Either I am dumb or Mapquest.....

[DMickey28]

Howdy...

So I had a wedding to go to with DSO in Upstate NY. Having ever been to upstate ny I am unfamiliar with the towns and the lay out. We got directions from our apartment to the church in Utica off of Mapquest...

All was well, followed 495N to the Mass Pike into New York. Got in to Albany just fine as well. The directions on MapQuest said to stay on I 97N for 98 miles and then get off at exit 31 I790 in Utica. No we didn't have a map, we learned our lesson!

We ended up in Lake George when I decided that I needed to stop at a rest stop and I walked by a map and decided to look at it. At that point I realized that we totally in the wrong directions. DSO didn't believe me and we stopped at a gas station and got a map... boy was he angry.

We never made it to the church but took a lovely 80 mile detore of NY.......

Never in those directions did it say to get on on I-90....or stay on it in the this case.... they clearly said to take I87 N for 98 miles....

Canada here we come!!!

 

[Mskanga]

ROFL, I'm not laughing at you Dmickey, I did the same thing a couple of years ago also going to also upper NY state ( @ 20 minutes south of Utica ), and coming from where I live the mapquest directions said to get on 17 north ( and it still does ). When I got to get on 17, it's not North or South, it's East or West. I had 2 seconds to decide which way to go, fortunately I chose east and I got where I had to go, but to this day mapquest still gives the 17N story on the directions. I don't trust them!
So don't feel bad, you are not the only one who has gotten lost because of mapquest directions!

 

[browneyes]

I wonder where mapquest got it's directions from. It's almost always unreliable. I can do a general search on it, but not a reliable one. Heck, it tells me to drive 10 miles out of my way just when I leave my house to go anywhere.

 

[WDWLVR]

I never use Mapquest anymore because i just don't trust it. Used it once to go to a job fair with a co-worker and the directions had us go down a dead-end road over 4 miles from where we were supposed to be.

Now I only use Microsoft Streets Plue or DeLorme to get my maps.

 

[Mishetta]

I have to agree! Mapquest is a big joke. I once printed out directions for someone (who is not on the internet) to fax them with the map of how to get from the airport to our house. I couldn't even figure out the directions! They were so complicated & so "out of the way" that I thought I made a mistake & rechecked to make sure I typed in my address correctly!

Who plugs in the info anyway?

 

[ahutton]

I've found it a great site for generic directions, and for getting around larger cities. However, we've had challenges using it for directions to suburban areas, especially around neighborhoods and in very rural areas. I've lived in my house for 2 years and it still doesn't know where our street it - it doesn't exist!

 

[Dan Murphy]

I use MS's Streets and Trips or AAA Triptiks. Both have been reliable.

 

[delswife]

Mapquest is terrible! My Dh & I took 9 kids in 2 vehicles to Six Flags NE and used mapquest. It should have been a 3 hour trip, but ended up being 6 hours. We ended up in Conn. I was flashing my lights at DH and told him we were suppost to be in Mass!
I am now a proud card carring member of AAA, and they have never let me down.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Yep, we laugh at the Mapquest directions as well. Sometimes they are ok. We still print them out but take it with a grain of salt.

We navigate by buying a new map when we hit a state, in addittion to the Rand McNally Road Atlas we carry.
I love looking at that Road Atlas.

 

[AirForceRocks]

I use Rand-McNally online, and I've never gotten bad info from there.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

DH's last employer sent him on a delivery to upstate NY, near Buffalo and Niagara Falls. The town he was supposed to go to was 800 miles east, in the opposite direction, near CT and NYC.

I don't use MapQuest anymore. I've looked up local directions, just to see what they had, and they were way off. MapQuest would have had me turning the wrong way on to one-way streets or traveling on roads that don't exist.

We use Microsoft Streets and Trips 2001, which can be updated with a click of the mouse. I haven't encountered any errors (that I've noticed). I like the tools and features that allow me to calculate mileage, add stops, etc. Plus you can look up points of interest, like hotels, restaurants & attractions.

If you need an online service, which I do use if I'm at work, I go to MapBlast.com. They've been more reliable than MapQuest.