[Magdalen] the ironies of heading south

[Roger Stokes]

On 17/01/2015 13:28, Marion Thompson wrote:
> See, for instance, those who trust a GPS implicitly just to cross 
> town! When my neighbour had to get his wife to hospital, he told the 
> ambulance (he's a mere 9 minutes from the nearest hospital) that the 
> Whitevale bridge was out and they must use the detour.  More than  
> half an hour later they turned up saying they couldn't cross the 
> bridge and had been mucking  about out in the area.  Their GPS hadn't 
> told the truth and they didn't listen to local knowledge! Ironically, 
> it now seems that GPS is now showing the bridge as closed -- but it 
> has been open for nearly a month!  Could  have been a matter of life 
> and death.

Local knowledge is certainly very useful.  On the centre of town we have 
a gyratory system which directs traffic crossing the bridge that wants 
to go along the Embankment on the North bank around the church and 
square before it peels off to go along the Embankment. Emergency vehicle 
drivers (with lights and siren) will cut out the square, which is often 
congested, and turn straight onto the Embankment if they deem it safe to 
do so.  Those relying on GPS take a few minutes longer to negotiate the 
square and its traffic.

One of the delights of GPS is that if your intended route is blocked you 
can enter that fact into the system and it wil calculate a new route.

Roger