Why Older Folks Need a GPS:

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RonBoyd Does your iPhone do all this? (And how useful is it while in stressful unfamiliar conditions... like in big city traffic at 70 MPH and exits going off in six directions during (semi?) rush hour traffic?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTSofFE6t-E

Very, very cool...........my DW needs this! Now if it only had a built in radar detector...

I use my Garmin a lot since I drive 25K+ miles per year. I've considered a dash camera but have not pulled the trigger yet. I don't like using the phone as I can pre-program addresses in the Garmin (saved to Favorites) and I love the lane views in city traffic and on freeways.

[NW-Bound]

Back on how old people need a GPS, it appears that posters here are doing quite OK discussing how they use one. The "other" old people who do not need or can use a GPS may be needing some other things a lot more. And we are all getting there.

So, go out and use your GPS while you still can.

[RonBoyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 I use my Garmin a lot since I drive 25K+ miles per year. ... I can pre-program addresses in the Garmin (saved to Favorites) and I love the lane views in city traffic and on freeways.

I, too, drive that many miles each year. Fresh in my mind is spending a couple weeks driving in southern California -- one can for traffic purposes consider it all one city from north of Los Angeles (say Van Nuys) to San Diego. And although there is an actual "rush hour" it is difficult to tell it from off-hour traffic. I can tell you that at freeway speeds, driving an RV (of any size), taking your eyes of the road for even a fraction of a second is life-threatening. Having the screen with all the relevant information available without taking your eyes off the road is... well, a life-saver for many reasons.

Of course, if I was driving in Denver or on state roads in central Wyoming, I could easily use a tiny screen cell phone mounted somewhere on the dash. Why I would even to be willing to bet that I could do it without either device. In fact, I have driven around Denver for 40 years without getting too lost without such a crutch. But get me navigating around in the center of Dallas (or Chicago... which is another city that covers more miles than indicated on a map along I-90) and I would be paralyzed without a dash mounted GPS unit.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Back on how old people need a GPS, it appears that posters here are doing quite OK discussing how they use one. The "other" old people who do not need or can use a GPS may be needing some other things a lot more. And we are all getting there. So, go out and use your GPS while you still can.

A few of my retired friends (mid 60's age wise) can't successfully use a Garmin (let alone a small screen cell phone) for aiding in their travels. We have had discussions about this at our ROMEO meetings. One guy, who is obviously slipping into dementia, but denies it, asked me if I could give him a lesson in using his Garmin. Sad, but it happens, and one lesson may not be remembered.

[dand76]

Call me old school but I still prefer a printed map and plan my route ahead of time. When the mega solar flare takes out the satellites, everyone will be driving around in circles and my system will still be working . Besides that, I have a wife who is more than happy to tell me where to go. I'm sure I'll join the gps club when we retire and travel more.

[drb391]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 TX statute on windshield mounted GPS: Sec. 547.613. RESTRICTIONS ON WINDOWS. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), a person commits an offense that is a misdemeanor: (1) if the person operates a motor vehicle that has an object or material that is placed on or attached to the windshield or side or rear window and that obstructs or reduces the operator's clear view; I place my Garmin mount below the registration and inspection stickers in the lower left area of the windshied (those DPS issued stickers already obstruct my view). The Garmin is then directly between me and the stickers. Works fine and it's there all the time.

I didn't like the windshield mount cuz they used to be an oft stolen item (maybe still). even the tell-tale ring left when unmounted let thieves know there was prolly one in the car somewhere. I got one of those beanbag mounts that you set anywhere convenient on the dash when driving and under the front seat when parked

[Walt34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dand76 Besides that, I have a wife who is more than happy to tell me where to go.

Is this the location?

[dand76]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 Is this the location?

Yep, that's one of many.

[NW-Bound]

While driving my motorhome, I run Microsoft Streets and Trips program on a netbook, which gets its position feed from a USB GPS dongle. No problem with the netbook resting on the big dashboard of the RV, and it provides a big display for my wife the navigator.

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RonBoyd During the upgrade process one is given the choice of uploading to the device AND your PC or to the device only. I long ago started selecting "device only" because it shortened the time but I also never found a need to keep a local copy.

From what tech support told me the same day. That flag just controls if the pc copy is transient or permanent. The guy said writing to the Garmin device was the slowest part of the process(probably not if your using a 56kb connection), that's why he claimed it was designed that way.

That said, they didn't give me source code.



🐑

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dand76 Call me old school but I still prefer a printed map and plan my route ahead of time. When the mega solar flare takes out the satellites, everyone will be driving around in circles and my system will still be working . Besides that, I have a wife who is more than happy to tell me where to go. I'm sure I'll join the gps club when we retire and travel more.

I actually like to use both. A GPS can really be handy to get you in and out of a bunch of street changes. But I still like to use google maps ahead of time, and I usually sketch a little map witht he roads before and after changes. You never know if that GPS is going to flake out, or you drop it, or whatever - I like to have an idea how to get there, just in case.

A few years back, DW and I did a little Prairie Street tour (Glessner house, Clarke House) in Chicago, and planned to go to Chinatown for lunch (Dim-Sum, mmmm). I wasn't familiar with the area ('Nort-side' guy), but I had a pretty good idea how to get from the mansions on Prairie street to Chinatown as I reviewed it on google-maps earlier, but I figured I'd just follow the GPS.

Well that GPS had us get on, and off, and on, and off, and on and off the expressway, and then wanted us to get back on and cross 6 lanes to hit the next exit - all for a one mile drive! I finally said the heck with this, and just went the way I knew would get us there. I don't know what the GPS was thinking.

Both. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

-ERD50

[RonBoyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound While driving my motorhome, I run Microsoft Streets and Trips program on a netbook, which gets its position feed from a USB GPS dongle. No problem with the netbook resting on the big dashboard of the RV, and it provides a big display for my wife the navigator.

Our ROADTREK is a Class B RV (Chevrolet Express Van), so there is insufficient room for anything larger than 6"-7". I do, however, keep S&Ts running in the back. I do this to log exactly where I have been.

For example:
Capture.JPG Capture-2.JPG

BTW, Microsoft stopped supporting S&T two years ago. What are we going to do when we have to upgrade our computers and cannot use the activation code? This will be like losing a part of the family.

[Brat]

Our car GPS is awful, our portable Garmin is fantastic. It has proven very reliable, it tells me what lane to be in well in advance of exit or turn. I will never buy a car with GPS again, will always use the portable (Garmin or phone) variety. Easy to buy an aftermarket backup camera.

[tulak]

This thread reminds me of the first time we ever used a GPS device in 2006. Not sure who made it, but it was most likely not a Garmin and it was lent to us by my BIL, who lives in Europe, for a trip we were making in Europe. I really appreciated borrowing the device, since it guided us into the center of Munich to our hotel without a hitch. It would have been much harder without the GPS.

Later in that trip we were in Innsbruck, getting ready to drive to Bologna. I told my wife that it should be about a 4 hour drive. We ended up having to reset the GPS at the time and it came back with a 10+ hour route to Bologna. Both of us were puzzled, until I realized that the route was taking all backroads through the Alps into Italy. Apparently my BIL had set the default to avoid all roads with tolls. That put a bit of a scare into us at the time, since we had to get to Bologna that day and the thought of driving 10+ hours with our two kids in the backseat was, uh, less than ideal. The good news is that after we changed the settings on the GPS, we made it in time for a late lunch in Italy.

[MRG]

I like the Garmin for driving better, but don't use it much anymore. It's just too easy to Google somewhere I want go and hit map.

🐑

[hnzw_rui]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 I actually like to use both. A GPS can really be handy to get you in and out of a bunch of street changes. But I still like to use google maps ahead of time, and I usually sketch a little map witht he roads before and after changes. You never know if that GPS is going to flake out, or you drop it, or whatever - I like to have an idea how to get there, just in case.

Same here. Aside from printed navigation and GPS, we also have a Thomas Guide in the car.

[Midpack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dand76 Call me old school but I still prefer a printed map and plan my route ahead of time. When the mega solar flare takes out the satellites, everyone will be driving around in circles and my system will still be working . Besides that, I have a wife who is more than happy to tell me where to go. I'm sure I'll join the gps club when we retire and travel more.

I am comfortable with maps, but it sure is nice when you get turned around in some unfamiliar place and your GPS automatically recalculates your route for you IME. Pulling over to consult a map in NYC (or any high traffic area) during rush hour or night can be troublesome. YMMV

[txtig]

Quote: "I stopped using the dashboard GPS a couple of years ago. I use the Waze app on my iPhone. It's a crowd sourced app that give pretty accurate traffic conditions. It will reroute me to avoid traffic jams. The voice directions are great. I hardly have to look at the screen."

+1 on Waze. This app provides real-time data on speed traps, road congestion, road hazards and traffic jams. But, the real beauty is its ability to re-route you to avoid traffic. Last week, I attended a boat & car show in Houston. I had planned on taking I-45 south towards Clear Lake, but it was a jammed up with traffic. Waze re-routed me to some back roads that had almost no traffic at all. It was slick. When I first started using Waze a few years ago, it tried to re-route me off of I-10 as I was just getting close to Baton Rouge. I thought that it had gone nuts, so I ignored it. Well, a few miles later the traffic came to a complete standstill. Was stuck the for over an hour while they cleared an accident. Really wished I had listened to my Waze then.


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[Chuckanut]

Older folks need GPS

I can read a map. Many of the millennials I know can't.

[easysurfer]

I'm totally dependent on my portable garmin gps.

The best feature is when missing a turn, the thing recalculates. Try that with a paper map.

Pre-gps days, one wrong turn could cost me an hour .