[gps-talkusers] Re: TOTAL INADEQUACY OF UK MAPS

Hi all,

First, before I may go overboard on the lack of maps etc., may I say that I do really believe this still is the best solution for us, so far, and I purchased, hoping to make rather more use of it than I have been able to do so, to date. . . ..

Steve, I'd back you up here, living just a few miles from yourself!  <SMILE>

I'm certainly not enjoying these inconsistencies in the maps at all. They can't even locate my house correctly, but I know I'm not the only one with that problem and it's not confined to the UK! In reality, Wokingham in itself is only a fairly small town. Its population in 2001 was a little over 150 thousand, I think. We only know the town centre and that it has a council (hence it's surround council area), so why there should ever be so many listings beats and confuses me also!

OK, turning to addressing these matters, Steve and I are both relatively newcomers to the product and, frankly, rather disappointed. I am hampered by ill health so don't get the use I'd like; but I want to be positive and make a difference and so would like step by step, clear instructions about making POIS to include the lattitude and longditude information mentioned a couple of months back on this list. Please give me an example of exactly how to record all this information correctly.

Where should we be positioned when taking this information (IE, in front of, by the main door, or in a car nearby)?

In addition, I have travelled a number of routes now and want to know how best to approach the route where your driver chooses a different way from that given by the GPS. What is the best way to get that map recorded so that, in future, you can give those full directions of the route chosen by your driver but not that which is automatically selected by the GPS? I have heard folk say that certain routes by car have taken them miles out of their way here in the UK.

I'm sorry, it's taking me a little while to grasp these things and am aware that there is more training material out there, but I'm afraid the cost is far higher than I personally could afford right now. As it is, we have paid over four times that which a sighted person would pay for a system adequate for them over here, so I do feel that extra support, well written and more explanatory documentation and some more helps along the way are things that we should ask for, and I am sure those on this list will endeavour to help.



--
Carol
carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx


----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve and Anne Bingham" <steven.bingham1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 8:07 PM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] TOTAL INADEQUACY OF UK MAPS


Hi everybody

Many apologies to the majority of you on this list who are US residents and seem to be enjoying some success with the Sendero product.

Unfortunately, the UK maps are not very good. Firstly we have very few POIS and those we have are pretty useless being mainly filling stations, banks (OK they are useful sometimes), car hire offices and restaurants/takeaways you would not want to visit. Useful items such as railway stations, bust stations are there none.

POIs apart the maps suffer from dreadful inconsistencies that mean that you have to have a full knowledge of local government boundaries in order to find anything. This would not be so bad if it were consistent but in some areas a massive area is covered by one administrative district and in others you need to know the parish names.

I recently visited Chippenham, a market town of approximately 70,000 population. I could not find it on the maps. When we arrived I discovered that it was listed as North Wiltshire, Chippenham. I did not know that North Wiltshire was an administrative area. Today I have been trying to plan a local journey of about four miles from a local railway station to an office block. The town is Wokingham a subdivision of Bracknell Forest District, but on the maps there are three Wokingham's listed Wokingham, England, Wokingham, Barkham and Wokingham Without. The station is unsurprisingly on Station Road. Station Road is not listed under any of the Wokinghams.

Come on Sendero its time to get your act together and start improving the maps for other countries. You have several UK customers and we deserve better than this.

A lot of the problems could be solved if, like most other computerised maps, we could enter postcodes and find our destinations, POIs and virtual positions.

Steve Bingham
Rapidly becoming disillusioned with the system.



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