Find Nearest Place in Mapquest F%$#ing Weird

Discussion in 'Mapping & Navigation' started by brian81, Jun 18, 2009.

  1. brian81

    brian81 Adventurer

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2008
    Oddometer:
    91
    Location:
    Clinton Township Michigan
    So , I have Mapsource 6.15.6 with City Nav North America 2008 NT as my map. I decided to look up some campgrounds around my home.I know almost all of them , but I want to see how accurate Mapsource is. So, I click "Find nearest places" and for category select "Lodging". For subcategory I choose "Campground/RV Park". Now I know there is a camp site 2 miles from my home, I have caped there before, but that doesn't come up. Instead I get a bunch of places that are like peoples houses, businesses, and even some weird religious retreat. Has anyone else found that Mapsourse does not find what you are looking for,at all? I am tempted to go to the residential home it gave me and set up on his front lawn:D
    #1
  2. BlueLghtning

    BlueLghtning Riding is my passion

    Joined:
    Feb 16, 2004
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    Location:
    Peachtree City, GA and Full Time RV Travel
    Are you searching on the PC or GPS itself? Not that it should make a difference.

    I ran into this on our last trip where we were running the TAT. We would do a search for campgrounds towards the evening and the GPS wouldn't find many and even some like state parks that we would have a book that said they existed, it wouldn't show up. But usually if you searched by name, you could find them. Also the TAT maps gave campgrounds that wouldn't show up in the GPS either. It really made no sense. One of the guys had an iphone and we had better luck looking up campgrounds on this and using the address to find them.

    I'm thinking the campground data base is severely lacking on different versions of City Nav.
    #2
  3. mcnut

    mcnut Long timer Supporter

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    Apr 26, 2006
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    Location:
    Bakersfield CA
    In my experience this is an major POI weakness. I think if you look under lodging>campgrounds/RV you will mostly get commercial operations. The government operated public campgrounds are listed else where and I always have trouble finding where.

    You would think gov run camping should be more prominently displayed.

    Bruce
    #3
  4. 9Dave

    9Dave Bazinga!

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    Aug 4, 2005
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    Location:
    Central Ohio
    It's only as good as the information in the database. I'm not sure where they get it from, but it seems to be inconsistent.

    I tried the same thing with campgrounds in an area in Kentucky where there is a state park nearby. The state park did not show up.
    #4
  5. WoodButcher

    WoodButcher Long timer

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2004
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    Location:
    Austin, TX
    There is a bug that has been reported to Garmin with doing exactly that type of search for campgrounds. Basically you can't filter on campground. It works fine for other categories.

    And I agree about the POI info. I've never found that it is an exhaustive list. I use places like POI factory to download categories of POI's that I want to have (Texas Wineries and brew pubs for instance).
    #5