More bum steers - in Washington DC
 15 years
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I spent 2 days in DC this week for a family event. I crossed town 3 times during the day. I use a TomTom 1435 and a laptop with Streets & Trips 2013. The TomTom just had its map updated for the trip.
I learned that neither system took into account the many road changes going on around DC with all the DC construction going on. Both systems omitted very important on and off ramp closings, and as a result both systems kept pointing me toward useless connections.
I thought I had a backup paper map of the DC streets from AAA. However, instead of that, AAA gave me 2 copies of the general DC area, but no street detail map. I really didn't have time to search out another paper copy.
Both systems crashed repeatedly, but rarely did both crash together.
Once I had memorized the basic layout of DC's bridges and major thoroughfares, I was able to 'wing it' -- heading in a general direction & using the GPS as a supplement.
I stayed at an NPS campground in Greenbelt MD. S&T had a correct layout of the paths inside the campground, but it seemed to find several more entrances to the park than actually exist. I could mark my actual campsite using S&T & navigate there quite well. TomTom had zero detail of the camp layout. When I attempted to use my actual campsite as a favorite, TomTom insisted on putting it out on the nearby Balt-DC parkway.
DC ISSUES
I recently flew into Reagan, and navigated to California MD using an Android phone instead of my usual Garmin (traveled light). I ended up going through more old parts of the city than I wanted too, and really missed having the Garmin. I don't think I'll be doing that again.
There's A Reason
There's a reason that everyone acknowledges the fact that politicians haven't got a clue to where they are going in the District! And it's true.
Fred