The other day the publishers of Melbourne’s Melway street directory boasted that their maps were more up to date than Google Maps. It reminded me of an experience I had the other month.
Still around & still the most reliable #melbourne maps. More up-to-date mapping than #googlemaps. Also on iOS http://t.co/8qOl7sTl80
— Melway Maps (@MelwayMaps) November 12, 2014
I had spent a morning near Footscray station, waiting to photograph a steam train headed from Newport to Castlemaine.
My vantage point was in the middle of a public park, but I didn’t know the name of it.
I plugged ‘Footscray’ in Google Maps, scrolled around a bit, and ended up with this map – no dice!
I then headed over to street-directory.com.au, which uses Melway maps, and found my answer.
Turns out Fordham Reserve is the park I had been standing in.
The plot thickens
On closer inspection, in the above example the Melway map is actually out of date – the connection from Whitehall Street into Neilson Place was severed back in December 2011 when Regional Rail Link works commenced through Footscray, yet it is still shown as a through road.
I believe that street-directory.com.au still uses Melway maps dating back to 2010, which might explain the discrepancy.
Footnote
The Regional Rail Link Authority is part way through reinstating the Fordham Reserve, as during the construction of the two additional tracks through Footscray, the entire area was a work site.
Marcus – have you come across HERE maps?
Maybe you can give us a review.
http://here.com/
Cheers,
Ian
‘Here Maps’ is owned by Nokia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_%28Nokia%29
Apparently they are also sending their own Google Street View cars around Melbourne:
http://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/2ilymc/google_streetview_car_in_william_st_city_last/cl3i565
OpenStreetMap of course also has the name of the park. Not the missing connection between Whitehall etc, but I guess you could fix it 🙂
I’ve got a GPS datalogger, so there are all kinds of things I could add to OpenStreetMap:
http://wongm.com/2011/03/gps-data-logging-my-experiences/
I find Google Maps is usually adequate, but there have been quite a few times when only the Melways online showed me what I needed to know.
Google Maps is usually my go-to as well, just because it is easier to search than street-directory.com.au, and I can actually send people links to specific maps!
The Melway maps in street-directory.com.au are from a few years ago – on the closer zoom Peninsula Link is under construction, and on the key map view it is still marked as proposed, so older still!
Over in your part of the world you will see the Geelong bypass is still under construction at Waurn Ponds to connect with the Princes Highway to Colac.
I’m always up for a game of ‘spot the difference’ with my Melway collection. 😛
Marcus, have you tried Melway online map? It’s up to date.
http://online.melway.com.au/melway/
I had that site pointed out to me the other week, but I had forgotten all about it!
As for the coverage of Footscray, the streets are now correct, but the ‘Fordham Reserve’ label has been removed!
I’m a developer working with Melway now to bring the very latest edition 42 Melway maps to our iMelway iOS app. The latest available iMelway has edition 41, which is still more up-to-date than the online maps.