The Mall Labyrinth
Thu, 05/31/2012 - 5:52pm
 |
 15 years
|
In downloading the most current POI file for Starbucks and reading the narrative associated with the update, I was reminded of one confusing issue that malls create.
Is the store in the mall or outside the mall?????.
Has anyone proposed a "standard" for identifying stores (GPS coordinates) located inside inside a mall? For example the use of "(M)" in field #4 (CVS files) to identify stores located inside a mall.
Shopping centers, even when all the stores are reasonable visible, can present problems too. So one could use "(SC)" as a standard for that situation.
Bank of america
There have been plenty of discussions about malls or shopping centers and the Bank of America POI file maintained by metricman. I don't know if there is an easy answer for this problem.
dobs108
good enough for me
Having the GPS get me to the mall in a strange town is good enough for me. It doesn't matter if it's a strip mall or a regular mall. If I can't find the store once I get to the mall then it's me that has the problem. It's the same as the GPS taking me to an address in a strange town. Most of the time an address can be two or three hundred feet off due to the way they are figured mathematically. But if I can't find it after getting that close I have no business traveling.
Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.
.
There have been plenty of discussions about malls or shopping centers and the Bank of America POI file maintained by metricman.
For reference, the Bank of America thread is here:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/35071
I don't know if there is an easy answer for this problem.
Unfortunately there isn't an easy answer for every situation. However, I still maintain that the POI files offered here are mainly used for driving directions and en route alerts, and putting the POIs too far off the road often messes up the routing so that practice is actually counterproductive.
Like Don B, I'd rather have the POI get me to the parking lot reliably, instead of giving me bizarre - and often impossible - driving directions before I even get close to the Starbucks (or ATM, or whatever).
Agree 100%
Just get me to the location if I can't find it then that is my problem. I can ask someone. The Poi's here have helped me a number of times. Thanks to all that maintaine them.
johnm405 660 & MSS&T
malls shopping centers
yes if it gets you to the mall or shopping center i uasaly look at their mall map to get where im going inside, its the highways that i get confusd on when it says turn left in 200 ft and you can see there are 2 left hand turns or your going down side streets and it says turn left and its someons drivway or a dead end road, did you know that recalculating can be annoying lol