Thinking Still Required: When GPS Isn’t the Answer

I say I travel alone a lot, but the truth is, I have one constant companion: Alice. Alice is the GPS on my phone, and she became essential to my life four years ago when I moved to Texas. Texas is big, the signage leaves something to be desired, and, truthfully, my sense of direction leaves something to be desired, too (although it’s much improved with every passing year).

In those early days, it was a constant struggle getting anywhere — to an assignment, a happy hour, a store. I worked 40 miles from where I lived, and although I had that route down pat, veering off it for an errand was just asking to get lost. Dozens of MapQuest maps littered my car, and trying to read while driving — well, that’s a lot like texting while driving, a horrible, horrible idea (put down the cell phone for two seconds, kids!). And so I got Alice enabled on my phone, and life went a little smoother after that.

But Alice is not perfect — she doesn’t know when roads close, she takes exception when you defy her by taking an alternate route (“make the next legal U-turn,” she blares every 10 seconds), and she’s not always up on things. In fact, Alice doesn’t know the Tacoma Narrows Bridge exists, and that’s been connecting Tacoma to the Kitsap Peninsula since 1950.

Needless to say, I use Alice more as an aid than a prophet — she’s like a passenger who lived in the area in 1987 but whose memory of things is sometimes a bit fuzzy. Unfortunately, not everyone realizes GPS systems don’t know it all, like this unfortunate family in Australia. They followed their version of Alice onto a road that was closed due to heavy rainfall, ignoring signs warning them against taking this path, and promptly got stuck for three days. That probably wasn’t the best plan. I’ve been known to follow a foolish route or two of my own, but at some point, logic has to come into play. Sure, technology is great, but it will never replace using the ol’ noggin.