Better Alternative to Streets and Trips?

[ericjkelly]

Hey friends...

Like most of you I have a laptop running streets and trips 2013 (also have 2009) and a puck gps. I dont like how Streets and Trips works...been frustrated with the zoom and road mapping.

Does anyone else use a different program that they love?

 

[Skip Talbot]

Delorme Street Atlas. You can configure the zooming visibility to see the lesser roads at farther zooms which is nice. The program has quite a few more features too. Some people still swear by Street and Trips though as Street Atlas's interface can be a bit chunky/antiquated at times. Just a matter of personal taste as both generally get the job done. Those are about your two options for PC though.

 

[STexan]

I could never figure out why a lot of guys want to use a laptop and mapping software when highly functional and relatively cheap GPS units are out there that will mount in the windshield in ready view and are easy to operate with the touch of a finger. Plus, with "North Up" turned on it helps keep you better aware of your location orientation IMO. They use the same map database (Navteq) that the others use, plus have logging features and a multitude of other navigation related features. Save the laptop for radar, location plotting, and weather web page access. If you want a quick, broader view, paper maps never fail.

But honestly, if you're going to use a laptop (or better yet an apple Ipad) Google Maps app is hard to beat for accuracy and keeping up to date with new roads, without constant downloads, plus it has the added benefit of live traffic conditions across ALL well-traveled roads, it's fast and very efficient. And it's also hard to beat for easily finding anything you could ever need to find in terms of businesses. I'm not a fan of Google, but their Maps app is far superior to anything else out there and it's free. It's biggest drawback is when you are in the rare situation when cell data is unavailable but that's why a dedicated GPS navigation device pays for itself.

 

[Todd Rector]

I am not sure what relatively cheap windshield mount GPS unit you are speaking of, but my Garmin Nuvi 40LM is extremely lame compared to MS Streets and Trips to the point where it's actually annoying to use unless I am trying to navigate to a specific address. Zooming in on a 4.3 inch screen doesn't give me the "bigger picture" view I need to make decisions 5 miles down the road, and there are TONS of backroads missing. Zoom out and you get main highways plus a few secondary highways - not backroads.

I am not a huge fan of MS Streets and trips for several reasons, but it beats my Garmin by a large margin for backroad accuracy *and* doesn't require an active internet connection.

 

[ericjkelly]

I actually use both. I have a windshield gps (tomtom) but often you need to look at roads ahead and find a backroad route that most other gps's wont route.

 

[STexan]

I always chase alone and do not care to use a laptop mount so that may be part of my issue with not wanting to use a laptop for map purposes. I would never use a GPS with less then a 7 inch screen. I prefer the Dezl Garmin unit for a number of reasons. Has every road on it large and small, dirt and paved free lifetime maps and traffic updates. Can navigate to a city center or any place I "click on" ... but I rarely actually "navigate" a prescribed route anyway but rather use it just to keep me centered at whatever zoom level I prefer once the active chase begins. The Tom Tom is ok I suppose but lacking in a lot of key features.

 

[JohnHuntington]

I used Delorme Street Atlas back in the 90's and then a few years ago got into Streets and Trips, and now I just moved back to Delorme. I moved this time back to Delorme because the GPS tracking in Streets and Trips was causing me all kinds of problems when trying to tag my photos using the map features of Lightroom. It would break each GPS trail into hundreds of segments, come up in a distant time zone (UTC?), etc. My initial testing with Delorme and the Lightroom integration seems to work great, and with a Windows 8 touchscreen laptop it's pretty cool to just drag around the maps on the screen--I run a split screen between the map software and GRLevel when I'm in chase mode.

I also use Google maps (or Waze in cities) simultaneously on my phone and/or tablet when I'm trying to find a hotel or want an ETA or something, but it eats data and you have to keep it alive on the screen somehow and I have lost data many times at critical times. I often end up chasing by myself and I just need to be able to glance quickly at the screen and see what my road options are, etc.

I think the dedicated units (garmin, tom tom, etc) are great for basic navigation, but Google maps with its live updating and Waze for real time traffic, police, etc are way more powerful. I do have a handheld garmin I use for kayaking/hiking/etc, and another unit for cycling. I'm a GPS geek, I guess

John

 

[Todd Rector]

I think the inadequecy of my windshield GPS was highlighted last year when my chase partner was using his iPhone to successfully navigate us on gravel "roads" in Oklahoma that my GPS didn't recognize and thought we were in a field somewhere. I went with MS Streets and Trips this year, running on a Surface Pro tablet with decent results, but I have trouble getting the resolution I want when and how I want it, so I found myself using the google Earth background on GR3 to navigate in Nebraska last week. I just ordered Delorme's product last night and will give it a try when it arrives. It will be interesting to compare the two products.

 

[ScottCurry]

Sorry to bring up this old thread, but I have a question. MS Streets and Trips is no longer supported. It won't even be available for sale from Microsoft after December 2014. Microsoft has switched completely over to Bing Maps. I already have MS Streets and Trips 2013, and I need to stick with offline maps to save data. Is it worth dumping for Delorme Street Atlas, or should I wait for Streets and Trips to become completely outdated?

 

[Todd Rector]

I have been using both MS Streets and DeLorme Street Atlas, switching back and forth depending on my needs. Both have their advantages and disadvantages but for overall navigation I prefer DeLorme. The trick with both of these is to take some time to really get to know the application and its capabilities because they are both much more powerful than they first appear. For $40, I don't think you will be disappointed with DeLorme.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Is it worth dumping for Delorme Street Atlas, or should I wait for Streets and Trips to become completely outdated?

Both applications are already years out of date in many places. They add roads with each year's incremental update, but Microsoft or Delorme by no means have all the roads. Delorme's 2014 release, for example, does not have my own subdivision in it, even though it's been here for years already. I use Delorme, but I'd probably recommend you stick with Microsoft if it works well for your needs. At some point you'll probably be forced to switch, probably when you get a new machine with an operating system that won't run 2013 Streets and Trips. There's probably not much incentive to switch in the meantime though.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Delorme's desktop GPS tracking software seems like it might be on its last legs as well. You can't find it any retails stores anymore. The only place to get it is it to order a copy on DVD online and have it shipped (digital download would be nice). The demand is falling with the surge of mobile mapping platforms running on Android iOS. Unfortunately, there still doesn't appear to be a mobile app that's as powerful or as ideal a solution for chasers as Delorme's or Microsoft's mapping software is.

 

[Michael Towers]

Delorme used to be my primary navigation tool but now it’s used mainly as a mapping log of my chases. Reliability issues and the fact that I get more effective use from GR Placefiles such as these (http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/~slincoln/GRS/shapefiles/) have made GR3 itself my primary navigation tool. Along with Google Maps on my laptop and apps on my S4 the efficiency of integrating decent mapping on GR3 has relegated Delorme to a redundancy used mainly for logging chases. I don’t recall more than a handful of times all year that I utilized Delorme for navigational purposes.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Wish I had realized that S&T 2011 wouldn't work on Windows 8.1. The S&T 2013 works on Win 8.1, but its impossible to buy a key now. Frustrating.

May have to switch to bing or Google Earth?

 

[Jason Foster]

This is sad to hear. Big fan of DeLorme and have communicated that a number of times directly to DeLorme (where social media is a great thing). I would even be willing to pay up to or around $200 for the software it is that essential. That said, I have not upgraded in the past two years but that has everything to do with playing on the iOS platform. I still prefer and would use a PC for chasing (I believe a superior platform for such).

While I have gotten use to (but never truly satisfied with) using the iPad for navigation, it has one MAJOR problem and that is the inability to store the map data on the computer/tablet itself. I do know there are some means and methods to cache map data, but it (so far to me) doesn't seem simple or logical.

If foresee a need to purchase and configure a laptop with all the needed software and hardware that would last for the next three to four years without upgrading. That could be tricky of course (at least for a end-user type person like me that hates dealing with "configurations").