Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[Scott5114]

I mean, you can always pan manually to your area of interest if you don't want to turn location on.

[SkyPesos]

Google maps transit tab pales in comparison to Apple maps. I thought at least all US light rail and metro system lines would be shown in Google maps, but nope...

[Bruce]

Google maps transit tab pales in comparison to Apple maps. I thought at least all US light rail and metro system lines would be shown in Google maps, but nope...

There is a Transit layer that displays lines (but this only works for cities with proper GTFS feeds sent to Google).

[hotdogPi]

Google maps transit tab pales in comparison to Apple maps. I thought at least all US light rail and metro system lines would be shown in Google maps, but nope...

There is a Transit layer that displays lines (but this only works for cities with proper GTFS feeds sent to Google).

Apple Maps shows Amtrak for the entire US.

[SkyPesos]

Apple Maps shows Amtrak for the entire US.

Also national railways in some European countries. Here's the rail lines shown with Apple's transit layer in a part of Europe. It gets more detailed when zoomed in further.

[hotdogPi]

Wait, why is Milano in Italian but Rome in English? My Apple Maps doesn't do that.

[CtrlAltDel]

As Google maps seems to get more and more advertisements I'm looking for alternative sites/apps.  I'd like to be able to view live traffic on both Chrome and Android.  Personally I don't love Waze as I never turn my "location" on for mobile...so it's a pain to view live traffic.  The color scheme isn't really very intuitive either.  Sometimes it feels like certain zoom levels on Google make it less "ad-intrusive"...thoughts?

There's a way to turn off businesses at least on Google My Maps, but I can't remember what it is.

I also sometimes use WeGo maps, which has the advantage of coloring freeways in an easily distinguishable color.

https://wego.here.com

[sprjus4]

I've been having trouble recently loading the traffic on the app. It used to be instant now takes up to 5 minutes. Traffic is usually far worse than indicated as well, but to be fair they do do a good job updating it every few minutes for increased accuracy. Personally Prefer Waze

Waze has been my go to as of late for routing, especially on long distance trips. Given I'm going to have Waze running regardless for incidents, police, etc., might as well just use the routing their anyways as opposed to having Google Maps in the background as well.

I'll use Google Maps generally for planning purposes in advance, but once actually going, I'll usually just put it in Waze.

[CtrlAltDel]

Interestingly, you can now turn off labels on the map, not just satellite view:

[jakeroot]

Interestingly, you can now turn off labels on the map, not just satellite view:

I can't help but think it's a mistake based on the option being greyed out. Why it remains clickable...that I don't know.

[kkt]

Yes, myself included, and for that reason among others, I support shifting discussion to a new thread if the name isn't going to be changed (and notice how I've handled the title on my last several posts here).

See, but that would be a duplicate thread, so my job then would be to merge that thread into this one...

I think you and vdeane both missed my point, which is if you're concerned about getting in trouble at work for this, you shouldn't be visiting this forum during work.

This. I also can't imagine an employer that is totally cool with you using company resources to browse websites for personal use, but only if they don't say "fuck" on them anywhere.

[Rothman]

Just another complaint about city labels on Google Maps.  Can't for the life of me get Greeley, Colorado to show up, despite the fact it's one of the larger cities in the country (pop > 100,000).  I know this happens often for significant cities with Google Maps, but it's still freakin' annoying.

[Bruce]

Works for me on zoom level 8.



I've noticed that some other map programs have weird choices in city selection. Mapbox (which overlays OSM data) tends to omit Everett in favor of Marysville, for example.

[jakeroot]

Just another complaint about city labels on Google Maps.  Can't for the life of me get Greeley, Colorado to show up, despite the fact it's one of the larger cities in the country (pop > 100,000).  I know this happens often for significant cities with Google Maps, but it's still freakin' annoying.

In addition to Bruce, it also shows up for me.

I've noticed that some other map programs have weird choices in city selection. Mapbox (which overlays OSM data) tends to omit Everett in favor of Marysville, for example.

Likely relates to the map options chosen. I can repeat what you're describing but not in every style. In some, Everett and Marysville and visually identical (same font size and weight), but in others ('Streets' for instance) it is displayed with both a larger size and weight. Doesn't explain why Everett would disappear in favor of Marysville for a few zoom levels, but the issue can be rectified from what I can tell.

[Rothman]

It came back for me after leaving the site and returning.  Makes me wonder what triggers the lack of a city label and if there is some glitch when zooming.  It's not the only location where I've found a missing label.

[jakeroot]

There was an earlier discussion on newest Street View.

Here in Tacoma and the southern Puget Sound, there's quite a lot of new imagery from July 2021.

Example: https://goo.gl/maps/vfyGLXEPZZNpH9dU9

[LilianaUwU]

Something I don't get is why California gets new imagery every year, yet many roads (such as US highways in the West) still have 2007/08 imagery... I do know that Google is California-based, but with the budget they have, you'd think they could afford going back to, say, US 14 in Wyoming every now and then!

[SkyPesos]

Something I don't get is why California gets new imagery every year, yet many roads (such as US highways in the West) still have 2007/08 imagery... I do know that Google is California-based, but with the budget they have, you'd think they could afford going back to, say, US 14 in Wyoming every now and then!

There's a set of exit ramps on I-71 near Kings Island (pretty much everything except the NB exit and SB entrance) opened in 2018 that still doesn't have street view imagery.

In other parts of Cincinnati, the reconstructed I-75 between exits 13 and 14 got new imagery from right after when the project was finished in late 2020

[Scott5114]

Something I don't get is why California gets new imagery every year, yet many roads (such as US highways in the West) still have 2007/08 imagery... I do know that Google is California-based, but with the budget they have, you'd think they could afford going back to, say, US 14 in Wyoming every now and then!

There's a set of exit ramps on I-71 near Kings Island (pretty much everything except the NB exit and SB entrance) opened in 2018 that still doesn't have street view imagery.

Do you one better–my street was built in 1976 and it still doesn't have imagery! And I'm smack dab in the middle of the third-largest city in the state, and can see the state's largest university from my roof...not like I'm out in the sticks or anything.

[jakeroot]

Something I don't get is why California gets new imagery every year, yet many roads (such as US highways in the West) still have 2007/08 imagery... I do know that Google is California-based, but with the budget they have, you'd think they could afford going back to, say, US 14 in Wyoming every now and then!

There's a set of exit ramps on I-71 near Kings Island (pretty much everything except the NB exit and SB entrance) opened in 2018 that still doesn't have street view imagery.

In other parts of Cincinnati, the reconstructed I-75 between exits 13 and 14 got new imagery from right after when the project was finished in late 2020

Unrelated, but the "Donatos Pizza" location on the map only just allowed me to realize that the Donatos pizza I've been seeing on Red Robin menus is actually a chain and not something invented by them.

[D-Dey65]

openstreetmap.org

Wikipedia but a map, essentially. Doesn't have satellite or street view, but it does have county lines and the ability to edit out inaccuracies.

Will it allow me to track the distance of specific roads? Because I tried to use Google's tool for that and it kept dragging me all over the place and prevented me from erasing roads I didn't want to add.

[thenetwork]

Something I don't get is why California gets new imagery every year, yet many roads (such as US highways in the West) still have 2007/08 imagery... I do know that Google is California-based, but with the budget they have, you'd think they could afford going back to, say, US 14 in Wyoming every now and then!

There's a set of exit ramps on I-71 near Kings Island (pretty much everything except the NB exit and SB entrance) opened in 2018 that still doesn't have street view imagery.

In other parts of Cincinnati, the reconstructed I-75 between exits 13 and 14 got new imagery from right after when the project was finished in late 2020

Unrelated, but the "Donatos Pizza" location on the map only just allowed me to realize that the Donatos pizza I've been seeing on Red Robin menus is actually a chain and not something invented by them.

Donato's is a pizza chain which started in Columbus, OH.  For a thin crust pizza that is cut into short strips, it's not bad.

[webny99]

There's a set of exit ramps on I-71 near Kings Island (pretty much everything except the NB exit and SB entrance) opened in 2018 that still doesn't have street view imagery.

Do you one better–my street was built in 1976 and it still doesn't have imagery! And I'm smack dab in the middle of the third-largest city in the state, and can see the state's largest university from my roof...not like I'm out in the sticks or anything.

If it's just one street, that's pretty odd, but if it's the entire neighborhood, maybe it could be that there's a neighborhood association or something preventing Street View?  There was an entire neighborhood in my area that didn't have Street View for the longest time before finally getting it in 2019, and it didn't have anything to do with the age of the neighborhood - plenty of newer developments and the adjacent main roads had their Street View refreshed several times over in that period.

[J N Winkler]

If it's just one street, that's pretty odd, but if it's the entire neighborhood, maybe it could be that there's a neighborhood association or something preventing Street View?  There was an entire neighborhood in my area that didn't have Street View for the longest time before finally getting it in 2019, and it didn't have anything to do with the age of the neighborhood - plenty of newer developments and the adjacent main roads had their Street View refreshed several times over in that period.

I would be more likely to believe the private street/gated community explanation if Scott's house were built after 1980, when Clean Water Act implementation created incentives for developers to offload enhanced responsibilities for drainage onto homeowners' associations.

I did take a look at Norman with the StreetView availability layer turned on (i.e., Pegman clicked rather than clicked and dragged to a location on the map).  The arterials and collectors all seem to have StreetView, but there are random examples of neighborhood roads that have no StreetView, seemingly with no rhyme or reason (e.g., one cul-de-sac in a neighborhood has StreetView while the next doesn't).

[Scott5114]

There's a set of exit ramps on I-71 near Kings Island (pretty much everything except the NB exit and SB entrance) opened in 2018 that still doesn't have street view imagery.

Do you one better–my street was built in 1976 and it still doesn't have imagery! And I'm smack dab in the middle of the third-largest city in the state, and can see the state's largest university from my roof...not like I'm out in the sticks or anything.

If it's just one street, that's pretty odd, but if it's the entire neighborhood, maybe it could be that there's a neighborhood association or something preventing Street View?  There was an entire neighborhood in my area that didn't have Street View for the longest time before finally getting it in 2019, and it didn't have anything to do with the age of the neighborhood - plenty of newer developments and the adjacent main roads had their Street View refreshed several times over in that period.

Nope, no HOA, no gated community (I don't have the patience for such things, so I rejected any houses that had those when I was looking for a house to buy). I live on a corner lot, and the collector street running beside my house just got GSV coverage this past February, so my house is at least visible on GSV. But the street out front, that is named in my address and has a better view of the front elevation of my house, has no coverage. As J.N. mentions, it's apparently random which of the various culs-de-sac in my neighborhood have coverage; there's even one where the GSV car apparently stopped coverage halfway through without reaching the cul-de-sac for some reason.