LPT: If you’re stuck on the highway and Google maps or whatever recommends you to take an alternative, faster route that squiggly, DON’T.

26 comments

1. Google maps will give me a “shorter” route that has stop signs every 30 meters.

2. This one of the two reasons why I realised in-built Navis are worth learning how to use.

   The other one being where Google can’t tell the difference to being on the highway or the road beneath it.

3. Been there done that xD

   There’s this temple on the border between Tochigi and Ibaraki, and (unofficially) one side is the entrance and the other the exit. Because it’s a long narrow mountain pass that really doesn’t fit more than one car.

   The signage isn’t great so I went up the wrong side. Wasn’t the only one. By the time I noticed this can’t be right there was absolutely no way to go back down.

   That was….. interesting….

4. If you can handle a bit of Japanese but don’t have a built in navi, yahoo car navi – y!カーナビ is a better app for driving in Japan than google maps imo

5. Google maps is terrible for navigating for driving in Japan. It gets traffic fairly decently is about the best I can say for it

6. I mean, I like Initial D and appreciate sometimes Google maps “faster” recommendations.

7. I love those roads, way more fun and interesting to drive than tunnel after tunnel.

8. This is because their dataset doesn’t include the same wealth of information as other Japanese map providers. Things got worse immediately when they ended their relationship with Zenrin.

   If you have the time or inclination, you can help improve things by [reporting map errors on Google maps](https://support.google.com/maps/answer/3094088?hl=en) or contributing edits to r/openstreetmap (OSM). OSM allows adding a lot of road details, including the width, number of lanes, stop signs, one-way status and surface conditions. And as a bonus it’s open source – so any map provider can use it to help improve their maps.

9. Well, I’ll be the one dissenting voice and say don’t paint this with too broad a brush. I’ve had pretty good luck with Google Maps finding detours. One example is around 小仏tunnel, which is always a traffic chokepoint, another around 鶴ヶ島, big time savers in either scenario. For myself, following the alternate routes actually is less stressful and provides some respite from the monotony.

10. Same advice goes for New Zealand, but over there the road will also be unpaved for added adventure.

11. This is something I really don’t like about Google Maps. I wish they could let you prioritize wide roads as sometimes the first option is as you said 2 way narrow streets

12. LPT: don’t use Google maps

13. Even for walking, sometimes you see the bigger road and Google maps suggest to get into the small residential street and alley. At least walking you do not risk getting a car in a crazy road that would have been better to avoid.

14. It’s 1 minute faster and takes 3 years off your life and sphincter…

15. > The stress isn’t worth it.

    Unless you’re driving a Roadster. Then Google is doing you a favor.

16. Google maps hasn’t messed me up too badly in Japan, but one time leaving Las Vegas at the end of a holiday weekend when there was a big jam on the highway, maps sent us, and a bunch of other cars, offroading in desert sand where there was no discernible path. It basically started a dusty, confusing road rage car rally, with drivers trying all kinds of paths to try to get back to a road.

17. One time I selected the shortest route on my car navi for a place we frequently go to in Kyushu just to see what the route was and it ended up being a bunch of narrow, winding farm roads in the middle of nowhere. No gas stands, no charging stands, no konbini, no place to stop. The route was mostly just trees, farms, and roadside vegetable stands. It was the shortest route in terms of distance and it was scenic in a rustic sense but it was a low-speed drive most of the way through.

18. I would also say if the car rental place offers you an ETC to rent, take it. I was caught assuming if I came across a toll road I could just pay cash, then got stuck at gates that only took ETC and had to take one of those squiggly routes instead and added an hour to my trip. More fool me.

19. Strongly agree with this tip, I once took a squiggly alternative road and it ended up taking me on a foggy gravel road through the mountains near midnight. Turns out it was just a logging road in the end, but at the time it felt like it was the beginning of a horror movie!

20. Eh can’t say about driving around in Tokyo but Google Maps has done me well driving around Aomori city and the rural areas around it

21. Google maps has fucked me multiple times in the last few days.

    Arrives: xx:48

    Walk about 1 minute

    Departs: xx:48

    Uhhhh, am I supposed to teleport?

    Had a great one today:

    Arrives: xx:52

    Walk about 1 minute

    Departs: xx:50

    so not only would I need to teleport, but also to time travel.

    Edit: just got a -5 minute transfer. Wtf is going on, google?

22. Meh, Google Maps isn’t too bad. I use it to travel everywhere around the country to go hiking and country/mountain roads are just naturally narrow and often unmaintained. Just take it slow, keep your lights on even during the day and use the mirrors when possible.

23. I dunno I’ve been pretty ok with whatever google gives me.

24. Google Maps AKA Google Adventures

25. The worst is that it just doesn’t ask. It displays “we found a faster route for you” and you have to press no in order to stop it from changing. If you miss the hint, Google will have changed for you.

    There’s no disabling the option, which is the worst part of it all.

26. I’ve told the story where gmaps told me to drive off a cliff into an unfinished bridge here in Japan, then I got people telling me to update the map myself! xD

    Apple Maps > Gmaps