprised when I 1st used it that the desktop version doesn't have time-of-day logic. But that makes a certain amount of sense; your desktop isn't going anywhere. Laptops are, though. I wonder if the there's a version that knows its on a laptop & behaves accordingly. Mobile (phone or tablet) version not only tells you it has it, it demonstrates it really has it, not only with route changes but travel-time changes.


I would be happy with being shown a way around big traffic jams, so I can appreciate your love of Garmin even though I'm not getting one. Just having a local map in the car, by virtue of google maps on the tablet, is exactly what I wanted (on the dashboard would be even better, but those GPS thingies just don't give a complete enough picture of all the adjacent roads to me; what I want is google maps on my dash).


I'm making this trip early enough to avoid most traffic jams, so will take simplest route even though mobile map refuses to cough it up as highlighted.

[ToLiveIsToFly]

On google maps on your phone:

• Select your destination
  Hit the little car for directions
  Sometimes it'll present you with more than possible route, sometimes it won't. I have no idea why
  If there are more than one, you can select the route you want

For example, if you're starting at the JP Licks in Davis Square, and want to go to Walden Pond, it gives you 2 options, Route 2 and Route 2 to 2A. (Really, you're better off taking the bike path to Alewife, then the Minuteman, then the other bike paths out to Concord, but we're positing a car here. Also, maybe I'm wrong, that bike path takes you through an area that gets pretty swampy in late spring, and I'm not sure it's dried up yet.)

But if you want to drive to the Burren (I have no idea why you would want to do this. You're going to end up parking in the same place), it offers you only one route. Also, it defaults you to walking.

Bob, google maps navigation DOES have traffic. On the bottom, where it says how many minutes and how many miles to go, hit the 3 vertical dots (not while you're driving) and you can turn traffic on and off.

For my money, Waze is better --> even though Google has owned it for a couple of years, it seems to do a much better job with traffic, is better with alternate routes, and has specific alerts for things like accidents, road closures, red light cameras, etc. There are some ads when you're stopped, which is annoying, and I'd be happy to pay to get them removed, but they don't offer that option.

[ghostjmf]

Please remember this is as tablet, not a phone. Lots of on-line stuff posted by T-Mobile itself only gives instructions for phones, not tablets.

So far, at any rate, I only get one route out of it. Darn it.

[Bob Juch]

On google maps on your phone:

• Select your destination
  Hit the little car for directions
  Sometimes it'll present you with more than possible route, sometimes it won't. I have no idea why
  If there are more than one, you can select the route you want

For example, if you're starting at the JP Licks in Davis Square, and want to go to Walden Pond, it gives you 2 options, Route 2 and Route 2 to 2A. (Really, you're better off taking the bike path to Alewife, then the Minuteman, then the other bike paths out to Concord, but we're positing a car here. Also, maybe I'm wrong, that bike path takes you through an area that gets pretty swampy in late spring, and I'm not sure it's dried up yet.)

But if you want to drive to the Burren (I have no idea why you would want to do this. You're going to end up parking in the same place), it offers you only one route. Also, it defaults you to walking.

Bob, google maps navigation DOES have traffic. On the bottom, where it says how many minutes and how many miles to go, hit the 3 vertical dots (not while you're driving) and you can turn traffic on and off.

For my money, Waze is better --> even though Google has owned it for a couple of years, it seems to do a much better job with traffic, is better with alternate routes, and has specific alerts for things like accidents, road closures, red light cameras, etc. There are some ads when you're stopped, which is annoying, and I'd be happy to pay to get them removed, but they don't offer that option.

Google Maps uses Waze to display traffic data however it doesn't use that to compute routes.

I don't use Google Maps on my phone because they don't have a Windows Phone version. I could put it on my work phone but don't want to run up the data usage and get in trouble.

[SportsFan68]

When I know the best (simplest, or least time-consuming, or most scenic, or no freeways, etc.) route but just need the last dozen miles or so, I'll ask for my location to Point B somewhere along that route. Then I add my eventual destination as Point C. This works for both Mapquest and GoogleMaps, or it did last time I tried it, anyway.

[ghostjmf]

Yah; I just printed out the picture of the (tricky) highway exit & of the local streets. So I've got it if the little tab conks out around 7:00am tomorrow. (I, who live in New England, would never have thought of going to New London, CT by way of Worcester, MA & then dropping straight down. Not when I95 goes straight there. Not 'til Google put it in my head. Thanks, Google. Maybe next year.)


(I used to drive to the NYC area by going to Hartford, CT & dropping straight down, but thats because I was really usually headed for the Jersey docks, delivering cars there, anyway, & getting off of 95 to get wherever I was going inside of NYC was, & still is, truly awful. I bet even GPS people get screwed by it nowadays.


There's also that thing about curvature of the coast; if you're driving all the way to NYC, straight 95 *is* a little longer.)

[BackInTex]

Google Maps uses Waze to display traffic data however it doesn't use that to compute routes.

It uses something that computes travel time for routes given current traffic. Its darn accurate, too, within the current time frame (meaning if there is heavy traffic an hour ahead of where you are is assumes the heavy traffic will be the same when you get there).

[Bob Juch]

Google Maps uses Waze to display traffic data however it doesn't use that to compute routes.

It uses something that computes travel time for routes given current traffic. Its darn accurate, too, within the current time frame (meaning if there is heavy traffic an hour ahead of where you are is assumes the heavy traffic will be the same when you get there).

It always is way over my actual time. My Garmin is very accurate so it's not like I speed.