For us to say the GPS is ruining things for others is true or biased?

[roadman65]

Let me explain the grabber I just used.  IMO I feel that the world would be better off without the GPS as we do not familiarize ourselves anymore with our surroundings, and also we do not no longer use our other senses that we used to use to travel whether locally or long distance.

Now to me I wonder if I am being biased with that being I love roads and still enjoy the maps myself to read and consulting other means to travel?  Plus being into roads does not see what the non road users see is another factor to support that.  Then again, living in the pre GPS era and having brought up only to rely on primitive means of the times I was in, I see the changes of people not mentioning having been a toll collector I hear the same ole line "I did not know I was on a toll road as the GPS sent me here" despite all freeways that are tolled now have the TOLL in yellow or green above the shields and are visible to all drivers.  Most of all, we as motor vehicle operators are not only supposed to be reading all road signs (with signs being more visible to you as a stranger to a new road) but simple common sense to comprehend a very visible message. 

What do you think?  Is being a road enthusiast making us bias when we say the GPS is junk or think that in general, or do you think that we are correct in assetaining (sorry I misspelled) that the GPS is not a good invention as the human mind is not ready for it?

[Max Rockatansky]

GPS sure has gotten people off really rural and scenic backroads in non-urban areas.  From that perspective it's a boon for me since I since I'm usually interacting with far less people.  That said, GPS users have created nightmare commutes on roads like Patterson Pass and Corral Hollow Road near Tracy/Livermore.  From what I've seen actually GPS applications seem to be even to blame for those cases over a vanilla GPS unit. 

[Rothman]

The one big advantage of GPS services is being able to better judge whether I should go around traffic or sit in the jam.  In the old days, you just got stuck.

So, point taken about people losing a sense of direction or of the bigger environment, but that one big advantage can't really be dismissed.

And, I have to say that in really nasty situations where people follow Google or whatnot to detour around traffic only to cause another jam, old school navigation and map reading can help with that as well.

ETA:  Route planning through online services has made very complex routes exponentially more feasible and shortcuts using local roads more transparent.  In the old days, trying to decipher a Rand McNally urban inset map was guesswork.

[GaryV]

I have found different ways of getting somewhere that I wouldn't have found without GPS.  Mostly when I have a pre-conceived notion based on what I read on maps or routes I had previously taken.

For example, going from Oakland County to Kettering University in Flint.  I'd been up and down I-75 numerous times, so I knew there was a sign at the M-21 exit, and I used that route.  Takes you through some sketchy neighborhoods.  Then one time I put it into my GPS to see if I was going to be on time, and it told me to take I-69 east to Hammersmith Rd.  Sure enough, that's a little shorter.  But the benefit to me is that it goes through a much better neighborhood.

I have two pretty common reasons for using GPS:
-- So I know to avoid traffic backups (although Google Maps often vastly underestimates the delays caused by construction or accidents)
-- So when I am going somewhere that I know the vicinity, but not the exact location:  Is it 2 blocks to go, or 1/2 a mile?

[MikeTheActuary]

I have two pretty common reasons for using GPS:
-- So I know to avoid traffic backups (although Google Maps often vastly underestimates the delays caused by construction or accidents)
-- So when I am going somewhere that I know the vicinity, but not the exact location:  Is it 2 blocks to go, or 1/2 a mile?

I'll add a third common use: while it's imperfect, I see increasing utility in warning about speed traps, etc.

It's easy to be dismissive towards GPS/SatNav because basic navigation skills among the general public seems to be deteriorating, but some other occasional/incidental benefits I see include:

- I like it when Google Maps indicates an alternate route that might add xx minutes to the drive.  I've been places I hadn't planned on going, as a result.

- When time permits, a wrong turn potentially leads to an adventure, with your preferred mapping tool being able to dynamically reroute, instead of necessarily needing to make a U-turn to get back on route, or having to spend quality time parked to study a map.

- On longer roadtrips, GPS-driven tools allow for optimization of stops.  I can focus on driving without having to study a map to find out the answer to questions like "how far is it to the next rest area"; crowd-sourced information-gathering makes it possible to easily identify a "good" exit for refueling.

- Variation of the point above (both positive and negative), meals on long drives through unfamiliar areas can be less unpredictable.  Instead of guessing what's coming up when the cry, "I'm hungry!" is raised, a couple of voiced queries will usually yield acceptable answers.  You lose some of the joy of random discovery...but if you are pushing to cover distance, and/or are traveling with someone with special needs and/or finicky tastes....

[J N Winkler]

It seems to me that this question is about online mapping services, not just GPS.  I grew up with paper maps and am accustomed to using them to navigate, but I would say that online mapping (not GPS so much) has made things much easier, not just because of the capability to zoom according to one's desired level of detail (I concur vigorously with Rothman's comment about deciphering Rand McNally's urban inset maps--I actually used state DOT official maps much more heavily, but the same issues apply), but also because StreetView can be used to locate addresses by their appearance from the street and to identify driveway cuts.  When I set out to drive to an unfamiliar location, I now almost invariably pull it up on StreetView if that is available, or use satellite imagery if it is not.

As for GPS, I use it primarily to log travel.  Situations where I need it to know where I am tend to be quite rare.  One example is a network of gravel roads north of US 64 in the vicinity of the high-level Rio Grande Bridge in northern New Mexico--I was trying to work my way to an earlier crossing, built 1910 at a much lower level.  That was in 2012.  Another example, from 2014, was on cookie-cutter surface streets in Santa Monica right after I had bailed out of a traffic jam on I-10.  I simply parked at the curb for as long as it took to plot a surface route from blue dot (my then current location) to Venice Beach, where I took in the canals while waiting for traffic to quiet down.

I know the street network in my local area well enough that I typically don't pull my phone out when I need to detour around traffic jams.  I don't find Google's traffic layer all that helpful because it is not very good at differentiating between true jams and normal-length queues at red signals.  Jams also don't happen often enough (at least on my regular routes) to justify a phone check for them before I set out.  However, this is for journey leg length typically around four miles on surface streets in a city with 400,000 population:  the situation is definitely different for longer commutes and freeway travel (Kellogg especially is unreliable).

[doorknob60]

I think GPS (really, Google Maps/Waze navigation these days) is great for certain purposes. I like it for getting around to different destinations in unfamiliar cities (particularly things like residential addresses, where I'll use Google Maps even in my own city, because I can't know every random suburban residential street). But I don't use it in between cities (other than planning purposes before-hand).

I always know the general highway network of the places I drive, but I am not always familiar with the local street grid. And even if I am (such as Portland, which I visit a few times a year and have some familiarity with, but I'm no expert), I may not know which routes are most efficient and least likely to run into traffic problems. For planned stops, like hotel stays and such, I always want to know how to get there myself, but any unplanned stops, GPS is great.

And speaking of traffic, the other great feature, at least of Google Maps and Waze, is live traffic information. It's great knowing where accidents are so I can avoid them, and which highways/streets are currently backed up and which ones are moving. I use this often even in my city. Though it's more a process of open Google Maps, look at where the traffic is on the map, decide a route based on that, then leave, but not using navigation.

[kphoger]

It seems to me that this question is about online mapping services, not just GPS. ... As for GPS, I use it primarily to log travel. 

Agreed.  I do not have a sat-nav device for my car, but I use GPS on my cell phone to track my drives.

[Flint1979]

I use a GPS even in my hometown which I could very easily get around in without one. Saginaw isn't that big of a city. But another thing for me at least in Michigan is that I take the dealer stuff off my cars if there is any on it and just keep a plain jane license plate. This is so that I can go wherever I want in the state of Michigan and look like a local. So I could be in Marquette or Kalamazoo and no one would know anything about where I'm from. Now since I only have a Michigan plate this only works in Michigan.

I have also used a GPS for county clinching in other states. I use my phone, either Waze or Google Maps.