how i defeat bad directions

Many moons ago back in the late 2000s, a Garmin nuvi was (and I would argue still is) the best thing to use for GPS navigation. However, I identified a problem. For certain locations, the destination was marked wrong. Sometimes what was supposed to be on the right side of the street was on the left. Or, sometimes the destination was marked in the middle of the road and not on either side of the street. Or, sometimes the destination would be way off.

If you're thinking, "Well, that was a long time ago and locations are marked much more accurately now." Wrong. Oh, so wrong. The same problem exists today and it's even worse than before.

I use a Garmin DriveSmart 76, which is pretty darned good. But whether I'm using that, a navigation app on a phone, or infotainment navigation system, I'm still encountering the same problem I did almost 20 years ago where some addresses are just flat out marked wrong.

What I did to defeat this back in the late 2000s is something I still have to do today, albeit just slightly different. I'll describe both methods.

Old way (which still works):

Before heading out, go to my computer, load up Google Maps or Bing Maps in a web browser, find where I want to go, right-click and get the GPS coordinates. Punch that info into my Garmin, go there.

Modern way:

Load up Google Maps on my phone, press and hold the exact spot I want to navigate to until a red pin is dropped. If that doesn't show me GPS coordinates, I just keep hunting around the map until I find a pin drop that shows me that info. Once I have it, I punch that info into the Garmin, and off I go. If I'm not in my car and just have my phone with me, I'll put that info into a navigation app, and then I go.

"Last mile" is usually the only thing that truly matters

If I have to skip a highway exit due to traffic, that's fine because I can just take the next exit.

If I have to take some wacky side street route with U-turns involved or whatever to get to a place, again, fine. I can deal with that.

Where I get tensed up is at the very near end of the trip. It's either when a) the nav system states "you're here!" but I don't see it and have to hunt around, or b) I do see the destination, but the nav system put me in the wrong spot and I have to lap around. Either of those scenarios are really annoying...

...unless I navigate directly by GPS coordinates instead. Coordinates are an absolute and is as ultra-specific as you can get.

One of the first times coordinates really saved me was when going to a specific Dunkin' Donuts store in Tampa Florida.

If I drove to that place "the normal way", that involved traveling on a major road, passing the store, then doing a rather dangerous U-turn, go back, then another dangerous right turn just to get there. Ridiculous.

Before I went the next time, I loaded up Google Maps at home because I figured there must be a better way to get there. I found that if I used coordinates to get me to a very specific entrance point, combine that with getting off that major road slightly early, getting there would be much safer. I was right, and it was.

That was the way I did things nearly 20 years ago, and it's still the way I get to places now. Even if it's a place I've never been to before, oh yes, I will look it up on the map first to get the exact spot I want and/or determine the easiest, safest entrance point.

Do I do this for rural locations, too? You bet I do. If I have to get to an address somewhere in the sticks, yes I will load up the map, find the place, and get coordinates for the driveway. It's that I want to find more so than the building/house itself so I can park my car without issue.

Here's a great example. In Rhode Island, if I want to go to Newport and take a stroll on the cliff walk, there is only one place I could find to park my car, and it doesn't have an address. I have coordinates marked that literally leads to a tree on a tiny side street. Typical to Rhode Island roadways, it's not easy to get to, but once there, I can park, walk a short distance, then I'm on the cliff walk.

Will the problem of badly marked locations ever be solved?

That's an easy answer. No.

Why? That's also an easy answer. There are way too many locations to get them all correct, and moreover keep them correct.

For every address you've ever seen marked in the wrong spot, there are probably many more also marked incorrectly within a 5 mile radius of where you are. And even if you submit a map correction, yeah, good luck with that going through. Not only is it typical for some addresses to be 7 years or more out-of-date, but also typical for some businesses to be listed that closed shop 7+ years ago too. And for new locations (such as new apartment buildings), it can sometimes take years before they show up on the map, if at all.

If you want correct directions, mark the places you need to go yourself using GPS coordinates, and you'll get there. This was true 20 years ago, and it's still true now.

Published 2025 Jan 21