Most inaccurate map by a major publisher (includes RMcN Cincinnati)

[bandit957]

What is the most inaccurate map by a major map company you've seen?

I have a 1984 Rand McNally street map of Cincinnati that's just absolutely full of mistakes. I don't know how it even got published, or how it even made some of the mistakes it did. It has several roads marked as freeways that weren't even close to being freeways, lots of places where roads seem to meet at-grade though there was actually a bridge, street names being off by several blocks, roads cut off by freeways when they were actually not cut off, Silver Grove being almost completely devoid of any streets at all, a big divided highway off I-74 being complete though it was actually never built, and other examples of stinking.

I actually had this map hanging up on my wall when I was about 14.

[webny99]

It would have to be a JIMAPCO Finger Lakes Street Atlas that I still have lying around somewhere. Between the multitude of actual errors and new roads that I added in over time, pretty much every page now has 5+ edits.

[PHLBOS]

Circa 1977-1978, Rand McNally jumped the gun by about 10 years when it showed I-95 in Peabody being complete between US 1 (what would later become Exit 46) MA 128 on its fold-out road maps for Boston & Vicinity as well as its Massachusetts state maps.  Curious about this development at the time, I asked my father to drive by the area while on a trip to/from a restaurant we ate at (likely Augustines in Saugus along US 1) to check it out.  Needless to say, I was disappointed when we discovered that such had not happened.

Rand McNally corrected the error on its 1979 maps & atlases.
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Another Rand McNally error, in reality wishful thinking at the time, was its showing an interchange (white square) for I-95 & the PA Turnpike on its road atlases (not sure about the fold-out road maps). 

Another version showed an extension of the PA 413 connector highway extending out to & interchanging with the PA Turnpike.  Both of these errors were on late 70s (1979) and early 80s (1981) editions of their mid-size road atlases that still featured the older-style graphics.

Needless to say, if one took either of those two errors as gospel at the time; they'd be in for a rude awakening when going through there.

As we all know, the first oversight wouldn't become reality (at least partially) until just over a year ago.

[TheGrassGuy]

I used to have a map of NY erroneously claiming that NY 146 west of I-87 was a freeway.

[wanderer2575]

It's worth noting that some mapmakers deliberately include errors to help prove copyright infringement when those same errors show up on maps produced and sold by other companies/sources.  But usually they are very minor errors that few people, if any, would notice.

I heard a story many years ago that a map company (sorry, can't remember which one) whose Powers That Be were fans of Michigan football included two fictitious towns on a road map of Michigan:  Goblu (Go Blue) and Beatosu (Beat OSU).

[ilpt4u]

We discussed it on the Illinois Notes thread on the Midwest board...but the 2019-2020 IDOT Illinois Highway Map has a few errors that its predecessor editions did not

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=7646.1550
http://www.idot.illinois.gov/Assets/uploads/files/Travel-Information/Maps-&-Charts/2019ILMap1.pdf

[renegade]

It's worth noting that some mapmakers deliberately include errors to help prove copyright infringement when those same errors show up on maps produced and sold by other companies/sources.  But usually they are very minor errors that few people, if any, would notice.

I heard a story many years ago that a map company (sorry, can't remember which one) whose Powers That Be were fans of Michigan football included two fictitious towns on a road map of Michigan:  Goblu (Go Blue) and Beatosu (Beat OSU).

That was the official Michigan map from, IIRC, 1977 or so. 

[jeffandnicole]

NJ 29 around Trenton was shown as a major highway for years on Rand McNally's atlases, complete with only one interchange between 295 and (former) 95.

When I had my own personal website for roads, I took a picture of that error and posted it on my page. Rand McNally saw it (I think I contacted them and pointed it out), and they told me to take it down. I did, and sure enough a few weeks later in my visitor logs, I could see that they did indeed revisited the page to verify I had removed it.

[GaryV]

It's worth noting that some mapmakers deliberately include errors to help prove copyright infringement when those same errors show up on maps produced and sold by other companies/sources.  But usually they are very minor errors that few people, if any, would notice.

I heard a story many years ago that a map company (sorry, can't remember which one) whose Powers That Be were fans of Michigan football included two fictitious towns on a road map of Michigan:  Goblu (Go Blue) and Beatosu (Beat OSU).

That was the official Michigan map from, IIRC, 1977 or so.

78-79 map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatosu_and_Goblu

As I recall, Ohio was outraged.

Incidentally, Fletcher was appointed to the MSU Board, despite being a UM grad and avid supporter.

[Rothman]

Some years ago, I caught a misplaced US 44/US 202 shield on RMcN's CT map on their atlas -- the shield was on the wrong side of Avon.  They fixed it in the following year.

[PHLBOS]

Another mid-to-late 70s boo-boo on Rand McNally's Boston and Vicinity fold-out road maps was the placement of an I-93 shield along MA 228, a 2-lane undivided roadway well east of the actual I-93 (both Southeast Expressway & then-MA 128 portions).

[Concrete Bob]

One of the most blatant examples I have seen were the Rand Mc Nally street maps (and North American Road Atlas) covering San Francisco between 1978 and 1980. The maps showed Interstate 280 as completed and open up to the Embarcadero Freeway and the Bay Bridge.  I am guessing their research indicated that 280 would be open and completed by 1978.  By the 1981 edition, the portion of 280 east of Fourth Street was removed from their maps.   

[DJ Particle]

RMcN said that MA-25 up to the Bourne Bridge was "under construction" years before it actually *was*.  In fact, I think the freeway was only built up to just barely past current Exit 2, including the ramps for same, before construction re-started in 1986.