Who here uses a GPS?

[roadman]

And I do really like the speedometer feature.  I'm generally not a lead-footed driver, so it's handy to have the bell go off if I become distracted and get going a bit too fast above the posted limit.

That would drive me nuts.  I'm more worried about traffic's speed around me than following a limit imposed by a bunch of nutjobs in a legislature.  Usually around Chicago that means 15 over on the freeways and tollways.

Let me clarify.  On 65 mph freeways, I generally travel between 70 and 75, based on road conditions and other traffic.  Note that the "speeding alarm" feature is adjustable.  I have mine set to go off if I exceed 76.

And I agree with you, it's best to go with the speed and flow of traffic.

[PHX06]

My car has one built-in, so I can't help but glance down at it for alternate routes through neighborhoods when a main arterial is jammed up. Otherwise, when traveling across country or something -- it's definitely cheating to use it. I didn't waste ten years of my life studying my giant size Rand McNally for nothing.

The popularity of the modern day GPS system is ruining most people's ability to get around even their own neighborhood without electronic assistance. I've talked to people who have lived in the same area for ten years but are clueless when it comes to giving turn-by-turn directions without the aid of their GPS or mapquest. It's getting kind of sad. I refuse to let it happen to me, or much to their annoyance, my close friends and family. 

[agentsteel53]

The popularity of the modern day GPS system is ruining most people's ability to get around even their own neighborhood without electronic assistance. I've talked to people who have lived in the same area for ten years but are clueless when it comes to giving turn-by-turn directions without the aid of their GPS or mapquest. It's getting kind of sad. I refuse to let it happen to me, or much to their annoyance, my close friends and family. 

I think that's more a fault of some neighborhood designs.  A friend of mine (who posts here on occasion) lives somewhere in this labyrinth:

http://goo.gl/maps/KfDKC

I won't give much more detail so people don't show up at his door - that is, if they can find it!  Before I got a GPS, I used to print out a page from Google Maps because the turn-by-turn was just that confusing.  these days I know it well because I've done it so many times, but a similar neighborhood would cause me difficulty.

then again, I am not good at remembering deep stacks of turn-by-turn directions.  I can remember maybe 3-4 turns at most.  I don't think most people can remember many more.  There have been times when someone's asked me for directions on the street and I've told them "take the next left - then, after two traffic lights, take the first right which is gonna be unsignalized.  do you want more directions?  no?  okay, when you get to that point, ask the first person you see how to proceed!"

[hbelkins]

Yes, I own one. It's a roadgeek toy! 

Very handy for finding a specific address, and also for estimating travel time to a destination.

I always calculate routes beforehand and only rarely have I used the GPS to guide me to a destination without having already figured out which exit to take, etc.

I've owned a number of GPS devices over the years. First was a a DeLorme that plugged into a laptop, which made for a cumbersome setup in the car. Later it was a DeLorme Blue Logger connected to a Palm device, onto which I loaded DeLorme maps before each trip. Then I got a Garmin, after which I found some apps to load onto my iPhone and iPad.

One of the handiest features I've found is when county lines are marked on a particular mapping app and you're out clinching counties and sometimes have to venture down local roads on which the county line is not marked. Once the arrow indicator is well past the county line, you know you've clinched that county and it's safe to turn around and head back to the main road.

[silverback1065]

I never travel with GPS on all the time. If I'm at home & I'm driving somewhere new, I will sit down and memorize the instructions using Google Maps depending how complex it is (or scribble down notes that make sense to me). If I'm in the car already and need to go somewhere new, I'll do much the same on my phone but might let it navigate me too.

Other then that, I like traveling without tech. Just me & knowing the streets. Feels great knowing where you're truly going... and always able to figure out (or know) an alternate route if things are closed or there's bad traffic.

edit: I never have or use paper road maps or atlases too.

That's how I do it as well

[kphoger]

And I do really like the speedometer feature.

It's especialily handy if your vehicle doesn't have a working speedometer.  My good friend has even noticed that the tires he uses on his pickup make the speedometer give an inaccurate reading, so he goes by his GPS unit instead.

The popularity of the modern day GPS system is ruining most people's ability to get around even their own neighborhood without electronic assistance. I've talked to people who have lived in the same area for ten years but are clueless when it comes to giving turn-by-turn directions without the aid of their GPS or mapquest. It's getting kind of sad. I refuse to let it happen to me, or much to their annoyance, my close friends and family.

Our cable techs use GPS navigation a lot.  Sometimes, when they're signing off for the day with me, I overhear their device giving them directions to their own house.  Are you serious!

[wxfree]

I have a GPS and use it occasionally for finding a specific location I'm not familiar with.  Otherwise, I plan my own routes and remember every turn before I leave.  I still use the GPS on some long trips because I like to see how far I have left until the next town, which may be 40 or 60 miles from the last town.  If I have a target for arrival time, I use it to regulate my speed.  I always leave early, so I sometimes need to go a little slow.  I seem to be one of few people who actually enjoys the travel and sees no need to be in a hurry to get it finished.  I give due consideration to faster traffic, of course, but most of my long-distance travel is in very rural areas, so that mostly isn't a problem.

I'd be too uncomfortable going out far away without knowing my route.  It isn't that I don't trust the technology, or paper maps; I just don't like not having a sense of where I am and what's around.

[PHLBOS]

I didn't waste ten years of my life studying my giant size Rand McNally for nothing.

The popularity of the modern day GPS system is ruining most people's ability to get around even their own neighborhood without electronic assistance. I've talked to people who have lived in the same area for ten years but are clueless when it comes to giving turn-by-turn directions without the aid of their GPS or mapquest. It's getting kind of sad. I refuse to let it happen to me, or much to their annoyance, my close friends and family. 

AMEN!  PREACH IT BROTHA!

[1995hoo]

....

The popularity of the modern day GPS system is ruining most people's ability to get around even their own neighborhood without electronic assistance. I've talked to people who have lived in the same area for ten years but are clueless when it comes to giving turn-by-turn directions without the aid of their GPS or mapquest. It's getting kind of sad. I refuse to let it happen to me, or much to their annoyance, my close friends and family. 

Indeed last November when Virginia's HO/T lanes opened on I-495 some idiots were complaining that the lanes are "dangerous" because people "won't know where to go" because GPS devices don't show the lanes. Evidently the idea of just reading the damn signs never occurred to some people. I have to wonder how some of these people found their way around prior to electronic aids because they seem SO dependent on the things.

[NE2]

I have one. It gets used more often as a speedometer than as a map.

Same here. I got a simple receiver 10-15 years ago and had it mounted on my bike until I fell and broke the antenna. Add going 26 in a 25 to the serious offenses committed by cyclists

[theline]

A GPS is a great tool, and I'd recommend one to anyone. As has been pointed out, the speedometer feature is handy, and it can be so useful to have an ETA to share with folks at your destination. I would never become slave to one, but they're great when in unfamiliar territory, especially if plans change. They're handy for finding a place to stop for a bite too. Not everything is advertised on the road.

[hbelkins]

For those units which have the feature, tracking altitude can be pretty interesting as well.

[realjd]

I rarely use a GPS for long distance navigation but I find it an absolute necessity for last-mile navigation in an unfamiliar area. Its partly a safety issue. If I land in an unfamiliar city late at night, jet lagged, it lets me focus on driving safely with an unfamiliar rental car without the added burden of memorizing a stack or directions and trying to read what are often nonexistent or undersized street signs on my way to the hotel. The same goes for finding which anonymous building in the anonymous office park I need to be at for work in the morning. Once I've driven it a couple of times, I don't need the GPS anymore.

[oscar]

I can't stand GPS nav systems, and indeed went to some trouble to opt out of one for my pickup truck.  I couldn't opt out of the one for my car, but rarely use it for anything except as the equivalent of consulting a paper map (such as to display the local street network of an unfamiliar place, or let me gauge visually how far I am from my next turn or destination).  I don't trust the system to give me directions, having caught the one in my sister's car giving her bad directions (so she knows better than to give me one for a Christmas present).

I have a separate handheld hiker's GPS receiver, which I use sometimes on the road to grab coordinates, or off-road to help me find hot springs.

[CrossCountryRoads]

One other thing I forgot to mention that I like about the unit I have is that it will tell you the nearest town/city to your location.  While this is usually pretty obvious by just reading signs, I like to watch as your location changes and you become closer to a different town/city, or enter the corporate limits so you can see how far they stretch out if signs aren't posted.  Weird, I know, but I like it.

[empirestate]

Like many of you, I use GPS primarily as a portable map of everywhere. I've always enjoyed following along on a paper map, but as the driver that's not really practical. GPS units allow me to not only follow along in any area, but also to do so while driving. And like my reading of paper maps, it's as much about the pastime as it is about actual information.

Similarly, I'll use the routing feature as a diversion rather than instruction. I'll switch on a route that I know perfectly well and see how well the machine keeps up. Sometimes I'll ignore its directions, other times I'll follow them blindly as though I had never been to the area, and see whether I get there successfully. And sometimes, I even discover a new trick I hadn't thought of!

But no, in general I never use the thing for actually guiding me, but that was also true of paper directions when they were the technological pinnacle. I tend to have my route known and visualized before setting off. In fact, just imagining the map in my head is much easier than following each step one by one, just as in when reading English, I see whole words and phrases rather than individual letters, or in music, where I recognize whole chords and passages on sight instead of picking out each note individually. And most of us do it with math too...we just see 10x5 as 50, we don't count to five ten times and then see how many we end up with!

[jwolfer]

i like to see how long it takes for the GPS to recalculate after going off the route it picks... the desperate attempts to make you u-turn for  the first couple moments. 

[theline]

I praised the GPS earlier, but I have one criticism.

It's hard to put up with one more female voice yelling at me if I make a wrong turn. I've got a wife and two grown daughters who have so much experience at doing just that. 

[realjd]

I praised the GPS earlier, but I have one criticism.

It's hard to put up with one more female voice yelling at me if I make a wrong turn. I've got a wife and two grown daughters who have so much experience at doing just that. 

Set the voice to British Male. It sounds like you have a butler kindly nudging you toward your destination.

[theline]

^^ Thanks, but we tried that. On our Garmin the British guy garbled the street names too much. We went with the British female, who at least sounds classy while pointing out what an idiot I am.

Occasionally, it will reboot itself and set the language to Afrikaans. That's a hoot. At least it's easily fixed.

[kphoger]

..or ignored.

[A.J. Bertin]

No, I do not have a GPS. 

For trips to unknown areas, I'll get directions from MapQuest and stock up on road maps serving the area.  Since I'm a member of AAA, I could conceivably get an infinite amount of maps at no charge.

After seeing people my age and older, who have driven for years without a GPS, turn absolutely stupid and have delusions of god-hood over those devices (see my signature below); I have absolutely no interest nor desire in getting one.

I wish more people shared your sentiment. I'm only 33 years old and tend to be kind of a luddite when it comes to technology that I feel isn't necessary. I do not own a GPS nor ever want to own one. When I travel to a new place, I usually print some maps off Google Maps beforehand and bring them with me. Plus I usually have some atlases and paper maps that I rely on. I do consider using a GPS to be cheating. I have no desire to own one.

Here's one thing I will say... the one thing, in my opinion, that a GPS would be nice for is to search for locations of restaurants or retail establishments in an area with which I'm unfamiliar. (For instance, if I'm craving a Five Guys Burgers & Fries, it would be nice to know if there is one closeby.) However, years ago, we didn't have all this technology, and people managed just fine.

A big problem I have with GPS is that it often doesn't give you the "big picture" of where you're at in relation to your destination. Too many people rely on it blindly.

It's one less piece of equipment I need lying around. I'm all about simplicity and not relying on stuff when I don't need it.

[CrossCountryRoads]

I wish more people shared your sentiment. I'm only 33 years old and tend to be kind of a luddite when it comes to technology that I feel isn't necessary. I do not own a GPS nor ever want to own one. When I travel to a new place, I usually print some maps off Google Maps beforehand and bring them with me. Plus I usually have some atlases and paper maps that I rely on. I do consider using a GPS to be cheating. I have no desire to own one.

Here's one thing I will say... the one thing, in my opinion, that a GPS would be nice for is to search for locations of restaurants or retail establishments in an area with which I'm unfamiliar. (For instance, if I'm craving a Five Guys Burgers & Fries, it would be nice to know if there is one closeby.) However, years ago, we didn't have all this technology, and people managed just fine.

A big problem I have with GPS is that it often doesn't give you the "big picture" of where you're at in relation to your destination. Too many people rely on it blindly.

It's one less piece of equipment I need lying around. I'm all about simplicity and not relying on stuff when I don't need it.

Most GPS units allow you to customize the view so that you can see the "big picture" of where you are in relation to your destination.  On the other hand, the view that just shows an arrow in the middle of the screen pointing forward....I agree with you there, that is kinda stupid, since of course you know to move forward.

While some people rely blindly on them, I think I can speak for most of the people on here who replied saying they use one when I say that we don't rely solely on the device.  In fact, most of us just like the perks and convenience offered on the GPS units.  I like how it gives me an accurate ETA and the exact mileage to the destination/stop that I have customized the route to.  I like how it tells you the nearest town/city so you can see when you actually enter town/city limits if there aren't signs posted.  I like having a complete "road atlas" at the tip of my fingers that I can just touch to scroll around and zoom in and out of, seeing the city streets of smaller cities not detailed in the road atlas.

But you're right; you need to use common sense when you use one and can't blindly rely on it.  If you use the proper dose of common sense, I've found the GPS units to not only be neat, but helpful on more than a few occasions.

[PHLBOS]

you need to use common sense when you use one and can't blindly rely on it.

Here's where I first heard of GPS' for cars...

The first of Nationwide insurance's Life Comes At You Fast commercials.

Sadly, I've known too many people like the guy in the above-commercial when it comes to GPS usage.

[nwi_navigator_1181]

Most GPS units allow you to customize the view so that you can see the "big picture" of where you are in relation to your destination.  On the other hand, the view that just shows an arrow in the middle of the screen pointing forward....I agree with you there, that is kinda stupid, since of course you know to move forward.

While some people rely blindly on them, I think I can speak for most of the people on here who replied saying they use one when I say that we don't rely solely on the device.  In fact, most of us just like the perks and convenience offered on the GPS units.  I like how it gives me an accurate ETA and the exact mileage to the destination/stop that I have customized the route to.  I like how it tells you the nearest town/city so you can see when you actually enter town/city limits if there aren't signs posted.  I like having a complete "road atlas" at the tip of my fingers that I can just touch to scroll around and zoom in and out of, seeing the city streets of smaller cities not detailed in the road atlas.

But you're right; you need to use common sense when you use one and can't blindly rely on it.  If you use the proper dose of common sense, I've found the GPS units to not only be neat, but helpful on more than a few occasions.

Your jib...I like the cut of it. A perfect summation of proper GPS usage.