GPS Sends Me On Illegal Drive

After recently trying to navigate side roads to drive home during a snowstorm I decided it was time for me to get a new GPS unit to make the drive less stressful. I didn’t need a high end unit so I got a TomTom ONE 125, widely regarded as a good starter unit that had everything that I needed.

To learn how to use the unit I started using it to navigate to and from work. The idea was to (a) test the unit and (b) find different ways to get to and from the office.

At one point in the drive there is a fork in the road. The TomTom tells me to bear left, make a right at the next light and a left at the next corner after that. These directions are incorrect for two reasons:

  1. After bearing left it is illegal to make a right turn at the next light.
  2. Bearing right (instead of left) and going straight is a more direct way to accomplish the same thing.

One of the features on this unit is a way to correct the stored maps and share those changes with other TomTom users. So I tried to use the map corrections feature to correct the issue but the intersection (after bearing left) is already marked as one where you cannot make a right turn. So now I have 3 questions:

  1. Why is it directing me to make an illegal turn?
  2. Why isn’t it directing me to take the most direct route?
  3. How can I correct the route so other people making this drive with their TomToms for the first time get the proper directions?

In fairness, Google Maps directs me to follow the same erroneous directions. I’d be interested to know how I can correct their error as well.

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