GPS Tom-Tomfoolery

My wife and I recently stayed at the Marriott Towne Place Suites hotel in Erie, Pennsylvania. This comfortable and convenient hotel is situated on the extended property of a major shopping mall, causing all sorts of problems for today's GPS devices. People use GPS devices to find hotels when they're traveling to unfamiliar places, but sometimes these new gizmos take them on a wild ride to nowhere. Luckily I knew where I was going, so I had the opportunity to just play along with dearest Tom Tom. He's led me astray before, so I've learned to relax and enjoy the insanity.

Here's a map of where the hotel is, at least according to Google Maps. You'll note that the marker points to the entrance of Millcreek Mall, while the hotel is in the far northwest corner of the shopping center lot near Zimmerly Road and I-79.


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On this recent trip, Tom Tom took us off I-79 North at Interchange Road and told us to make a right turn. We should have entered directly into the mall at that point, but so be it. As soon as we made the turn, it began trying to figure out how to get us back to that entrance, suggesting a U-turn on a divided highway, then directing us to make our way over poorly paved roads to get back to the divided highway and make an impossible left turn across the divider on a four-lane highway.

We could laugh because I was familiar with the area, but others weren't so lucky. There was a state wrestling competition in town that weekend, so parents with their children were packed in vans and driving across the state and only wanted to get to the hotel and rest for the next day's festivities. And they were also being directed hither and yon by their GPS devices. The clerk at the hotel apologized for what has become a familiar struggle for her customers. The man in line behind me had a slew of wrestlers and family members, all frustrated at the last leg of their journey to this hotel.

So, what's the story here? GPS looks at an address by marking the entrance from a public roadway. Private lands are unfamiliar territory to Tom Tom. If the hotel is deep in private lands, the hotel gets an address based on the nearby road -- in this case Interchange Road -- and the devil is in the details.

Some day the mapping coordinates for these places will be added to the software. But for now you should expect to drive aimlessly about unfamiliar lands on occasion. You can mitigate your frustrations by going the extra step of looking at the satellite imagery of your destination to see if the lay of the land meshes with what Google and Tom Tom have labeled as the final point of your journey.

My daughter successfully overcame this sort of Tom-Tomfoolery the other day while going to visit our sick cat at Sayrebrook Veterinary Hospital in Sayreville, NJ. She happened to recall my blog article some months ago on how very far off the GPS was on the hospital's actual location, so she was undeterred when she was directed at least a mile off course. Somehow Google Maps thinks that 1400 Main Street is 990 Main Street. You can see the hospital in Google Map's street view below. Then look at the street view at bottom to see the jungle where Google Maps and Tom Tom sent my daughter.


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