timeimmortal

Bus driver chooses instructions from GPS unit over bridge height-limit warning signs — ends up shaving the top two feet off of most of his bus.

Chesterton once noted, I believe, that if people stop believing in God, they’ll believe in anything. I haven’t the first clue about the bus driver’s religious beliefs (or lack thereof), but I do happen to think that our society has gotten…a lot more credulous, especially where technology is concerned. Heck, it’s gotten to the point where people are willing to trust the little Garmin box sitting on their dashboard over the road signs that have been in place for twenty, thirty, or forty years.

I remember when Google Maps first launched — it took them over a year to finally sort out which streets in Edmonton’s downtown area were one-way streets, and another few months to sort out which directions those one-ways went. Even now, when I use Google to find directions, I tend to take the results as only a rough guideline; the reality on the ground may be a very different thing than what the picture on the screen suggests, and on a long-distance trip I need to be able to adjust for that when and if it happens.

Anyone want to bet that a decade ago, before GPS units became commonplace, that this bridge that the bus hit saw hardly any overhead impacts in a typical year?

~ by Kenneth on April 18, 2008.