Real question, I'd like to hear takes.
For years I lived in the same place so I knew how to get around. I also got around on bike/foot/transit. I rarely needed a navigation app.
But I recently moved to a new area, and the logistics of the move required me to get a car. With all the new places to learn, I started leaning on google nav more.
But every time it makes a route for me, it seems like it's fighting against city planners. It will constantly direct me through little 1 way streets through residential neighborhoods if it thinks it can save .1 mile or 30 seconds.
As a concrete example, in my neighborhood the city planners have set up one road as the obvious exit, all the other roads have no lights or restrictions on turns. Navigation never uses that route, and prefers darting across lanes of traffic and turning during times it's not allowed.
My partner and I joke about how many uturns it suggests. There's a route I sometimes take where it suggests I make a 270 degree turn off a highway exit across 4 lanes of traffic.
In short, google drives like an asshole. It makes erratic decisions. And it routes people down roads that aren't meant to carry lots of traffic.
I'm sure there's some counterargument that this kind of navigation is load balancing and more efficient. But to me, I feel it makes things unpredictable and less pleasant to exist in a neighborhood.
is there any consensus on this stuff?
i feel like Google Maps is pretty freakishly accurate about traffic. I'll map the route from my moms house just to make sure i'm not getting screwed. For public transit nothing is close to Google.
I find google pretty bad for finding new public transit routes even though it's decent at time estimates.
A lot of the time it takes me to less-connected stops that are slightly closer, even though an extra 2 minute walk is worth it to go to the stop that has more busses or trains flowing through it.
I always have to look at which stops are near me, and the routes near me to make a decision as to where to go