The organisers of the Great North Run have apologised for using a map of Sunderland, rather than Newcastle, on this year’s finisher medals, but this was just one in a long line of map mistakes.
Other blunders have included phantom supermarkets, dangerously misleading mountaineering routes and geopolitical blunders.
The phantom Aldi
Earlier this year the Welsh village of Cyffylliog in Denbighshire was beset by an unexpected stream of traffic after an Aldi supermarket appeared on a map.
The name of a farm just below the village, home to about 500 people, was changed on Google Maps to the name of the supermarket, leading to an influx of people attempting to do a weekly shop, and a milk tanker getting stuck.
Google said it “worked around the clock” to identify suspicious behaviour, and corrected the listing.
A geopolitical blunder
In December, Fifa said it sincerely regretted an error that failed to include Crimea as part of Ukraine.
The map, which showed countries that could not be drawn to play each other for political reasons, did not include the region that has been occupied by Russia since 2014 but is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.
“We fully understand the delicate sensitivity of this matter and while the incident was unintentional, we sincerely regret any concern it may have caused,” the association said in a letter to the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) general secretary, Igor Gryshchenko.
Ben Nevis danger route
In 2021, Google Maps updated its routes on Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain, after being warned that the existing paths shown were “potentially fatal”.
The Scottish mountaineering charity John Muir Trust warned that the directions given on the map to the car park closest to the summit risked leading inexperienced walkers to a route that was “highly dangerous, even for experienced climbers” as it was steep and rocky and with no distinct path.
Google said the issue related only to driving directions, and not walking directions, adding that these did not lead people to dangerous routes, but the map was updated to direct motorists to a visitor centre instead.
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Marathon mishaps
At last year’s San Francisco half marathon, the course turned out to be half a mile too short, invalidating the times of thousands of runners.
Organisers said the course route had been measured correctly, but the certification map had been drawn incorrectly, leading to the error.
It was not the first time a race route has turned out to be the wrong length: for three years, between 2013 and 2015, the Greater Manchester Marathon was incorrectly mapped and measured at 380 metres too short. As a result, the times of approximately 24,000 runners from these years were declared invalid by UK Athletics.
Similar errors have affected other races in the past, including the Brighton Half Marathon and the Great Scottish Run.
Steps too far
Google fixed an error on its Edinburgh map after motorists were mistakenly directed to drive down a set of steps. The route was previously accessible to cars but the road was changed, with a set of steps installed. At least two cars became stuck on the staircase off Leith Walk at the foot of Calton Hill. In January, Google said it had fixed the map after being made aware of the issue.
