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.
Try OpenStreetMap, if it’s wrong you can edit the access rights yourself
Do you know of a good OSM mobile client for Android?
OSMAnd, Organic Maps, Magic Earth (my favourite but not open source)
Organic Maps
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 swear they use the Maps Contributor ratings to determine how quickly they make changes.
I’ve not had any issues getting changes made in a timely manner when I suggest them because I’ve left a bunch of reviews and photos for places I’ve visited.
If you never leave reviews or photos, they probably don’t trust your suggestions. That’s just my guess though.
Makes sense that was the only time I used the suggestion tool.
A few months ago I reported a missing section of road where I’m from and they corrected it in like a couple of weeks. Maybe it depends on how many people reports the same thing? IDK
All my legitimate submissions sit forever unacceped, but they were very quick to accept my submission of a landmark location on my old trailer as a “Palace”. Only recently noticed they removed it after years of saying Pleasant Valley Palace was a landmark in the middle of a trailer park, lol.
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.
How? Every single adress is wrong on google for the whole muncipiality since they standarized the road numbering 3 years ago.
Thanks. Will give it a shot
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.That seems like a tricky one to moderate. I’m sure they are worried about things being set and forgotten and never repealed.
I understand why, but I also have examples of compromises;
- Set a marker, it expires after a certain timeperiod. Users “validate” that the hindrance is still there, resetting the timer.
- Set a marker, “Hindrance here at 2023-11-03”
-
- “Expected end”
-
-
- Today
-
-
-
- This week
-
-
-
- This month
-
-
-
- Later (Marked hindrance disappear some time after “Expected end” if no users validate that it’s still there, with new “Expected end”.
-
Just some thoughts.
That does seem like a good system for structuring things for users with good intent.
users with good intent
Oh right, it could easily be abused by traffic trolls. Didn’t cross my mind, sometimes my faith in other people are unreasonably high.
Perhaps some sort of validation system, if two users report the same temporary hindrance? TBH I can’t be bothered to work out a fool-proof system for a hypothetical solution I doubt will ever be implemented hah.
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.)
Google maps doesn’t correct shit. I’ve tried multiple times to get a nonexistent road (literally, i took geotagged photos showing this “road” is untouched brushland) that cuts through my parent’s place removed, and they never responded or did anything about it.
I’m fairly certain they crowdsource the info. Their initial scan gives them a baseline, then they wait until x number of reports all conferring with each other to have the system either kick it up for review, or make the change automatically if possible.
It took YEARS for me to get Google Maps to correct the location of a local bus stop. It showed up on the wrong street, which screwed up walking directions. They finally fixed it when I submitted a photo of the bus stop along with my report, even though it’s exactly what you see if you check the recently updated street view in the exact location I had been submitting error reports. 🤷♂️
How do you do that? A few streets in my parents’ town are not up to date. In 2021, the views changed to what it was in 2012. But only for like 3 streets.
In the android app you can just hold on a part of the map and pull the menu up and tap “report a problem”.
Omg awesome
This is a true general statement about the existence of Google.
“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.
I guess we had different experiences, these were relatively new areas where the neighborhood was developed after the map and it didn’t seem to be an issue. I suppose the satellite view probably confirmed it easily.
mine was extremely old roads, had lived there all my life and noticed that two roads in the country with entirely different names were divided by a gully about 200 meters wide and 60 meters deep with NO road or bridge EVER existing there through it. but google argued it was really a road.
other was within 2km of that area, a road into a farmers field.
i sorta suspect they were items added in to spot if someone’s stealing googles proprietary map data. like how a dictionary company will throw in a few random fake words to see if anyone copies their text and publishes it as their own.
It’s really hit or miss. If you do any edits or answers any questions maps will try and ask you to confirm things others have suggested. But if no one else in the area does that or confirms. Then it’ll just ask you again to confirm the thing you already told it a month ago.
I finally broke down and just asked my friends and neighbors if they could confirm that the entrance to our multilevel apartment building was at the corner with the elevator and not the back maintenance entrance so ambulances would stop going to the back and could actually get into the building!
After 2 of them submitted that the entrance was at the front of the building google maps finally changed it. But I had been trying for months before I asked others to set it to the same exact spot on the map.
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
Should have bought a squirrel.
I get that reference. Rat Race!
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.
Hey Lois remember that one time I drove my car off a bridge because the map told me to?
Hey Peter, you going to the big drink tonight?
“I did my own research!”
jokes on you, I use osmand :)
