Ooops.
Funnily enough this thought occurred to me only a few days ago when this forum was debating TomTom routing preferences.
Courtesy of BBC News.
Satellite navigation systems are being blamed for directing thousands of cars through a quiet Somerset village.
Residents in Barrow Gurney claim 10,000 vehicles a day are going through the centre to get to Bristol Airport.
The airport's official directions take traffic onto the A38, but sat-nav users may select alternative routes to avoid jams which send them through villages.
Parish council chairman Geoff Coombs said it had a knock-on effect for communities like Barrow Gurney.
"I think there really should be some special dispensation not to route these very high volumes of traffic through small villages close to facilities such as airports," he said.
Makers of the TomTom system said: "Drivers are given various means of deciding the route to take and also have the opportunity to receive live traffic updates to make it as easy as possible to avoid congestion problems.
"If a driver ever feels that they are being directed down an inappropriate road then the TomTom can quickly re-route them."
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Looks like tom tom is doing its job, thats a very good route to avoid a big chunk of the A38.
Mind you if i was 2 miles from the end of the runway then traffic would be the least of my worries!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I would not have thought that Barrow Gurney is unduly effected by a/c noise because it is to the side of the runway and probably a good three miles away, however many villagers in Lulsgate and Winford are campaigning against airport expansion.
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Indeed it's doing its job, TVM, that wasn't my point; my point was SatNav being used by a sufficient volume of users as to completely throw out of the window carefully structured road planning and end up with an under used major route and an over used minor route along with resultant congestion! I have yet to be sat in a jam likely caused by "Lemming TomTomers" all in turn avoiding something else and following the same rerouting calculation, but I'm sure it will come!
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by "Lemming TomTomers" all in turn avoiding something else and following >>
I used to have a co car, a Vectra with Traffic Master Oracle, as std fit it was unique to VX in 1998, I did notice on a few occasions how many Vectras seemed to dive for, for instance, the M3 exit on the M25 as soon as the sweet female voice had said something like "M25 Junction 16 stationary traffic for 15 miles".
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It depends SjB
If everyone is a TomTom user then 75% are using the "fastest route" option. This is probably the route most would take if they used a map as it would mostly use A roads & Motorways.
This will be a structured planned route anyway.
If there is a jam and all punched their reroute button, then yes they would all end up going the same way through deleted under woodworm village.
There is *no* way 10,000 more vehicles a day are suddenly using that route due to satnav.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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There is *no* way 10,000 more vehicles a day are suddenly using that route due to satnav.
Totally agree with this - I would be staggered if it was more than a couple of dozen per day.
On going though quiet places: The 'turn by turn' sat nav that was in Peugeot 406 a few yrs ago took me down farm tracks a few times!
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I go through Barrow Gurney in both directions three or four time a week when I go into Bristol, it is an ideal cut through from the A370 to the A38 so traffic heading to and from the airport to/from Bristol centre or west would naturally use it, a fact proven by the number of taxis one sees on that road. It is a shame because it is/was a picturesque little village, a bypass would be ideal though there are reserviors nearby so that might not be possible, also farmers would surely be reluctant to give up land, or would they?
Although I only moved west a few years ago I also remember Barrow Gurney as a kid cycling through there on the way to Clevedon when staying in North Somerset, it was really quiet then though I guess the A370 Long Ashton bypass had not been built then so the A38 was the only practical way into town, also Bristol Airport was just a field and a few huts then!
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Lets return to the war years, pull up road signs, remove all exisitance of the road and village from maps.
Could this be the first sat-nav NIMBY'ism?
Nothing stopping anyone with a map working out for themselves the same route, telling friends, advertising on the internet.
And for emergency services using sat-nav equipment then all the better for taking the shortest or less congested route.
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What do the residents want?
Close the road, stop the buses, stop deliveries etc.....
Will be nice and quiet then but they won't be able to get in or out either!
It is just another case of NIMBY - they want their cars but object to us using ours!
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I would have thought spreading the load would ease congestion.
I too have noticed that upon leaving the NEC in Birmingham, the local signs take you all the way on a poor road to Litchfield to get on the A/M42, whereas Sat Nav takes you the sensible route, straight onto this road via a roundabout exit which is not marked with the A/M42 signs.
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Ishok's and Ian's comments are possibly made without knowing Barrow Gurney. It is a picturesque village, as are many, but the particular problem that it has is the sharp bend and very narrow bridge in the centre of the village. Add drivers rushing to catch their flight, and it's not good.
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I sympathise with the residents of Barrow Gurney, commercial vehicles could be banned (there are other better routes for trucks), reasonable steps could be taken.
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I also know this road and have spent a large fraction of my life using various cut throughs between the A370 and A38 (we lived in a village on the former and relatives lived in Bristol near the latter) but I wouldnt use the Barrow Gurney road for this purpose, the Brockley Combe road is better with no villages and exits right by the airport, OK the exit isnt (or didnt used to be) traffic light controlled.
StarGazer
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Brockley Combe is a much longer route if coming from the A38 south of the airport to the A370 into Bristol.
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Brockley Combe is a much longer route if coming from the A38 south of the airport to the A370 into Bristol.
But much shorter if going the other way!
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>> Brockley Combe is a much longer route if coming from the >> A38 south of the airport to the A370 into Bristol. >> But much shorter if going the other way!
It is the same length in both directions as far as I know!
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"What do the residents want?"
Safety (no pavement there)... and less traffic than the A38. There are problems, the concerns are genuine. Call it NIMBY if you like, but I don't believe that is correct or fair. You clearly don't know the village or the issues.
As for the original topic, it will be interesting to see if increased use of GPS will result in moving traffic jams around the country, but by then they will all be traffic master (or equivalent equipped), and they'll all be diverting at the same time to avoid the same queue!!!!
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Lets return to the war years, pull up road signs, remove all exisitance of the road and village from maps.
Wow, what a good memory you must have, runboy! And I thought I was old!
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L\'escargot.
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. It is a shame because it is/was a picturesque little village, a bypass would be ideal though there are reserviors nearby so that might not be possible, also farmers would surely be reluctant to give up land, or would they?
Actually, a quick look on Multimap suggests that a bypass to the north of the village cutting out the centre could be feasible. You only need a single carriageway, not dissimalr to the Winsley bypass. Although local politics would probably interfere, with North Somerset refusing to pay for reducing traffic in Bristol. An idea may be to get the Airport to pay for it in the next expansion.
I expect that'll happen after the Banwell bypass i.e. never!
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Well,
I think I was part of "sat nav induced congestion" today. I was going A14/M6/A46 to Warwick.
The M6 was blocked. So I set TomTom Tim to shortest route. He took me off at the cathorpe interchage, into catthorpe itself, round back roads into Rugby suburbs, over the A45, across the a423, through northern RLBS, and into the backend of Warwick via a trading estate.
I was followed most of the way by three cars with tell tale glowing screens............
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Which is better - shortest route or telling it to take an x-mile diversion?
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Which is better - shortest route or telling it to take an x-mile diversion?
Shortest route. x - mile diversion is rather too literal and tries to take you back onto the original route as soon as possible even if that is now not the fastest route. IE it does not recalc the total route.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I understand that the road through Banwell is being closed this moth for a few weeks, I guess for resurfacing though I bet they will look to see how and where to the traffic transfers.
Banwell, Barrow Gurney and the A370 through Draycott all have the same issue, the road is simply to narrow to take modern HGVs.
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I noticed that the company responsible for Tom Tom admitted that some of its maps were out of date and that it must take steps to update them...
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Satellite navigation systems are being blamed for directing thousands of cars through a quiet Somerset village. Residents in Barrow Gurney claim 10,000 vehicles a day are going through the centre to get to Bristol Airport.
Are Satnavs really that common now? I wonder what percentage of cars have them?
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L\'escargot.
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