Boston's Big Dig a Big Headache for Online Maps

location based services

In case you haven’t already heard, the Big Dig here in Boston has had some big problems, which has resulted in a closure of many key connector ramps from the main artery to the Logan Airport tunnel. There are detours set up that may last weeks to months as they repair faulty fixtures in the ceiling of these connector tunnels. The Boston Globe today wrote up a piece on how the online map world can’t keep up with these significant but (hopefully) temporary detours. TeleAtlas is mapping the Big Dig even now as the mess is unfolding, but unfortunately they won’t be getting the new detour information through the system in time to help travelers getting to the airport under the new detour laden routes. I did a quick check of a couple of online mapping programs and they sent you right through the closed ramps, whoops. It’s a complex pathway for road data to travel from TeleAtlas van to your GPS, but man if we could ever shrink that to a few days…. Now that would be big.
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