I love maps.
I have, on occasion, spent hours staring at them, analyzing them. Everything from maps of discontinued rail lines and their impact on the economies of small Saskatchewan towns,, to global maps during the most recent world crisis.
Google maps is one of my best friends. It's satellite view function is phenomenal. When heading out on a road to go to an oil lease, I'll often scout out the aerial view.
A little over a year ago I got my first Garmin GPS. It's a vehicle version, one of the lower-end Nuvi series.
At first I was really impressed with it. After all, the first GPS I ever laid hands on was a Garmin, and it gave me wonderful things like my compass bearing - something most people could care less about unless they were piloting an airplane or were the helmsman on a ship. I've really enjoyed using handheld Garmin GPS units.
At first, I enjoyed this car version too. Then after a while, I've learned I'm much smarter than the GPS.
For one thing, I cannot seem to get it to show the names of towns on the map, particularly the smaller ones. You would think this would be important. Oh, what town am I coming up to? I don't know. It doesn't even show up on the screen.
In certain areas, like near Chamberlain on Highway 11, and on Highway 39 going through Weyburn, it thinks you should be driving on the opposite side of the divided highway. Indeed, its voice can be quite insistent you turn left. "Turn left in 400 metres. Turn left now. Recalculating. Drive 1.4 kilometres and turn left."
You can even choose if you want it nattering at you in an American, British or Australian accent. It just won't be right.
I have a specialty oil patch mapping software installed. It has every lease and lease road out there. I was impressed by its ability to tell me which of three drilling rigs side by side to go to in the middle of the night. But it too, has its limitations. By showing all the grid roads, if the GPS thinks it's shorter to go by 15 miles of grid roads instead of 16 by pavement, it will tell you to turn onto the grid, even if your stated intention is to go by highway. If I followed its instruction from Estevan to Yorkton in particular, about a quarter of the trip would be on back roads near Alameda and Carlyle.
It took me a year of owning this device before figuring out how to tell it to avoid unpaved roads. That's pretty sad, because I'm a level nine geek. How is a mere mortal supposed to turn off unpaved roads?
Driving to Minot recently I asked it to get me to the airport. Instead, I followed the signs. Instead of taking the ring road to the airport, as the signage indicated, it wanted to take me though downtown, then another side street when I ignored those instructions.
You hear stories of people driving off roads, some to their death, because they followed the GPS' instructions to the letter. I can truly believe that happens.
As an aforementioned level nine geek, I tend to rely on technology for more and more things. However, when it comes to my GPS, I rely on it less and less. Otherwise I would be using one other piece of technology on a regular basis.
The tow rope.
Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.
