Sat-navs blamed once again

[Darren]

Source: BBC News On-Line

Blaming sat-nav for the failings of drivers seems to be the norm these days. Network Rail says 2,000 bridges are hit every year by lorries travelling on inappropriate roads with the resulting disruption said to cost the rail industry £10m a year.

The issue is not sat-navs, it is the blind reliance on them by drivers who see them as an alternative to proper planning, observation skills and simple common sense. Network Rail said talks were under way with satellite navigation companies about how the problem could be resolved although we have previously reported both Navteq and TeleAtlas have released or announced forthcoming availability of map data that contains weight limits, height and width restrictions and other data useful to heavy goods and other commercial vehicle drivers.

One move that will be welcomed however is the announcement that Network Rail said it was now mapping the UK's low bridges and level crossings so that POI information could be created. It is perhaps surprising that such information isn't already recorded by them!

PocketGPSWorld.Com will be approaching Network Rail to discuss any assistance we can provide with such a service.
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Darren Griffin

[FrequentFlyer]

Hopefully, they'll all get done for driving without due care and attention. I have little sympathy if they can't read, or even worse, are lacking in common sense.

[Jellyroll]

Has http://www.hgvsolutions.com not already done much of the work for this?

[Border_Collie]

[Darren]

[Jellyroll]

Sorry, Darren, I'm not associated with Landis Media at all, and don't know the background to your comment. Could you enlighten me, please?

[Darren]

It's a very long story, Landis have many guises and we (and others) have had issues with them in the past. Suffice to say that at one point they were selling our safety camera data and when confronted denied it of course.

Luckily we secured a copy of the CD they sold containing our data and a screen grab of their web-site because they changed the page immediately we complained and then published vociferous denials that they had done any such thing and we were telling porkies.

Such experiences tend to colour ones opinion of them as a company!
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Darren Griffin

[Jellyroll]

Fairy nuff! Didn't mean to ruffle feathers.

Does that mean that there is already a source of up-to-date Low Bridges other than them, then?

[Darren]

There is but I can't find the link at the moment, hopefully someone else will have it to hand and post it here.
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Darren Griffin

[crazyfingers]

[Graeme2812]

[Darren]

That's the one, it is Robin's web-site I was thinking of, see here
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Darren Griffin

[mikealder]

Robin withdrew the POI files from his site a while back, too many people selling them on e-bay and such like - real shame though - Mike

[Darren]

Ah yes, now I wonder where they appeared
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Darren Griffin

[PeterB]

Proper indication of low bridges, narrow bridges and narrow lanes is LONG overdue.
Apart from the various specialist sites with data; surely this would be a major sellling point for TomTom, Navman etc. not just for the HGV users but for mobile homes, horse boxes etc.
How many of us are fed up of being directed down narrow country lanes, some with virtually no passing places??? My worst experiences, this year have been in Cornwall and Kent.

OK, large vehicle drivers should take more care BUT we now have the technology but NOT the sophisticated application to meet all the customer needs!!!!

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