SALEM — Get used to hearing the word "recalculating" a lot more often.
With the opening of the bypass road and the closure of the east ramp off North Street, the city's streets are changing fast — so fast that your GPS unit may not be able to keep up.
GPS devices rely on mapping companies' Global Positioning Satellite data, which is typically updated once a year.
So for the time being, that authoritative voice booming from your dashboard-mounted device may command you to "bear left" on Bridge Street while your gut tells you to "stay straight" for the bypass road.
You and your GPS may be at odds for a while.
A spokeswoman for GPS manufacturer Garmin said the company's maps are provided by a third party, Navteq, usually every spring. Garmin then makes the mapping updates available to customers on its Web site.
But what if you don't have a GPS and want to find directions to Salem using the popular Google Maps Web site?
Well, apparently even Google needs time to recognize major road changes.
"There is not a specific timetable for when the data in Google Maps is updated," said a Google spokeswoman. "This rests with our map data provider. It often can range from a few months to up to a year for updates to appear. When we have this data, it will be accounted for in our driving directions."
Those who detest change and long for the old days — when the bypass road was a dirt path or the former Salem News building was still standing or the intersection of Washington and Bridge streets was a rotary — can check out Google's overhead satellite maps. Some of those images are up to 3 years old, but don't get too attached to those, either.
"Our current goal is to refresh them every 18 months," said the Google spokeswoman.
