Newbie Help (street numbers)

First off, welcome to the group.

Secondly, does the street have any other names? It is possible you know it as State street, but he official name may be something else. Then again, if you are on Mt Desert island there are a lot of private streets that are not in the mapping system for the Nuvi.

Much as we hate to tell you this, there are plenty of streets that the mapping companies used by the GPS manufactures do not have in their databases. Just yesterday, I tried to put in the address of a family in our bridge club of many years. While I knew how to get there, I was at a remote location and wondered if there might be a shortcut. My GPS 765T did not have these roads which have been there for years. It was in a very private subdivision gated community.

Is that a 1490 feature? On the 765, I have never seen "street number options" offered. Just street names.

Might he have entered 1409 as part of the street name and it's trying to sort out a local route-number?

On both my 750 and 855 when searching for an Address, I'm always asked for Street Number first, then Street Name. Does an Address Search work differently with the 765?

No. So you DO see street number options? You type in 1999 A Street and it asks if you want street number you want from a list of choices along A Street?

I asked the question first because I didn't want to assume barharborboy was entering the request incorrectly.

I own a 1250 and the first question when you go Where To/Address is house number. For some streets there are just a few house numbers in Garmin's database and it doesn't let you enter number of your choice. The only option is to pick up one of the offered numbers. In my case it wasn't even a private street. There is a new soccer complex built just outside of Casa Grande (AZ) on a major road next to existing hotel and golf resort. It didn't let me enter the right address, but when I searched Garmin's POI database and looked for hotels next to Casa Grande offered me one with the exact address I wanted to enter.

Obviously nothing is perfect.

Odd. My understanding of addresses was that streets had ranges of addresses, not individual addresses. The mapping takes you to the approximate place an address should be found at along the street.

Perhaps the 1409 address was not within any range?

If I touch Where To, then Address, I can then choose either Spell City or Search All. In either case, I'm next asked to Enter House Number, then I press Done and it asks for Enter Street. Pressing Done after that starts the search for ### StreetName.

I see that this is slightly different than the Original Poster's technique and that may the issue. When looking for a specific address, don't touch WhereTo?/City, but instead touch WhereTo?/Address --unless things are different for the 1490T.

Try to enter 5000 W Gila Bend Hwy, Casa Grande, AZ, or change house number to any number of your choice and see what happens.

Street numbers are assigned to roads by map company. They don't check coordinates of address but usually split street into even parts and assign numbers to them. So it is normal that sometimes street number doesn't match exactly place in real world.

Sometimes some numbers may be not assigned to maps, and that is the reason why you have other number to choose from. It will show closest number in database to your search. There is no way to go around it.

As other people said you can search for street only without number or choose closest number to one you were looking for from choices displayed by gps, as gps can only navigate to places that are known to unit.

But street numbers, like street names are assigned by the local jurisdiction having authority - usually the county but in some instances the city.

1409 should be a house number. I haven't heard ever that street has name and number both to gather. You didn't mention that where did you enter the house number? so If 1409 is the house number then put it in the column where unit asks for the Street number. Ya one more thing try to put that address in the Google earth or mapquest and see if the house number is correct. Sometimes if house number is wrong GPS wont show it instead it will show the selection among the house numbers available for that street.
One more thing when you select a house number on a particular street, Lets say in your case you might select 1400 which is available in GPS unit. Now before you hit the "Go" button make sure the zipcode is correct where you are heading. If zip code is right then you just might have to put a little effort to find that home in that street where GPS takes you!

Let's take an example: I live on number 340 of my road. It's actually a private neighborhood, where you have 5 houses. If I Google Map it, I see it. If I G-Eart it, I find it. And yet my 205T doesn't know it. But it DOES know number 332, which is right next to our entrance, and the entrance of another private block of some 30 houses.

The difference is not in the amount of houses per block, though. It's just that the first house to be built in ours, was built in 1992, a few years AFTER 332 was started. So number 340, the city's reference of a house, and a source of taxes, was only created in 1992.

And yes, NavTeq didn't pick it up yet. But the IRS and the City Council do know where to come for their money...

remember to have fun

To everyone who has responded, I thank you.

As others have noted, when pressing the Where To, it asks for a Street Number, which I assume is very similar to a house number. After entering the street #, it asks for the street address. While entering the street address name, it automatically pops up a list of available locations on the street. I can understand this, but I do not see any means of telling the unit, "No, I want the exact street # you had me enter initially." There are no options to bypass the list.

I am going to experiment with other addresses to see if I can find a pattern of how it responds to numbers.

If it's not a private address you need to keep that way, can you share it so we can debug or debunk the problem.

Perhaps select some one or two folk and do it offline?

This may be a semantics problem as much as a technical one.

Something is off a bit

Yes I agree, street number might be address number but then you say it asks for house number.

Hmmmm, street number, address number, house number appear to be asking for #### on XYZ street.

I would try putting in #### address number, then street name next screen.

If that fails try XYZ street name, then #### address number.

If the GPS does not have the street number in its data base then some of them will "suggest" a number that it does have. I have seen this a few times and there is no way to bypass it except to go to the "show map" and pick a point on the road that is close.

As thinking is not your forte or simply you just like to annoy people with pointless comments let mi explain exactly so even you can understand.

Street numbers are in fact assigned by government authority to places of land. And maps that are used by gov to show where are borders of each plot of land will have this exact street number assigned (as many other info). But this is not type of maps we are using in gps devices and talking about on this forum.

With any other maps there is different case. As making maps is very time consuming so maps for general use (like street maps) are simplified to make them cheaper. Lets take road of length of one block on gps map with numbers 101-200. Of course you can check gov maps to find where exactly each number is but it will take a lot of time. So (as often plots are even in size in city) it is enough to split road in 50 even parts an assign them numbers. There is of course way to change assignment or distribute numbers freely and it is done sometimes.

In some places there can be missing numbers in-between (for example rural areas or city borders). In those cases gps map can recognize only numbers that have been marked on map. It means that not every number may show on map. And there we are getting to bottom of original poster problem. gps can't find information that is not coded on map (for a_user: map in gps not a gov office), so if particular street number wasn't marked on map it can't by find where you are looking for address. That's why gps is showing nearest street number that can be found. If there are no numbers assigned to particular road on gps map it will show only street name without any numbers.

So in short: numbers on gps map numbers may not exactly fit reality on the ground as mapping company (like navteq for garmin) are not bound to exactly match placement of real street numbers. Usually they are accurate but with unusual numbering there may be difference between real address. I saw this often with new developments, that were not updated yet. In some cases I saw few years old development with local roads that were about fifty yards off in reality, comparing to navteq maps.

I hope sir, that this is clear enough this time.

Did you just not say that the GPS unit finds only numbers that are on the appropriate governmental map?

jgermann, try reading again with understanding. Trimming of my post this way doesn't make sens at all, as part that you cut out explains why gov maps are not this same as gps maps. But just in case I say it again.

Official street numbers are on gov maps, as only gov has authority to assign them, as a-user said. And only gov maps can be use to argue exact location of plat of land with specific number.

Popular maps for general public (like gps maps) may but DON'T HAVE to show numbers in locations from gov map. They can even make up their own numbering if they want to. Of course nobody does that as this sort of map will be useless so they make popular maps corresponding to gov maps as much as possible. But point is that - read carefully - gps unit can find only numbers coded on map that is RECORDED ON DEVICE. What numbers you can find depends ONLY on company that make this map. It has nothing to do with gov maps. This map doesn't have to be as accurate as gov map. It doesn't have to recognize all street numbers or even streets or cities. So even if you can find place on gov map it is NOT mandatory for mapping company to place it on theirs maps.

This is the reason why we have later missing street numbers or even whole streets. Especially on new developments. Do you think that because gps doesn't show some street number or whole street it doesn't exist on gov map? Of course it does, but is up to good will of navteq to put in on their map, so our garmins can find them.

I thought we were discussing your original statement. I assume you have several examples of instances where the map company has "assigned" street numbers (as opposed to suggesting numbers that are on governmental maps). Would you share a couple I could see play out on my GPS, please?

I have had this experience, at times, with all my Nuvis (350, 765T, 1390T). I'm not sure why some streets are like this, unless it's because they are rather short streets or fairly new. When I run into this, I just pick the one closest to where I want to go and then look for the correct address when I get there. It's usually not that far off.

This will not explain the problem you are having but a few users have done a pretty job.If you just want to save the location for future use.Go to Google maps and put in the info and use the send feature to your gps.To me a lot less hassle.

jgermann, I hope one day you will learn to read with understanding. It really doesn't hurt Just read again my post instead taking one sentence out of content. But again, sometimes I expect too much from some people.

Sometimes, (it has happened to me a few times), when you input an address you will not get a hit on your GPS. A lot of this has to do with the way the address is inputted into the map by Navtech.
My brother lives in a location where if you input his address the way you think it should be, the GPS will never bring up the location. I tried one night four or five times before I hit the proper sequence. He also had the same problem when he tried to set up his wife's business acocunt with her company. Even though he inputted the information the way the post office had the address set up, the database didn't recognize it and he had to change it so that the computer database would recognize it.

What does my purported inability to read have to do with the request I made? Either you can provide examples or you can't. Which is it?

As I understand it, you are trying to find the address 1409 State Street, CITY.

1. You first entered the name of the city.
Question, did you get a choice of city names and the relevant State or Province.?
Frequently there is more than city in North America with the same, or similar name. On my 855 I get a screen listing a choice of cities and I have to choose which one. Check the city on the map and ensure it really is the one you expected. Note that in some areas the city may be in a Township and the GPS will use the Township as the address rather than the city.

2. You entered State Street and presumably pressed "Done" (or something similar). You then got this choice of 3 numbers.
I would try just entering State as the street name and then pressing done. On my 855 I would then get a list of all street names in that city containing State. e.g State street W, State St E, State Street. State Rd. This helps eliminate any ambiguity in the street name.

If you still get just the 3 numbers, select the closest to 1409 and choose "View on Map". Is it anywhere close to your expectation?

If it's close, then you run into the typical GPS mapping problem caused by geocoding. The local authorities assign street names and house numbers according to their own rules. The GPS mapmakers do not attempt to obtain and map the unique house numbers. All of them, including Google, divide the street up into lots, based on some assumed frontage, and number these lots sequentially; even one side of street, odd on the other.
Not surprisingly this can lead to discrepancies between where the address is actually located and where the GPS places it. In urban areas this isn't too bad since you are usually close enough to drive down the street and look at the house numbering. However, in rural areas you can be miles off.