Mrs k and I are on holiday in Somerset, near to the city of Wells. I love maps and navigation and my wife loves to drive, so when we go somewhere new we play to those strengths, but on this trip Google Maps has been the cause of a little tension.
Before we came away I bought a new road atlas, a 100,000:1 scale with spiral binding, which gives you 1.5 miles to the inch, because I knew from experience that using satnav alone wouldn't be a completely satisfactory experience. The problem with Google Maps and presumably with other similar apps is their tendency to send you off down narrow roads, wide enough only for one car but with passing places from time to time. We've come across more of these very narrow roads in Somerset than we are used to at home, and several times we've been routed away from a major road to a tiny narrow one for a couple of miles, then back onto the main road, and that's with the settings specifying the fastest route.
Ask Google to navigate you somewhere and it will almost instantly give you a choice of routes, telling you how long each one will take. It appears to assume that you'll be able to drive at the speed limit on roads which are little more than farm tracks, often 60 mph, but in fact you'll probably be doing 30 mph or less, when you aren't stopping or reversing to let tractors pass you from the opposite direction.
I've been looking for solutions and it appears there isn't one. Google community helpers suggest logging a call and giving detailed notes on how to improve the functionality and I could do that, but I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for anything to change. So I'm going to take control away from an app and its alogorithms and plan routes in advance whenever possible, check the suggestions the satnav makes and write the route down on a piece of paper. Then in the car I'll have the road atlas open on my lap and follow along with the written details, paying attention to road signs and not to the app. When we go home tomorrow I may not even have the app running at all. It'll be just like I navigated years ago, in fact.
Email: kdan01 [at] posteo [dot] net