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Not a Google Maps story, but a family died in Death Valley 24 years ago by following a map that showed a similar road that was not passable for their vehicle. Tragic way to die.

https://www.strangeoutdoors.com/mysterious-stories-blog/2017...

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Or CNET reporter James Kim in 2006:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kim#Death

It appears that this and at least one other incident are why Google Maps no longer maps routes across Bear Camp Road, which is the most direct route from Grants Pass OR to the Oregon Coast. [1]

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Gold+Beach,+OR/Galice,+OR+97...

They do during summer. If you zoom into the Bear Camp Road, you can see that it currently says "(Closed Nov-Jun)". If you set your leaving time to July, you can see that the other route uses that road.

Excellent. That's the first time I've seen that feature.

There's still some odd behavior around bicycle routes. For instance, Google does not seem to show bike routes down CA-1 in middle California. I'm not sure what's going on there--hundreds of people do that route every year.

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