directions

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GPS Suggested Mountain Road in December. Bad Idea

Family ends up stuck overnight in national forest

(Newser) - The GPS gave them excellent directions—if it were August. But the problem for the Sanquist family is that they were driving from Oregon to California in December, and their GPS told them to head straight through the mountains of Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, reports ABC News . As they soon...

Six Tips for Never Getting Lost
 6 Tips for Never Getting Lost 
Oct 16, 2011 9:57 AM CDT

6 Tips for Never Getting Lost

Use nature and architecture to navigate in a city

(Newser) - How would you find your way around a city if your GPS or the maps application on your smartphone suddenly stopped working? Many modern people, reliant on digital geographic devices, would be completely lost. There are, however, tricks that can help the directionally perplexed—ones that don't require any...

Google Maps Sends Travelers to My House: NJ Woman

State park seekers directed to private driveway

(Newser) - Get driving directions to a New Jersey state park on Google Maps, and you just may end up in a private driveway. The mapping error has been the source of endless frustration for resident Laurie Gneiding and her husband, she tells the Star-Ledger . “It started with one or two...

Google Maps Adds Directions for Bicyclists

New feature takes hills, bike paths, busy streets into account

(Newser) - An eagerly awaited new Google Maps feature plots out directions optimized for bicycle travel. The option doesn’t work for all locations, Wired notes—it covers 150 cities—and for some trips the bike route is identical to the car route. But it does offer alternatives, including steering riders toward...

No Sense of Direction? Blame Mom and Dad

Study sees a genetic link to poor navigation skills

(Newser) - People who are forever getting lost might be able to blame their genes, thanks to a new study that suggests a genetic link to having a lousy sense of direction. Researchers discovered that people with the rare condition known as Williams syndrome—caused by damage to a particular chromosome—have...

Google's Walking Map Gives True Step-By-Step Directions

Tweak to popular feature shows pedestrian-friendly routes

(Newser) - Google unveiled a new feature to its Maps site yesterday, Wired reports: walking directions. Users can now plot true step-by-step directions, taking into account one-way streets and a growing database of pedestrian pathways. The walking option will appear for distances less than 6.2 miles.

6 Stories