Are GPS a Safety Issue?

I don't believe you can categorise the GPS in the same category as DVD players and mobile phones, unless you are playing with the GPS buttons while you are driving. I input my destination before I drive and then from then on in I dont need to touch it, it directs me with both a visual and voice command. Úsed like this they increase safety because the driver is well aware of up coming turns and navigational issues whereas the old street directory or waiting until you can read the street sign before you turn can be very very dangerous. How many times do you see someone making a last minute turn..? They weren't using a GPS..!

On the negative side if you follow the GPS and it tells you to keep driving straight ahead on a Pier you could be in deep deep trouble....

Oldbaz

IMO, I don't think GPS's need to be a distraction anywhere provided you stop when needing to concentrate on map details etc. I have been lost (in concerning but not disastrous circumstances) in the bush and I got to say that getting lost in the bush could be a definite safety issue that can be prevented with a GPS. JD

I think the gps is great, reduces distrasction as mentioned above in traffic situations, and is fantastic offroad. Finding tracks on googls earth, transferring them to the gps, and go find the place. You know how to get there, and how far away it is In the past you go down a track that gets progressively worse, often not knowing what you have got yourself in for. With the gps, the decision as to turn back or not is made simpler as you know how much further, so you won't turn back when the place of interest is just around the corner, or another 30 k away.


Another good thing one has done recently, a mate mooved into a suburb of dead ends and it was a bit of a maze. He recorded a track on his gps, emailed it to me, and I drove strait there without backtracking or getting lost.....as I said above, I love them.

Cheers Andrew

Hi Oldbaz
Firstly most people get mixed up with street navigation units and the conventional hand held GPS. Both unit receive information from satellites.
You will find that it is the street navigation units that have the well detailed city maps, with voice prompts on which way to go etc..
When it comes down to the good old GPS, you will find that people that use them are the ones that go bush, with pre plotted waypoints and even going as far as having them linked to a laptop with moving maps.
If you are only driving in built up area, the street navigation will well exceed the hand held GPS, but take it bush, or even out on a body of water and you may as well not bother to turn them on.

Each to their own as both units offer different tasks.

Who wants to be driving around built up areas anyway. Give me a conventional GPS (which I have, as well as a laptop and Ozi) and head bush where you will have more fun. As for a safety factor, in the event of trouble, you will be able to advise someone exactly where you are by giving them your coordinates, proving that you have a radio to send the message out.


Cheers

Stephen

GPS are certainly a safety issue when they are fitted halfway up the windscreen, just to the left of the drivers line of sight, as was the case with the driver that I was following yesterday.

I couldn't believe it, it would have blocked most of her vision in that critical area where a child could dart out from between parked cars.

As someone said to me recently "common sense ain't common"!!!

I reckon a hot looking missus, or noisy kids in the back, are as much, if not more, of a distraction than a GPS.

My GPS tells me not to use it while driving. I have to agree to this before it will work. Spose its then up to me to do the right thing. Do you use a UHF on your travels?

"If Mobile phones are a safety risk, DVD players a safety risk, why arent GPS devices also a safety risk?."

You'll have to ask our moronic lawmakers why there are very severe penalties for holding a Mobile Phone, even while stationary at the kerb if the engine is running - yet no courier driver ever gets charged for talking on a two-way radio or typing away on their despatch terminal while driving in three lanes of traffic at 800 km/hr.

Yeah well, now we have 2

My 'old' GPS is a Magellan 330 and coming up for 5 years of age.

I use it regularly to check my speed when travelling as the GQ speedo is untrue. The Magellan is mounted out of my line of sight to what is in front of me.

I am always interested in height above sea level....dunno why....lol

I never bother with waypoints or plots or preferred routes etc BUT I use my GPS in conjunction with my laptop when doing treks in very remote or trackless country. This where it comes into its own and is a handy tool.

The missus has just bought we TomTom with voice instructions and a speeding warning and that is what she wants. Once you have the GPS up and running and set for whatever thing you want it to do you rarely have to look at it

I am an old fart as well but I just love all the new technology....when it works!!!...lol

Go on...get yourself one!!!!

Cheers

Hi OldBaz

The GPS I use has both street level stuff and records your tracks
as well and I think it is one of the best things around.

The ability to be able to follow your own path back to some known point and know roughly where you are is a magic tool for those who go bush.

Even a couple of weeks ago when I had to play ambulance it proved its value.

It worked out a path to a hospital 150km away that I have never been to and saved time doing this when it counted.

Later driving back to camp past midnight when I was getting tired
I followed my own tracks back to camp taking turn off's I would have had trouble sorting out in the pitch black.

By looking at the contours and road paths ahead I got a rough idea of the road ahead and also possible phone contact points.

Knowing when dark, that the road infront of you is not straight is also valuable as it allows you to avoid concentrating on the GPS when its not so safe.

Some technology is useless but GPS is magic.

GPS receivers are a Navigational tool .. no different to a Compass simply a tool.

Old drivers are also a safety risk, especially when they are trying to listen to the navigation system while talking on the mobile and lighting up a fag during gear changes and lane changing.

Reading a Street Directory lying on the Driver's lap is safer ???

We bought my eldest son one of the GPS navigators with voice guidance for Christmas. He let us use it when we traveled into Sydney (we are Melbournites) and it was particulary helpful in directing us with the highway and street changes etc when we had to traverse the northern parts of Sydney.

On our other journeys with it, we did find that it was not always correct. Several times telling us to turn or merge left etc when in fact you could not.

While they can be a distraction, the other danger is that they are not always correct, so it is probably not a good idea to slave-ishly follow the directions without really knowing where you are going.

Cheers,
Mal

I dont see what all this fuss is about
for about $30 get an external aerial ( much smaller than a phone aerial ) for the navigator and mount it where ever you want if you are worried about line of site on the windscreen

Greenant

Oldbaz,

I run two GPS units simultaneously. One drives a navigation program on my laptop. Like the others have commented here, I pre-program my trip and it talks to me. I don't have to look at the screen. For us, this is a very valuable tool as we are travelling Oz full-time and do not know our way around any of the towns and cities outside of our home state of WA.

The other GPS records our trip details and track information. This is useful for fuel economy calculations etc, but more importantly, it allows us to "replay" trips and garner details that can be useful to other travellers. This info can also be useful to contest alleged speeding infringements (in some states). Not that we speed, but radar systems are not infallible.

Neither of these GPS or Navigation systems actually require me to look at them while driving, so I don't perceive any safety risk at all.

Cheers

Russ.

So far, authorities have accepted that GPS mounted/affixed in vehicle is a 'drivers aid' and as such (unless said driver is stupid enough to operate buttons/select functions etc whilst driving) NOT considered a 'hazard/distraction' such as mobile phones, reading street directpries, picking your nose, cleaning out ear wax, putting on make-up and so on. HOWEVER if the unit is mounted in such manner as to create or cause restricted visibility to the driver then it would be considered a hazard.