Date:         Thu, 19 Apr 2001 18:10:52 EDT
Reply-To:     CMathis227@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Chuck Mathis <CMathis227@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: DeLorme accuracy (was New Topo USA(R) 3.0 Mapping CDs)
Content-Type:  text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I use a Garmin GPS III and DeLorme Street Atlas for my fieldwork (locating potential worksites and developing response strategies for oil companies).  We use Street Atlas because it gives a good balance of road and water information combined with the ability to easily drop markers on the map and generate understandable driving directions.  In most places Street Atlas is pretty close but when you get into more remote areas you do end up a good distance to the left or right of the mapped road -- at one point in Wyoming Greg and I were looking at a couple more miles of road (more like a goat trail) on the map and a 75' drop in front of the car!.  In a few areas (on the riverside of the levees in Mississippi, very close to the Red River in Oklahoma, and Wyoming near Kaycee) it has been almost worthless.  I spent most of last summer along I-10 and for the most part it was right on the money except for a few recently developed areas in King and Snohomish Counties.  So far I haven't !
been lost, but I was a trained n
avigation specialist (and usually very lucky).  I was told that the digital maps are based on the latest USGS Quads available when the application was developed.  In many areas this is stuff from the 1930's or older.  Where there has been a lot of development even two-year old information is no good.

Chuck
'85 Wolfsburg Westy -- 'Roland the Road Buffalo'

In a message dated Thu, 19 Apr 2001  4:57:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Mark McCulley <transporter99@HOTMAIL.COM> writes:

<< Derek,

I don't have a GPS or mapping software but I do use the printed DeLorme
Gazetteers and have found them to be quite undependable when off the beaten
path (Forest Service roads, etc.). Are the software products any better in
this regard? Maybe it's a west coast thing, with the roads changing too
frequently to keep up with...

Mark McCulley
Seattle WA
>>