Truckers Guided by GPS Said to Hit N.Y. Bridges 200 Times

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-24/truckers-directed-by-gps-said-to-hit-new-york-bridges-200-times.html


Traffic on the George Washington Bridge in New York City.

The U.S. should write standards for GPS-connected devices used by truck and bus drivers to stop them from hitting low bridges after driving onto restricted roads, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said.

Truckers following faulty directions by global positioning systems devices have hit bridges in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County more than 200 times in the past two years, the New York Democrat said in a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood yesterday.

About 80 percent of bridge strikes in New York state, where parkways with low overpasses are supposed to be closed to commercial traffic, are caused by GPS misdirection, Schumer said. Even if the roads are well-marked, GPS devices may not note restrictions on trucks and buses, he said.

“These accidents are frequent, costly, dangerous and entirely avoidable,” Schumer said. “If we have the technology to send a truck to Mars, we have the technology to prevent trucks from crashing into bridges.”

[Brickbat]

1. I'm guessing this happened less when companies didn't try to micromanage every little decision the

guys on the ground made. Transportation is full of this kind of crap, and it's penny-wise and pound-foolish.

[LiberalAndProud]

17. How does micromanagement explain running into bridges?

[Brickbat]

18. With the old-timers retiring as the baby boom ages, a lot of institutional memory is being lost

because of faster training and hustling the lower-income workers into positions and pushing higher-income old guys out the door. And so you might get something like this:

New guy: The GPS is telling me to take Route 1 out of town. When I was training, we always took Route 2 up and around.

Middle manager who has never driven a truck: We had an analyst go over all the routes and your route should be clearly marked on the GPS. Follow that one for the best efficiency. Taking Route 2 is longer and has more stoplights.

New guy: Uh, OK, but we never had any problem with Route 2.

Middle manger: Well how come you never took Route 1? It's shorter and faster.

New guy: Uh, I dunno. We just always did it that way.

Middle manager: Well, we're not doing it that way anymore.

Guy gets in the truck, heads out, sees a bridge he thinks he can make, and fails. Some of it is operator error, obviously. But not all of it.

[1-Old-Man]

2. Keep in mind here the problem is not the drivers or the GPS, the problem is the bridge builders

Keep in mind that the problem here is that the bridges are not built to standard clearance, which I believe is 13' 6" nationally. This is not the fault of the GPS makers, the mappers, the drivers, or anyone else except the people who built the low bridge.

[Jennicut]

3. The problem is mostly in the northeast. We have a lot of older cities and towns here.

In Connecticut we have tons of low bridges. In Feb of this year we had four tractor trailers wedged under bridges and underpasses on one day. I lived in a town called Meriden for a little while and there was one underpass everyone knew to avoid if you were in a truck. I imagine New York, where Schumer is from, is even worse.

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. 13'6" is the statutory height for trucks, not for bridge clearance

Though there are scores of bridges marked at such a height, not only in the northeast, but the Midwest as well. I used to drive under a bridge in the Detroit area marked 13'7" with a trailer I knew was 13'8". Often a grace of a few inches is given to allow for snow buildup

[JHB]

16. Those nonstandard overpasses have been around for many decades.

Drivers have been contending with them for all that time, and needed to pay attention to the signs warning them. And their non-commercial-vehicle/height-restricted access is not exactly a state secret.

The problem is in the indiscriminate use of the GPS. If a commercial outfit uses them for trucks but doesn't take into account access restrictions then they are using them wrong. As for the GPS manufacturers, it may not be their fault for wrong usage, but there is very clearly a need for options that allow for vehicle type restrictions to be factored in when calculating routes. OK, the original usage had personal vehicles in mind so that commercial restrictions would not be a factor, but it is no harder to account for access restrictions than to account for one-way streets.

And states with restricted-access roads are within their rights to press for development of those options and mandate their usage.

[tech3149]

4. I may be stupid but I remember seeing clearance signs on every bridge

As a driver, I pay close attention to the size and capabilities of my vehicle so I don't put it somewhere it can't go. GPS may be a wonderful tool to help you get from point A to B. It sure beats my Hagstrom maps. But seriously? How can you expect to survive in this world if you don't pay attention to the world around you?

[exboyfil]

5. Couldn't a simple eye beam

sensor be used with really big and flashy warning sign to cut this down?

Also truckers should be held liable unless the bridge is mislabeled.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. Any driver that drives in the northeast that doesn't know....

That trucks don't drive on "parkways" shouldn't be driving in the northeast.

That was one of the first things that was impressed upon me when I first started driving OTR back in 1987. Stay the fuck off the parkways!

[KurtNYC]

8. Wait a minute..."we have the technology to send a truck to Mars," ?!

WHAT ?

[JBoy]

9. And Romney would ask why the windows don't roll down.

[jeff47]

13. You might have heard about this "Curiosity" rover.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

Curiosity is the size of a pickup truck.

[Mopar151]

10. A lot of the GPS maps are flat f'n wrong!

At least in the northeast. My cousins do HD towing, and the story I heard ended in a $12000 tow bill - it's what happens when you wedge a 48' trailer between trees (trying to turn around)5 miles after you really shoulda quit.
I'm wondering if the person who rendered the maps into the computer from whatever the source material was did not understand the difference betwen classes of roads?

[Lurks Often]

11. I frequently drive through NY state and it doesn't help that

they do a really crappy job with the highway signs. You often get little notice that the exit you want is coming up. It would also not surprise me that in some cases the truck drivers didn't see the no trucks sign until they were already committed to the exit.

[MadHound]

12. This is what happens when we let a machine do our thinking, and driving for us.

Every single bridge in this country is marked with its clearance. And simple paper maps are more accurate than GPS. The smart thing to do would be to toss the GPS unit and rely on your own intelligence instead.

[bluedigger]

14. Operator error.

This has always happened. GPS devices are just so common in OTR trucking now that there is a positive correlation. Paper maps don't show bridge clearances, either, GPS just makes screwing up more efficient.

[Earth_First]

15. "Get her stuck, did ya...?"

"Nope, just delivering a bridge..."