We were driving from our Boulder home to Texas de Brazil, a restaurant whose alleged address is 8390 East 49th Street in Northfield Stapleton, a new shopping and dining development on part of the site of Denver's old Stapleton Airport. We know how to get to Northfield but weren't sure exactly where the restaurant was. The directions we got were mind-boggling in their inaccuracy. Spurred by Potter's listing of "the best," I went on-line and searched for directions to the restaurant on half a dozen on-line map services. Here's what I found:
- Citysearch, the one we originally used, is really screwed up. The written directions had us leaving Boulder via 28th Street. So far, so accurate, but after that, the directions really fall apart. The directions say to drive on some unnamed route for 26.4 miles and continue, "Freeway ends; bear right taking the ramp towards Exit 4, Quebec Street." Twenty-eighth Street, a local Boulder arterial, feeds into limited-access US 36, which eventually presents a choice of continuing on I-25 or I-270. Neither is mentioned by CitySearch. FWIW, I-270 is the one leading to our destination. The larger corresponding map labels the US 36/I-270 combination as Highway 128 (huh?) and the supposedly more localized map doesn't include I-270 at all. Missing a long-extant portion of the Interstate highway system seems inexcusable. And besides, the freeway doesn't end. Exiting from I-270, Citysearch says to turn left (south) on Quebec Street, while our destination required us to turn right (north) and then take an immediate right onto East 49th. The written directions led to a residential neighborhood on East 29th Avenue, 20 blocks and on the other side of Interstate 70 from where we were going.
- Mapquest, Micrsoft's Live Local Search and Google Maps are better in that they would have gotten us into the correct area, but they left us in the middle of East 49th Avenue with no indication of where to turn to enter the Northfield Center in order to reach the restaurant.
- Yahoo Maps is also wrong. The directions are OK as far as the East 49th Avenue exit from I-270, but then indicate that after 0.6 mile, "make a U-turn at Verbena Street." Anyone who did that would then be going the wrong way on East 49th Avenue. Instead of that U-turn, it is necessary to turn right from East 49th Street.
- I also looked at a business directory called AskCity, which does include a map when it finds the business you are searching for. I asked, but the site had no answer other than, "Your search for Texas de Brazil did not match with any Business Listing results near Denver, CO."
- In all fairness to these nationwide maps, Northfield Stapleton's own map isn't all that enlightening when it comes to finding a specific business there. First, it's necessary to go the business directory on the center's website to discover that Texas de Brazil is #1800 and then go to the map. By doing that, you can figure out that you turn right from East 49th Avenue Parkway, as those devilishly clever marketers have renamed the street, onto....what? No street name is indicated (could it be Verbena?) between T.G.I. Fridays and Macy's, then go 2/3 of the way around a traffic circle within sight of Texas de Brazil and then turn right behind the restaurant into a parking lot.
These on-line maps might be useful if you are looking for an address that has been around for a long time, but IMHO, they all suck to a greater or lesser degree when it comes to helping drivers navigate the rocky shoals of the new residential and commercial developments that are infesting the landscape -- and these character-free developments would seem to be where people need the most help. It doesn't help that all the business in a single shopping center often share one mailing address, and the on-line services can't know that. Bottom line, when you're traveling, don't assume that on-line maps will get you exactly where you want to go, especially if it's someplace that hasn't been around since the administration of Harry Truman.
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