A Tale Of Two Road Names - Editorial
A news article out of nearby Martha’s Vineyard came across our desk recently, and the page one story caught our eye. It appears that a “Google Gaffe” has caused some confusion on the island after the name of a road was changed, and we could not help but wonder if similar troubles may be on the horizon for Bourne’s own potential road renaming.
Much like in Bourne, the mess on the Vineyard started with a well-intended request from one of the two homeowners living on a tiny road formerly known as Beach Road Extension, located in Oak Bluffs. The homeowner cited confusion and mix-ups with nearby Beach Road, which runs between Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven, and with Beach Road Extension located in Vineyard Haven. Ambulances and people trying to access these larger and more-trafficked areas were somehow ending up on the tiny extension road instead.
So, the Oak Bluffs Planning Board voted in March to rename the tiny Beach Road Extension in Oak Bluffs as Anchor Way, and all was seemingly well and good until tech giant Google made a major blunder and mislabeled the entirety of Beach Road—not Beach Road Extension—as Anchor Way.
As a result, everything on the massive stretch of road between Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven wound up with a new (read: nonexistent) address on Google and Google Maps as being located on Anchor Way.
Business owners have complained that this mix-up could pose major problems for the fast-approaching summer season. They are right to voice those concerns because even though Apple Maps and Uber correctly identify the respective Beach and Anchor Road addresses, Google Maps is a very widely used navigation application. To Google’s credit, however, by the time of this writing, the mistakes to its maps had been corrected.
This story felt like a harbinger of what may be to come should the Town of Bourne agree to a change in name for Perry Avenue in Bourne Village. Regardless of what the name is actually changed to, the prospect of it being changed at all is enough to give us concern in the wake of this story.
Town officials have said that a name change will not negatively impact emergency responder operations—which was one of the reasons the name change was requested—but have also said that a name change would not benefit emergency personnel, either.
We understand the stress a homeowner living in a difficult-to-access area might feel, and are not advocating for one decision over another. This, to us, is just food for thought. Because if Google gets something wrong—which we have now seen happen—can we really rely on the untouchable tech giant to fix it lickety-split, especially when seasonal tourism is such a heavy factor in the local economy?
It is an unfortunate and unforeseen mistake, sure, but is that scenario something Bourne wants to bargain with? We are not sure, but it is definitely worth thinking about.