Beware of GPS applications
Safety officials, motorists warn about depending too much on mapping programs
The road once carried stagecoaches during the Gold Rush, twisting its way through what is now a national forest and an area of the Sierra Nevada known for snowmobiling.
In the winter, the rugged passage, known as the Quincy-La Porte Road or County Road 511 in Plumas County, California, is closed.
But Wendy Becktold, an editor from the Bay Area who was on her way to visit an ailing relative in Reno, Nevada, last week, said she had been unaware of that when she navigated her rented Toyota Corolla while the region was still grappling with a record-setting snowstorm.
Google Maps had guided her that way because two major highways near Lake Tahoe were shut down, she recounted in an interview, echoing concerns of other drivers and public safety officials about the potential hazards of relying too heavily on
GPS applications.
They said Google Maps and Waze, which is also owned by Google, along with other mapping programs, wouldn’t always account for seasonal road closures or treacherous terrain, emphasizing temporary road closures instead.
“There were a lot of cars behind us,” Becktold said. “Clearly, Google Maps was routing everyone the same way.”
Becktold, 50, a senior story editor for Sierra, a magazine published by the Sierra Club, said she and her cousin had seen a tree limb on a power line and had passed many cabins as they unknowingly pressed on. Then, a worker in a safety vest waved them off, said Becktold, who lives in Berkeley, California.
“He said, ‘Everybody just keeps showing me their phones,’ ” Becktold recalled. “He was just like exasperated.”
A Google Maps spokesperson said in a statement last week that the tech company was taking steps to provide drivers with accurate route information.
“In light of the unpredictable conditions from the ... snowstorm, our team is working as quickly as possible to update routes in the Lake Tahoe area using details from local authorities,” said the spokesperson,
Madison Gouveia.
Google Maps did not answer questions about what kind of safeguards for drivers it uses, including warnings about winter road closings or unpaved roads. SFGate. com earlier reported the white-knuckle detours.
In Washoe County, Nevada, which includes Reno, a family of five from Southern California was stranded for two hours Dec. 27 when their rented pickup truck got stuck in the snow on a two-lane dirt road, the county sheriff ’s office said.
The family had sought an alternate route on the way to visit relatives for the holidays in Truckee, California, during the storm, which closed an 81-mile stretch of Interstate 80 and contributed to the snowiest December in the Sierra on record.
In a Facebook post Dec. 28, the Washoe County Sheriff ’s Office said that the family had ignored illuminated warning signs telling drivers not to use the Dog Valley-Henness Pass Roads.
“However, the family’s GPS won the battle of which technology to listen to,” the sheriff ’s office said in the Facebook post, adding that the family had been rescued.
It was not clear what GPS application the family had been using.