Take me home

[Rosco the Iroc]

So I'm working at a dealership to get by as a porter. So I have to take shuttle people from time to time. I get this guy at the end of day, ok no prob.
3 towns over
during rush hr
who's wife showed up 5 min after we left back at the dealership, she called him mad he was not there
directions were go down RT XXX and turn at the hardware store.
ok get to store turn left then right, left right left right left left right left all though this neighborhood.
Drop him off he says to go to the corner turn left, then right and it will come out at RT XXX, so it does in short order.
why in the hell didn't we go up the 1/4 min to this road in the first place.
Between that and the township that though it would be a good idea to run the streetsweeper on a main road at rush hr I ended up getting back 20min after my shift was up.

[earl colby pottinger]

Simple rule

For the last few years I refuse to go anywhere if people only give me directions.

I insist on get the address or I just don't move!

I have gotten sick of people forget one extra turn i have to make or finding out that they sent me the long way run because they are scare of things like driving on a major highway and so only give me a long list of side streets to take instead the simple highway route.


You can give me directions and an address, or you can just give me an address.

But if you insist only giving directions you have a long wait ahead of you.

[HawaiianShirts]

For the last few years I refuse to go anywhere if people only give me directions.

I insist on get the address or I just don't move!

Did that with my friends in high school after I had worked as a pizza driver for a while. If they asked for a ride home from school or something (not while I'm working, of course), I asked for their address. Most gave it without concern. One girl insisted on giving me directions, but I got her to give me her address anyway. I completely ignored her directions and showed her a faster way from the school to her house than the one her whole family had been using for years.

[XCashier]

Or how about the ones you're driving somewhere, and you're cruising along at the speed limit, and they suddenly say, "turn here!" Advance warning please, TYVM!

[LoTech]

Or how about the ones you're driving somewhere, and you're cruising along at the speed limit, and they suddenly say, "turn here!" Advance warning please, TYVM!

My girlfriend has taken to making fun of the Garmin as it gives proper directions with advance notice. The same girlfriend that I've told to shut up after she gave me three directions in a row AFTER I started doing them:
1) avoid the construction by taking the next bridge south: already doing it.
2) take the next exit: already finished changing lanes to do so.
3) drive through town: I know that our destination is outside of town. I didn't intend on stopping before reaching it, so what does telling me that even mean?
-
Pet peeve triggered, it would seem.

[Cecily]

On the other side, the shuttle driver just would not listen, he kept yakking my ears off. I told him the exact location where I work i.e. address, closest landmark/highway exit. We're getting close, seeing the building. I tell him to turn right at the first parking entrance a couple of times because he just was not slowing down. He zipped right by it, turned right at the next light and seemed surprised when I told him to turn around.

[raudf]

There is two easy ways to get to my house from the freeway. One seems like it's easier than the other... until you realize that the "easier" way takes you up the side of a valley. It's also a road that is dangerous unless under the ideal conditions and even then, there are sections you have to watch out for or the bedrock will slice your tires open. So, I usually send people the slightly longer way, which turns out to be the real shortest (seriously, it is, even before bad parts).

I do give the address, but until last year, I had to warn people that both Google maps and GPS would send you further down the road, past my driveway. I've since gotten that fixed.

Back before either GPS or cellphones were all that common, I gave a friend step-by-step instructions on how to get to my house. He went the harder way...

[notalwaysright]

My parents house used to be so hard to find that I would stand at the end of the driveway to wave drivers in. Now it's built up more (*sob*) and easier to see. People wouldn't even see the turn, it was that densely forested. There was no street sign, and the mailboxes were way down the road. And when GPS and such came out, it was worse! People would call us, including delivery drivers, to ask for "real" directions. Their GPS had told them to take a ferry, because it didn't show the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as something which existed.

Anyway, if someone knows where they're going, and they go a different route than I would have... Uh, THEY are driving not me, so they can get there however they want. There are two roads going up the hill to my parents house. Most people take the long, straight, boring road. I take the pretty road, which also happens to have many blind corners and sheer drop offs. But either will get a person to the right places. My way is slightly faster, but only because I am familiar with it.

[ladyjaneinmd]

I live in apartment complex that apparently doesn't exist on GPS. I have no idea why - it's been there for years. So, when I tell people directions, I remind them that GPS will *not* get them to my door. They will be sent into the complex next door and told that they've reached their destination. This has happened many times. I tell people to look for the apartment complex sign and turn *there*, not where GPS tells them to turn.
Likewise, the garage where I work part-time has a different problem: it's down at the end of a small road, and GPS stops people at the mouth of the road. I tell them to keep going to the very end of the road, through the gate, and they will be *there*. Ignore the GPS.
This isn't West Podunk, Nowhere, either! This is in a major metropolitan area!

[Jay 2K Winger]

My girlfriend has taken to making fun of the Garmin as it gives proper directions with advance notice. The same girlfriend that I've told to shut up after she gave me three directions in a row AFTER I started doing them:
1) avoid the construction by taking the next bridge south: already doing it.
2) take the next exit: already finished changing lanes to do so.
3) drive through town: I know that our destination is outside of town. I didn't intend on stopping before reaching it, so what does telling me that even mean?
-
Pet peeve triggered, it would seem.

I get annoyed at the Google Maps voice when it repeats itself what seems like every other second as I'm approaching an exit or a turn.

I've taken to calling the voice "Navi" because she's just as annoying. Especially when I've gotten close enough to parts of my route that I know by heart and take different turns, while Navi's burbling at me to "make a U turn!"

[Lachrymose]

I've taken to calling the voice "Navi" because she's just as annoying.

Hah! And it's a fitting name for at least one more reason, too! How neat!

[dalesys]

... step-by-step instructions ...

to get to raudf's courtesy of Chuck Brodsky ...
and how to deal with the traffic ...

[raudf]

Actually dalesys, that's a prettttyyyy close to what I did. Every major bump, pot hole.. which are more like ditches, culverts, one way bridge... fence post...

I didn't do the dead animals, because they never stuck around long enough to list 'em. Our scavengers are pretty efficient about that.

[dalesys]

This one's more cheerful...

[wolfie]

There is two easy ways to get to my house from the freeway. One seems like it's easier than the other... until you realize that the "easier" way takes you up the side of a valley. It's also a road that is dangerous unless under the ideal conditions and even then, there are sections you have to watch out for or the bedrock will slice your tires open.

When I was with my previous carrier, there was a particular combination of outbound consignee/backhaul shipper that was like that. GPS would show the short route, but by the time you took into account the detour around a low bridge (involved narrow streets and tight turns, so you needed to use the whole road - there was one turn with a leaning utility pole on the inside, and I could tell without measuring that the notch on the road side was 13'6" off the ground) it was only around 1/4 mile shorter than an alternate route with MUCH better roads.