Shell Game

Yesterday morning, my brother and I were passing through Edmonton on our way to Saskatoon after spending the night in nearby Stoney Plain. We needed to buy some gas. He's also particular about what gas goes in his truck. So, we fired up his truck's trusty GPS, browsed the nearby gas stations and asked for directions to the Chevron. It directed us there fine, except that it was a Commercial Cardlock only so it was of no use to us. And, apparently, the nearest Chevron was over 200 km away. I guess they never expanded much into Alberta.

So, on to his second choice—Shell. Nicely enough, it indicated that the nearest Shell gas station was very close. We should have been able to see it from where we were. I was suspicious since I couldn't see one, but we followed the directions anyway and found some offices. There were large tanks outside so it might have been a gas company's office, but it wasn't anywhere we could buy gas.

On to the next closest Shell listed in the GPS. We saw what looked like at one point was a gas station, but it had closed down some time ago.

Oh well, maybe third time's the charm. We followed the directions perfectly and ended up in the middle of an old residential area. One of those ones where all the houses are at least 50 years old and it was obvious there had never been a gas station there, nor was there likely to ever be one. How puzzling.

When browsing the gas station list once again, my brother noticed a listing labeled “Select.” That happens to be the name of the convenience store inside Shell stations so we decided to give that a try. Sure enough, it finally directed us to an actual, real life Shell. We filled up his massive 120L tank and continued our trip.

A few hours later, while approaching Lloydminster, we decided it would be prudent to top up the tank so we wouldn't need to fill up at all in Saskatchewan where gas is more expensive than in Alberta. We really didn't need to use the GPS since all the gas stations are right along the highway, but we decided to try it just for the fun of it. Still no Chevrons listed, but we asked for directions to the Shell. Well we found the Shell easily enough, but the GPS was indicating it was still another block or two ahead. And when we got to the place where it said it was, there was a small office tower.

We figured it must have been Shell's problem, since the only time the GPS steered us wrong was searching for Shell gas stations. Someone could excuse one listing being incorrect, particularly the one where it was obvious it was a Shell at some point, but every single one we checked??? Not good. I think whoever's job at the company involved passing data along to the GPS manufacturers might need to consider a change in occupations...

A GPS is Only as Good as its Maps

Or, You Get What You Pay For

Last week I tried out the Mapquest iPhone app. I'm a Google Maps man myself, but I heard that Mapquest had something Google didn't—turn-by-turn voice navigation. Plus, it's a free app. So, I figured I'd try it out, since turn-by-turn navigation would be a nice thing to have.

For the fun of it, I thought I'd let it tell me how to get to work the next morning. Of course, the map produced showed it was going to send me down the route I thought it would suggest, so I thought I'd throw a curveball at it and deliberately take a different route. Incidentally, this other route is the way I normally have been taking anyway, lately. After 8 years of taking the same route it's nice to have a change in scenery.

As anticipated, when I took the turn that it wasn't expecting I heard the words “Recalculating route...” come out of my car's speakers. But I was a little disappointed when I got to the place I needed to turn to get to the office, at South Fraser and Progressive, and it did not tell me I needed to turn there. In fact, after turning it proceeded to tell me I needed to make a U-turn. That was completely unexpected, since the office was only a few blocks up the road. I pulled over and checked its map to see where it was trying to tell me to go, and noticed that the street I was on apparently didn't exist.

Mapquest on the left, Google Maps on the right

Mapquest's map is curious for two reasons. First of all, the little bit at the end of Progressive way where it connects with South Fraser Way has been like that for quite a while. I don't know when they finally paved that, but I've been driving on that stretch since last April. Surely Mapquest could have updated their map since then.  Secondly, and even more puzzling, is the part of Progressive Way where it curves north. According to Mapquest, the street just comes to an end. But the road has been going through for quite a few years! Yet the map does correctly show the roundabout on Mt. Lehman Road and redirected South Fraser Way which was only done within the last couple years.

I'm really wondering where Mapquest gets their map data from. If they can't even get a street right that I travel down every day, it makes me wonder how many other streets they have wrong. The promise of a free GPS app with turn-by-turn navigation was nice, but I guess it was too good to be true. It looks like I'll be sticking with good old Google Maps for now and memorizing the route before leaving.