When Google Maps, with its prankish spirit, pushes you to take roads that are forbidden to your vehicle

The Google Maps navigation application, oh so practical, sometimes tends to take you on questionable routes. He may suggest routes that cross roads closed to traffic.

While some users and mayors of France are scrambling to win the battle for directions, well-known navigation applications, like Google Maps, can turn out to be a bit of a joke. This is the case in Switzerland, in Geneva in particular, where motorists have noticed that the tool makes them take shorter routes, of course, but that it is not always very wise to take a car, because it is prohibited to traffic.

Google Maps may push you to drive on paths reserved for pedestrians

Geneva is known for being a pleasant city to visit, of course, but also quite congested. So obviously, the use of GPS navigation applications like Waze or Google Maps, which has just had a makeover, is more than common. On site, for many motorists, it has even become almost essential.

But inevitably, at the height of traffic jams, Google tends to offer shorter routes, which on paper seems to be a good thing, except when the proposed route pushes the driver to go through a small path reserved for pedestrians or altogether prohibited to traffic.

To stick with the example of Geneva, traffic is regularly paralyzed in the Cornavin district (the one where the city’s famous central railway station is located). It may happen that by being located at the intersection between Place de Cornavin and Passage des Alpes, the GPS invites you to cross the esplanade which is located in front of the station and which is closed to vehicle users. Which inevitably creates traffic jams. And other places in Geneva are affected.

Google explains the errors

If the journeys are most of the time very reliable, the margin of error of a few meters is sufficient to take a vehicle on another road. This doesn’t just apply to the city. Errors are also common in the countryside, where drivers may be asked to cross agricultural fields, for example, via small paths that are not open to the public. Which obviously does not enchant farmers.

GPS is a practical tool, as we said, but it is worth remembering that it does not have the force of law. On the Geneva side, and this also applies to France, the police point out that respect for traffic rules must take precedence over any indication that this or that navigation application could provide, whether it be speed or signs. of circulation. The example of speed during work is revealing: if a lane limited to 110 km/h is suddenly lowered to 70 km/h, and your application continues to display the limit at 110 km/h, you will not be able to obviously don’t use GPS as justification.

Google Switzerland reminds that several links are available to users to allow them to report any errors. The company indicates that the application works thanks to various elements: images collected by satellite; Street View but also all information provided by users, local authorities and third parties. If, for each error reported, the correction ends up being made, it can sometimes take several days.

Source : GHI.ch