Manhattan vs. Brooklyn?

[Captain Walker]

We drive into NYC from Massachusetts fairly regularly, and the our 550 does a nice job of all the usual things. This weekend, instead of our usual destination that we have programmed in, we were heading to a parking garage, and only had the address on West 54th street in Manhattan to enter.

We have our favorite routes, so often ignore the directions, and the GPS adjusts the routes to get us where we're going, but this trip had stranger routing than most. Ultimately, when we were on the West Side Highway, about 5 minutes from our destination, I noticed we still had nearly 30 minutes left until the destination, according to the machine. Figured out that it was routing us to the same address in Brooklyn, instead of in Manhattan.

Had NO idea why this was, until typing this. Could it be because I only used 54th Street as the destination, instead of West 54th?

Other than feeling silly for getting it wrong, this would be my preferred answer, as opposed to it being a "known problem", or something else.

Thanks!

 

[tgold]

This has nothing to do with any "known problem" or routing issue, you simply accepted the wrong destination and the TomTom was obediently and ably taking you there.

 

[canderson]

Could it be because I only used 54th Street as the destination, instead of West 54th?

Absolutely. As I've noted in other threads at other times, it's interesting how various municipalities manage their street naming. Some are very explicit about "north" and "south", and others ignore it for north but are explicit for "south", or the other way around. Same for east and west. If you plugged in "54" and didn't scroll down to discover that there was also a W 54th, you may well have selected the right street on the wrong side of town entirely. It's something a person has to be careful about. I know my area quite well, and still catch myself forgetting to scroll down and include the requisite "S" for streets south of 000 in Denver, for example. North is implied.. no "N" required.

 

[Captain Walker]

This has nothing to do with any "known problem" or routing issue, you simply accepted the wrong destination and the TomTom was obediently and ably taking you there.

I chose state "NY", city "New York City", and gave it 54th Street, and the address number. It didn't give me options to chose.

As canderson says, it is probably what I guessed -- not adding a "W" or "West" prior to 54th street was what slayed me.

 

[tgold]

I believe your recollection is inaccurate because it's my experience that navigating using TomTom is always and only about accepting offered options. Canderson explained why you may have accepted the wrong option and I completely agree with him.

For example, if you were navigating using the "Street and house number" option and if you really did type in "New York City" as you had recalled then you would go nowhere because that city name is not in the TomTom index. You may start to type that but before finishing you would get the offers of "New York NY" followed by "New York Mills NY" and then need to choose one of those options. And the same with the street; if you enter 54 you will be offered 54th St, then 54th Ave, then 54th Dr, then 54th Pl etc. The problem only comes if you choose to accept an offered option without knowing where that place is. 54th St is in Brooklyn because that is the only place in New York City with street signs saying 54th St. In Manhattan there is no such street sign - West of 5th Av you find signs with W54 St and East of 5th you find E54th St signs, but there are no 54th St signs anywhere in that borough.

Interesting aside, but the W and E on a New York street sign actually refers to the location of the sign. For example on 5th Avenue along Central Park, all the signs on the West side of the Avenue say W even when there is no street going West and only East-going streets on the opposite side. Weird! I hope non-subscribers to NYT are able to read this: http://tinyurl.com/6btanvo

Off-topic, but may I ask Canderson about his no-WD40 avatar? I am a huge fan of WD40. Apart from lubrication, it's amazing in its ability to remove adhesive residue from removed labels. Canderson, what is your beef with WD40?

 

[canderson]

Off-topic, but may I ask Canderson about his no-WD40 avatar? I am a huge fan of WD40. Apart from lubrication, it's amazing in its ability to remove adhesive residue from removed labels. Canderson, what is your beef with WD40?

The beef isn't so much about how it works (although it's crap as anything but a VERY short term lubricant in most applications - too thin and too volatile) but rather, how it was once used by someone else in a forum far, far away. LONG story. A strange and paranoid lady who got busted for macing suspicious looking males, and thought she could get a pass if she only used WD40 in their eyes.

I find its best use as a solvent as you later suggested, and as a general purpose nut buster for rusty stuff.