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Comment by kjkjadksj | Hacker News Reader

Google maps is so bad with its auto content. Ultra private country club? Lets mark the cartpaths as full bike paths. Cemetery? Also bike paths. Random spit of sidewalk and grass between an office building and its parking lot? Believe it or not also bike paths.

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I went to a party today at a park. Google maps wanted me to drive my car on the walking path to the picnic pavilion. Here, you can get the same directions: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38.8615917,-77.1034763/Alcov...

This really made me laugh. Has Will Ferrell already made a skit for Funny or Die where he precisely follows Google Maps driving instructions and runs over a bunch of old people and children? It could be very funny.

Waze (also owned by Google) seems to get it close(r), but it should be noted that actually driving to/from those addresses can't really be done. You can drive to where you might be able to SEE the destination, but not really get there.

https://www.waze.com/live-map/directions/us/va/arlington/alc...

In its defense, it has improved greatly. Back in the day, Google Maps told me to switch ferries in the middle of the sea. The car loading ramp was at an angle, so if I could just build up enough speed...

For up to date bike paths, at least where I live I hear very good things about maps.me (based on OSM data).

I mean, that last one sounds functionally useful, since it would indeed be better to take the random concrete paths inside an office property (that wasn’t a closed campus) than to ride on the expressway that fronts it, if the “paths” are going where you’re going.

Yeah it doesn’t really play out like that. Just saw another example today of this gated condo complex where half the sidewalks are arbitrarily full blown bike trails. Clearly they are just trying to automagically get the trails from imagery of putative paths instead of, you know, pulling directly from the municipal bike path network maps. I guess scaling something more like that out was too hard for multibillion dollar google.

I have tried reporting these fake paths in the past but it didn’t get them removed.

Biking is great tho

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