Google Maps: Anomaly in driving directions

[ChrisGreaves]

Something to keep those smart-Alec grand-kids amused while you finish your Christmas Dinner:-

Yuma01.png

Enter the "Directions" shown above. There is a ferry involved if you go by car, but that has never stopped Google Maps before, and there is a stopover in Toronto or Montreal if you go by air (or you could fly a package trip to FLA and then ...)
But Google maps says "Sorry, we could not calculate driving directions". Huh?

Yuma02.png

If you then select "Recommended travel mode", "directions" wakes up and says you can drive (71 hours) or fly (13 hours). Quantities may vary. But you can drive now!

Yuma03.png

St John's to Toronto is a 2 hour flight, so about the same via Ottawa, which leaves 11 hours for Toronto to Yuma, suggesting about 8 hours in terminals along the way.
FWIW in my heyday I used to drive Toronto-San Diego in three days, 17 hours a day at the speed limit (100 Km/h 60 mph) but today I could manage only 1,200 Km/day, so in real terms six days for me to get there, then a day to recover.
Cheers, Chris

[John Gray]

Is your choice of Yuma related to the iconic (oh no, not that word - again!) 1957 film "3:10 to Yuma"? Otherwise you might just as well have chosen OshKosh, Wisconsin...

[ChrisGreaves]

Is your choice of Yuma related to the iconic (oh no, not that word - again!) 1957 film "3:10 to Yuma"? Otherwise you might just as well have chosen OshKosh, Wisconsin...

Oh No John, no John, no! My choice then was related to Yuma as in "Driest city in the USA", although I have watched "3:10".
I had reasoned that if the annual rainfall was 3.3", they couldn't get more than that if I spent a month there in January.
I stayed in OshKosh in 2000 on my way to Iowa to drive my Prince Rupert friend from a farm house to Cedar Rapids (?) airport.
Cheers, Chris

[John Gray]

Yes, Cedar Rapids is a small local airport near Iowa City. I, too, have been there, having flown from Chicago (Boeing 737, since you ask)!

We were being picked up from that airport by a couple with a small daughter who had to stay home with her grandmother because of lack of space in the car.
"Aw, mommy, I want to see de rabbits!" she cried, piteously.

[ChrisGreaves]

"Aw, mommy, I want to see de rabbits!" she cried, piteously.

Oh John! What a wonderful story about American misunderstanding!
Best of luck with your chats with BobH about Imperial vs. metric!
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Something to keep those smart-Alec grand-kids amused while you finish your Christmas Dinner:-

Another Google Maps anomaly.
The link should take you to Google maps with directions to travel from (ahem!) Canon Bailey Road in Bonavista to Port-aux-Basques on the far side of this island.

By Car: 809 Km 100%
By Bicycle: 749 Km 93%
By Foot: 707 Km 87%

This struck me as odd, because I thought that the only way to cross the island was by the Trans-Canada-Highway, which basically follows the old railway line.

I could contemplate a few shortcuts on foot, perhaps where in town a pedestrian footbridge offered a shortcut to the road bridge, or an alley-way saved driving up through the business district, but Newfoundland is basically wilderness with only the highway; nothing else. A lot like driving from Perth to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia; you don’t get a choice!

So I zoomed in. Sure enough the pedestrian route deviates slightly from the car route in each town, but not by much, and there aren’t a great many towns.

Untitled.png

Then the foot-route takes off and avoids the great loop up through Deer Lake. So you cut about 12% off the distance.

The downside is, of course, that there are no motels or corner stores along that part of the trail!

Untitled2.png

Tasmania is roughly the same shape and size as Newfoundland, and is largely wilderness, but if you travel from Hobart to Arthur River you have a choice of routes, and the differences between the three modes of travel are not so great: 100%; 104%; 98%

Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

So it's not really an anomaly...

[ChrisGreaves]

So it's not really an anomaly...

Well, I think so.
For anyone planning a trip across what seems to be an uninhabited region the differences are significant. Here is an example:-
If you regularly Google Maps in "pedestrian mode" - as I used to when I lived in downtown Toronto - and then suddenly decide to see how far it is from Bonavista to Port-aux-Basques (The Ferry), but do NOT flip from pedestrian to car, the distances can vary by 13% (100:87).

I agree that you will not see an anomaly when you drill down and actually check, using the mode of travel you intend, but I've driven the Trans-Canada Highway across Newfoundland several times, and would not have dreamed that there was a foot-track (known to Google!) that chopped 100Km off the route.
Cheers, Chris

[Jay Freedman]

A popup on the Google map indicated that the walking route uses the Newfoundland T'Railway trail, starting about 60 km west of Gander. The Wikipedia article about the trail indicates (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundl ... g_sections) that a number of sections are missing, and in some cases impassable. I'm curious about how much that would affect the walking time.

[ChrisGreaves]

A popup on the Google map indicated that the walking route uses the Newfoundland T'Railway trail, starting about 60 km west of Gander. The Wikipedia article about the trail indicates (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundl ... g_sections) that a number of sections are missing, and in some cases impassable. I'm curious about how much that would affect the walking time.

Jay, thanks for the link to the article. Made me remember that I did walk part of the trailway on Sunday October 15, 2017. Well, let me tell you about the Station Diner in Holyrood"

I wouldn't attempt that Deer Lake portion of the Trailway, even in summer (especially in summer - black-flies, moose etc). Along the highway, maybe, with at least one companion.
I cross that trailway each time I go to Foodland, and each summer I promise myself I'll ride the Bonavista section on my bike.

Untitled.png

Cheers, Chris

[Graeme]

A popup on the Google map indicated that the walking route uses the Newfoundland T'Railway trail, starting about 60 km west of Gander.

Our UK friends up north use T'Railway.

Regards

Graeme

[ChrisGreaves]

Our UK friends up north use T'Railway.

Peter Kay's (Bolton) grandma gets on T'internet!
Cheers, Chris

[stuck]

Our UK friends up north use T'Railway...

Aye, and not that far north of me there's t' steam railway at Pickering. Reet grand that is.

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

Aye, and not that far north of me there's t' steam railway at Pickering. Reet grand that is.

Aye lad, tha's gotit dahn twoa "Tee".
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

So I have a colleague from 1970 living in Lower Hutt New Zealand, and my first ex-brother in law and his partner visiting the North Island from northern NSW. I thought that meeting each other might be something for them to do …
So I wondered about Bill getting to Geoff or vice-versa, by Car, Bicycle, or on Foot.

LH_Car.png

By Car: 18 minutes, 16 Km.
.

LH_Bike.png

By Bike: 199 minutes, 52 Km
.

LH_OnFoot.png

On Foot: 179 minutes, 21 Km
.
Go Figure!
Now part of this anomaly might be New Zealanders; for example, maybe Highway 2 is an expressway and there is no service road, so cyclists must travel across the mountains.

[HansV]

The Hutt Expressway doesn't look suitable for bicycles:

HuttExpressway.jpg

There's a frequent MetLink train connection, 20 minutes from Wellington Station to Waterloo Station in Lower Hutt.

[ChrisGreaves]

The Hutt Expressway doesn't look suitable for bicycles:
There's a frequent MetLink train connection, 20 minutes from Wellington Station to Waterloo Station in Lower Hutt.

The Hutt Expressway looks perfectly suitable for bicycles, if they'd just get rid of the automobiles.

I didn't look at the trains. I doubt that Geoff has ever braved a train in his life! He is about my age and I have known him since I was 21.
Living North of Cairns (Qld) you wouldn't be buying a Weekly Commuter pass, and certainly not, north of Innisfail!
He might have ridden a pushbike to and from school in Perth, 65 years ago but!
And since he worked at the Bank of New South Wales in Perth, he would have walked from St George's Terrace down to the Barrack Street Jetty then ridden a ferry across Melville Water to visit the zoo in South Perth.

Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

OK, then. Your task, should you accept it, would be to ban motorized traffic from the Hutt Expressway for a bit over an hour. Let's say an hour and a half to be on the safe side; that should be sufficient to ride a bicycle from Wellington to Lower Hutt.

[StuartR]

This looks wide enough for a bike to me...

[ChrisGreaves]

This looks wide enough for a bike to me...

Stuart, if you rode a trail-bke you could ride along the track just to the left of the highway.
Of course, that would be to the right once you got to New Zealand!
Cheers, Chris