don't trust your satnav - it takes you on backroads that are not shortcuts

A snowHead

the so called 'short cut' between Dijon and Lausanne is not a short cut.

it is like driving from south wales to north wales through the brecon beacons instead of taking a longer looking route on motorways.

and beware of doing it when it is icy or snowing, it scared the living daylights out of my partner and I when we drove it during late evening and it was heavy snow - the road was so quiet we were creating out own tracks in 20cm snow and the hairpin bends i don't want to even talk about because it gives me the willys (urgh my back has broken out in a sweat at the thought)

it took us about 6 hrs at 20mph to do that route when we could have been going at 60mph (it was snowing) around Geneva.

anyway we got to Sion to go up the mountain pass and had been awake for 46 hrs because snowed up jams in the UK trying to get to Eurotunnel.

then satnav directed us along another short cut. this time it took us up road that turned into a farm track (remember it was heavy snow) and we got stuck on a steep climb in about 30cm snow with a sheer drop into a ravine. (my instructions from google had the same route, that is why I trusted it)

It was minus 15 on the car temp gauge and I had to get out and inch by inch direct my partner to reverse down the hill for about 400 hundred yards. by now it was 3am

There was a normal road to the resort that we eventually found.

but I don't think we'll ever get over the whole experience.

so please be sure to print out the instructions before departing and stick to them....

A snowHead

I still maintain Satnav is no substitute for a map used in conjunction with a human brain.

I can see why people use them for up-to-date traffic information and to pinpoint a specific address, but to rely on them totally seems open to ending up in some very strange locations!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

30cm of snow on the roads, and only rain when you actually arrived. Not your week, is it?

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It's happened more than once that guests trying to make it to our chalet in Sainte Foy have followed their sat nav from Geneva airport. This has taken them through the Mont Blanc tunnel, then directed them over the Col du Petit Saint Bernard.

The following conversation is not exaggerated:

"Hi, how are you guys doing, just wondering when you're going to get here?"

"Not too long now, we're just about to cross the border."

"Border?"

"Yes, we're in Italy, but we're about to cross the border."

"Did you go through the Mont Blanc tunnel?"

"Yes, but we're about to cross the border again."

"You need to turn around now and go back through the tunnel."

"No, the sat nav says we're nearly there."

"No, the Col is closed because of snow, you need to turn around and go back the way you came."

"But that'll take ages, we're nearly there, we'll just try it and see."

"I skied down that road last week, there is over 2m of snow, you need to turn around."

"No, no, we think we'll just try it and see what happens."

"OK, see you soon."

.....

.....

MUCH later.

"We got up towards the pass and there was 2m of snow. We had to turn around and go back through the tunnel."

"Really? Imagine that...."

(BTW, the travel directions we hand out very specifically say DO NOT USE YOUR SAT NAV TO TRAVEL FROM GENEVA!)

Sending people through the Beaufortain and over the Cormet du Roseland isn't unknown either.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

slidergirl, You're not having much fun are you? The route via Besancon is shorter and quicker than going around the autoroute via Geneva. You do though have to check the weather as it gets up to over 1,000m in places and if the temps are low and there's precip in the forecast the prudent go via Geneva.

I'd suggest you stop dwelling on the miserableness of it all - Le Pub Mont Fort is open in an hour and a half, get in there and get Dave to pour you a pint.

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Got stung like this last January going from Treviso airport up to Arabba. What should have been a fairly simple 2.5 hour (ish) drive, turned into a 5.5 hour nightmare when the Sat Nav took us through Cortina and up over the Falzarego Pass at 2100m in pitch black darkness, driving snow, gale force winds and temps of about -30. The windscreen wipers froze solid to the windscreen, the front of the car was acting as a snow plough cutting through drifts of snow and I nearly froze to death when i got out to attempt to put the snow chains on.

I fully admit that only an idiot wouldn't check the suggested route first and screen it for mountain passes of that kind of altitude in that kind of weather.

How we got to Arabba alive is one of the those mysteries that I will wonder about forever.

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Sat Navs in our part of Hampshire regularly take satnav followers into a river, I hear the local farmeer charges £30.00 to tow them out Very Happy

On Salisbury Plain some satnavs take you along Tank tracks, I havent heard what the Army charges for recovery (or maybe target practice Toofy Grin

)

¬

After all it is free

What's needed is some kind of 'satnav users license' to ensure that only people of above average intellect are allowed to have one.

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queen bodecia, you'd be partly correct. However, a satnav using with a brain is way more useful than using a map with a brain. Satnavs let users down when user error is a factor.

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There's warning after warning here on snowheads about NOT relying on satnavs for routes in, and to, the mountains. They can only be a helpful supplement, not a substitute, for a human brain and a good map.

But a map also needs a brain. One of our visitors, after a week here in April, was driving east into Switzerland and across to Austria. He'd planned a route already, re-visiting some favourite spots from a summer holiday some years previously. He showed me his map - nice topo map - and proudly traced out his route. It was perfectly obvious that it went over a number of high passes (that's why it was so attractive Twisted Evil

). I suggested they might be closed and he was astonished. We found - in seconds - websites indicating the state of the passes he'd planned to cross, and they were all closed.

In poor weather conditions, unless you have local knowledge or good local advice, stick to the main roads, preferably motorways. Even if it seems much longer.

You know it makes sense.

My favourite Satnav story

http://www.todmordennews.co.uk/news/Satnav-trip-left-man-on.5109858.jp

That's a fair way down a really nice bit of singletrack we mountain bike down, he'd not been on tarmac for some time and mst have driven over heather and rocks to get to that point.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I'm a traditional 'map and brain' girl meself...I don't give a rat's ass about sat navs for going anywhere to be honest, either in this country or elsewhere. Have never owned one and I suspect I never will do, or use one, I've never felt the need to I must admit. I think they could be potentially lethal along mountain roads and by the sounds of it elsewhere from some of the above posts....... Shocked

slidergirl, sorry to hear about your bad experience.

A snowHead

I think our bus from London to Val D'Isere went that way once - we had a new driver that had not driven the route before and his co-driver was asleep when the driver followed his Tom Tom and got off the motorway and he didn't wake up until we got to the swiss border checkpoint - oooops! He nearly burned the brakes out going down those hairpin bends into geneva but it was a beautiful sight at 6am in the morning heading down off the mountain into the clouds above the lake at Geneva.

A snowHead

The problem with my sat nav is that once you program in your destination, there is no way of actually scanning the route first or even finding out which roads it is going to take you on. All you can do is zoom out from the current screen, which once you go past a certain %age is useless anyway.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Us Too............... thanks to our Volvo SATNAV - we were also 'guided' through the mont blanc tunnel on the way to Ste Foy a few years ago - same story - 3am and just 20 mins from destination when we found the pass impassable!

15 point turn on the side of a mountain in deep snow, -18 and crap snowchains (thankfully in our excellent XC90) plus 3 kids sleeping in the back - eventually got there at midday the next day, after finally finding a hotel open at 5am, and a decent breakfast to get us going again! Good news was we were on fantastic snow by 2pm!!

will never trust just the satnav again in Europe - will always routemaster our trip aswell

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It's a navigation aid. There are others.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

It seems odd that many maps have a simple symbol for 'road closed in winter', yet technology has failed to equip Satnav systems with the same feature. My basic UK road map even has a symbol on Snake Pass and many Scottish Highland roads that stands for 'road often impassable in inclement weather'.

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After all it is free

I drove from the west coast of US to the east coast in one November some years back, in a sedan without snow chains. (I know I would not need the chains once I got to the east coast and tried to get through without having to need one)

I have about 5-6 different routes to choose from, all of them big interstate highways. But, years of skiing at Lake Tahoe also taught me just because it's big interstate highway may still require chains. So I tried to find the a route with the lowest passes (the further south I go the less likely to get snow), but still have good scenary. Not having elevations marked on the map required me to guess where the passes are and what elevation they are at. Thanks for the internet, it was relatively quickly done AT HOME with a comuter.

Just wish it was more available ON THE MAP itself. So if I choose to change route, I could see right away, without having to log on to check on such info seperately.

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I have to say that say what you like about Landrovers but their built in satnav has yet to take me down a road that I can't manage, and although it has taken me down some very narrow lanes they were all passable and we were only going down them because I was avoiding some multi mile traffic jams

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I don't need a satnav. I think I am just lucky enough to have an natural good sense of direction. When in a strange place I seem to be able to "feel" which is the right direction to take. I drove my mother-in-law all over northern Germany just fine with a basic map (she has NO mapreading skill whatsoever & won't even try). I bought a sat nav for the other half some years ago though and when we first tried it...

Me: "It says it'll take 2.5 hours for this journey"
Him: "No way, I can do it faster than that".....
.... "look - its eta has come down 3 minutes - I'm beating it already Cool

"
Me: "

, calm down dear, it's an estimate not a challenge!"

Having said that I do find it a really useful aid, and often borrow it if I am going somewhere alone. I look at the satnav's recommended route and check it out with a map too. I like the Google map feature that lets you drag the route onto different roads so you can easily compare mileages and estimated travel times. When I decide on the route I programme the satnav to use that route, but use it really to remind me of waypoints. I'd never have one that didn't let me tweak the route. Going through towns it can be a dead loss, and road alterations since my last update can confuse it, so I always make sure I know which main road number I should be on and which main towns are in the right direction. As PamW says a sat nav is far easier for a lone traveller than having to keep consulting a map book and I also find it helpful to have an eta without having to engage brain to work it out!

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pam w,

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Slidergirl - sounds awful. You'll be a lot wiser after this trip, I'd say.

On a lighter note, I rely on the ultimate navigational aid - "Wifenav".

I have absolutely no sense of direction, whereas Mrs Snowplough is nothing short of a genius with a map. She once detoured us off the autoroute near Paris, through some dodgy looking suburbs to avoid a traffic jam, and got us back on the A1 in (just) enough time to catch the ferry.

If contemplating a trip skiing in the car, Wifenav would be packed first, before even my passport and travel insurance. Smile

The lady is a true treasure, and a depressingly good skier as well.

A snowHead

The Flying Snowplough, Do you never get software conflicts between satnav and Driver Management System (mine's called Bev)? Two female voices in the car giving opposite instructions can be tricky!

Poor old slidergirl, has had a rotten time. I hope it has stopped raining and you have some nice fresh powder. It looks better on webcams today. On topic, I think you have to learn to use satnav systems. They are by no means idiot proof. ( I know one idiot that followed his though the middle of Geneva last Easter - come to think of it, that was me.)

snowHead

A snowHead

I find part of the fun of a journey is planning the route with the aid of a map. I then jot down the essentials on a post it and print out the google map of the final destination to have to hand. I've yet to get lost ever. No satnav involved.

On a motorcycle journey there is the added interest of having to memorise the sections of journey between petrol fill-ups (rather difficult to glance at a map whilst riding a bike, although I do sometimes have the map/post-it in a tank pocket.

Technology? Pah! Laughing

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Chris Bish, Mrs Snowplough a.k.a. Wifenav does not permit rival technology in the car. The only other voices in the car are the Little Snowploughs and they don't care where we're going, so long as the glove box has sweets in it. Smile

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

My Wifenav has a particularly slow processor that only informs me of turns once they've been passed Smile

In the same way others like to scour a paper map I like to do the same thing with my satnav. I'll pre-program the route and check out the whole thing in detail, compare it to other sources (i.e. maps.google.co.uk), and make sure I'm aware of roughly where I should be going. The only times I've had problems is where I've decided to ignore the satnav, or misunderstood which exit to take.

We had a two week holiday driving around California and Nevada this Summer, and Navigon on my iPhone was absolutely flawless. Because I wasn't constantly having to point out Wifenavs deficiencies a good time was had by all Smile

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Errrr no poo-poo sherlock.... Use a map and pay attention to the big signs that say " COL DU XYXX FERME"

After all it is free

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don't trust your satnav - it takes you on backroads that are not shortcuts

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