Courtesy of our frequent commenter Cos, I bring you a map of Silver Springs Shores, Florida, the place you most don’t want to be when you’re looking for an address. Go ahead. Click on the map to bring up the full sized version. Start reading the street names. I promise you, the longer you look the more hilarious it gets.
[Click here to comment.]
At some point, people are simply going to give GPS coordinates to show where their house actually is.
I should point out that Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, doesn’t have street addresses as anyone outside the town would recognize them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmel-by-the-Sea,_California#Planning_and_environmental_factors
When my wife and I went there earlier this year, we had a difficult time finding specific restaurants, our hotel, etc.
I’m sure the local utilities have some sort of scheme where they can locate, say, telephone service for a particular house, but I’m not sure how that’s handled. Wikipedia says that the USPS threw its hands in the air and just has residents pick up their mail at a central location, but AT&T actually needs to go to residence and bill the appropriate party.
That reminds me of a neighborhood in Edmonton, Alberta. Bonnie Doon, I believe.
I spent many a year delivering pizza. Not in Silver Springs Shores, thank god, but I can guarantee you people will call in and give their address as “1234 Bahia”.
It must be something with the name Silver Springs, because the Silver Springs in Calgary is almost as bad!
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=silver+springs+calgary&sll=49.225215,-123.027981&sspn=0.011015,0.01929&ie=UTF8&hq=Silver+Springs&hnear=Silver+Springs,+Calgary,+AB&ll=51.10751,-114.192753&spn=0.021179,0.038581&t=h&z=15
Here’s another in San Antonio, TX:
Culebra Rd & N w Loop 1604, San Antonio, TX 78253
Link:
This email was sent to you by a user on Google Maps (maps.google.com)
For readers (like me) who don’t initially get the point of this: Use Google Maps to find the address in Bill Drissel’s comment, then start dragging the map westward (so you are looking farther and farther to the east). It just keeps going and going. Thank you for this, Bill.
Somehow, the link to Goggle Maps was swallowed up. I’ll try again:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1604+%26+culebra,+san+antonio,tx&sll=29.424122,-98.493628&sspn=0.312791,0.617294&g=san+antonio,tx&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Culebra+Rd+%26+N+w+Loop+1604,+San+Antonio,+Bexar,+Texas&ll=29.495101,-98.689306&spn=0.009768,0.01929&t=h&z=16
I think I see geoCoordinates in the URL. Questions for readers: Will non-techies be able to use geoCoords? How will they handle the minus sign for W longitude? Without looking do you know the Coords of your home, office, meeting places, restaurants? I don’t know any telephone numbers any more. Will we handle geoCoords the same way?
Regards,
Bill
I will add again that once you’ve followed Bill Drissel’s link, you should try panning eastward. It just keeps getting worse.
Or: Here, I think, is a better view of Bill Drissel’s magnificent find; click on the small map to bring up a readable one.
The Big Question, of course, being “Why the [expletive]?!?” Any answers? Why would anyone do such a thing?
There must be some truly lazy real estate developers out there.
Would love to blame this on the crazy Floridians, but my weekend place in Connecticut on South Drive keeps getting the mail that should have gone to South Street or South Trail — all within the same zip code. Is it really so difficult to come up with more ideas??
If houses are on both sides of the street, I believe that would make the network Eulerian and a Chinese Postman Tour would be the shortest route… Not a nightmare at all for a mathematician!