Date:         Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:32:50 -0800
Reply-To:     Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: What are my best PC GPS options?
Comments: To: Mike Collum <collum@verizon.net>
In-Reply-To:  <478D0E26.2030407@verizon.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I'm glad to hear that Delorme has improved the coverage in Canada.  The
issue Dave was trying to address is coverage in more remote areas,
specifically he was asking about the interior of BC.  Here in the States I
didn't have any complaints about the coverage on the Delorme.  But on a trip
two years ago I ran the laptop most every day for three weeks.  I alternated
between Streets & Trips and Delorme software.  And I'll stick to my opinion
that the Delorme software sucks, a really bad user interface for any
searching or planning.  I found it very frustrating and ended up using only
Streets & Trips for the last week of the trip. But, given that, I found both
very poor for use in town.  Both got lost and gave wrong directions when
driving in traffic if the signal was lost for a few seconds.  If you pulled
up to a stop light neither could figure out what direction you were going
when standing still and started providing directions that were all wrong.
In a severe test, getting to a friends place in Kennsington, Ca. (next to
Berkley) I'd still be driving in circles if I hadn't known where I was
going.  Summing up so far, unless you have a second person on board to act
as navigator the laptop based systems fall far short.  Dedicated units meant
for use in vehicles seem to be a much better solution.  BUT, those tend to
lack the detailed coverage in the boonies, are set up for urban navigation.
BTW, to any reading this, I'm all ears for any better solutions that have
been found.  My experience is limited at this point.

On Jan 15, 2008 11:48 AM, Mike Collum <collum@verizon.net> wrote:

> I don't know what year the DeLorme software you tried was from but the
> 2008 version has greatly increased Canadian coverage.  I used the 2008
> Street Atlas Plus and even the small streets (and phone numbers) in
> Almonte as well as Head of St. Margaret's Bay and Halifax were shown.
> Apparently, all of Canada is shown that way but those places are where I
> really used it.  The version I had before that only showed "most" of
> Canada's main highways.
>
>