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Geographical Screw Ups


Like a bunch of people that I know, I use GPS navigation on my phone to help me get around. I don't always know where stores or houses are located, so I let technology figure it out for me. In fact, this was one of the main reasons why I ended up getting a smart phone, since I wanted to have the safety net when I was going anywhere. And for the most part, this whole system works well. Of course, it can fail in hilarious ways.

I was heading to a friend's party one Monday night a while back, and I'd never been to this particular location before. I had a rough general idea of where in the city it was, but I figured I'd play it safe by having my GPS direct me there. To make matters worse, I was running late because I'd gotten off of work a little later than usual that night. I really didn't want to have to figure it out on the fly under those circumstances, so I asked my phone to tell me where to go and I started driving.

By the time I got on the Bay Bridge, I figured I was in the home stretch. I hadn't seen any traffic on the bridge (toll-related or not), so I figured I was past any potential delays to my drive. I just had to get in to the city and make my way to the shindig. That was when my GPS decided it wanted to have a sense of humor. It told me to take the exit for Treasure Island.

Now, in hindsight, I have no idea why I listened to the thing. Maybe I was distracted by the fact that I was running late, maybe that day at work had been rougher than I remembered. Neither of those things were a good excuse, mind you, but they would at least help me explain why I did, in fact, exit at Treasure Island. As the name implies, it's a flippin' island. There is no possible way that getting to my destination should have involved stopping off there, or driving through there. I realized my mistake almost immediately, but I then had to correct for my mistake and get back on to the bridge. That took a little longer than I would have liked, but the GPS navigation kept chirping about how I was going the wrong way the whole time. It finally decided that it should stop complaining about Treasure Island once I was off of the bridge and I had driven past a couple of San Francisco exits. Luckily, it did manage to give me good directions after that.

The whole episode had been inconvenient, but I soon forgot about it. It had been a good party, so my memories of that night were actually centered around that instead of the difficulty getting there. Still, I knew that there was a glitch in the system somewhere. So, I kept that piece of information tucked away in the back of my mind, in case it might become pertinent again.

It became pertinent again.

I recently started volunteering to teach math at a place in the East Bay. The first couple of times that I went, I had no idea where this place was. I knew enough to get me about three fourths of the way there, but I didn't know exactly how to get there. I didn't want to have to fuss with my phone as I was driving, so I played it safe and turned on the GPS navigation from the beginning. And, sure enough, as I was crossing the Bay Bridge, the navigation system told me to drive through Treasure Island to get to my destination. I was better prepared to handle these faulty directions this time, so I just kept driving until the direction started to make more sense. With the problem averted, I chuckled to myself.

However, the volunteering gig was not a one-time affair. I had to show up there on a weekly basis, and I didn't quite remember the way there after the first time I went. So, I kept on using the GPS. Each time, it kept telling me to stop off at Treasure Island. So, at least once a week, I was reminded of the time when I listened to the bad directions, and I got a little laugh out of it.

Just imagine how much worse it would have been if I had used an iPhone.
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