GPS any good in Northern Ireland?

[Dee747]

I know this is slightly off topic, but can anyone with first hand knowledge of the issues involved please offer any advice or opinions on the use of in-car GPS systems in Northern Ireland (and to a lesser extent, the Republic of Ireland)?

From what I have read up on the net so far most of the usual models available - Garmin, Magellan, TomTom etc. - will supply a fully digitised map system of mainland GB, but few will offer more than detailed maps of Belfast with just main roads shown between the "major towns". If this is the case it hardly seems worth buying for local (NI or ROI) use, which would be a shame.

Is this apparent lack of detail due to the Ordnance Survey NI not making their information available to the GPS companies, or are there other reasons?

All relevant help would be very much appreciated.

Dee747

[Conan the Librarian]

A lot of the maps are actually provided by NavTeq and then licensed to various companies. Why not email them and ask? They might point you in the right direction.

Bet it will turn out to be an "upgrade" though :-)


Conan

[Irish Steve]

From experience, most of the mapping companies have reasonable representations of Northern Ireland, but there is NOTHING worth talking about for Southern Ireland, unless you live in Dublin. The mapping of the rest of the country is :mad: useless, and not worth the money, autoroute being one of the worst, the latest version I got, (2005) had poorer maps than the 2002 version.

Much of the responsibility lies with Ordnance Survey Ireland, a state controlled monopoly, who have so far not made the digital data of Ireland available at an acceptable price to the companies that supply the data to the software integrators. As a result, Ireland ends up looking even more like a banana republic than it already is, and the impression it gives to foreign tourists, especially from the States, where they're used to street level GPS can only be imagined.

I don't see it changing in a hurry, unless someone manages to put something very provocative under Ordnance Survey, as a state controlled body, they have no incentive what so ever to do anything that might be deemed as useful in providing a service to the thousands of people that visit Ireland each year.

You're more likely to see good GPS mapping of Outer Mongolia before you see good coverage of the Republic.

[Dee747]

Thanks Irish Steve. Much as I expected. Thankfully I don't need a GPS to get to my friends who used to live in Ratoath, then Dunshaughlin and now at Kentstown. Know the area well.

On second thoughts, night time arrivals off the N2 and onto lots of little similar side roads can be dodgy - even for the sober .......:confused:

Thanks

Dee747

[Irish Steve]

On second thoughts, night time arrivals off the N2 and onto lots of little similar side roads can be dodgy - even for the sober .......


Be very careful with the N2 in the Ashbourne area at the moment, at long last, the Govt has decided that the Ashbourne bypass is needed, so there's all sorts of diversions around one side of new roundabouts north and south of the town, new bridges over the route of the bypass, and other strange things happening.

The centre of Ashbourne is also pretty chaotic at the moment, what was the old Dardis & Dunne seed store has been demolished, and Dunnes Stores have built a new store on the site, which is due to open any time soon, but the building work on the edge of the road is making getting through the centre of the town "interesting", in all the wrong ways. A new Aldi at the other end of of town has added to the pressure of traffic.

[Milt]

Arrrrrrrh be careful now. You can't get there from here.