GPS Conflicts and Ryer Island

(Click on the photos to see larger versions)
Update 12/28/08:
Google and TeleAtlas continue to label Ryer Island where Grand Island is located. Go ahead and use Google Maps' directions function. It will take you to Grand Island at approximately Walker Landing.

Update October 2008: Google notified webmaster that TeleAtlas does the labeling of roads and islands, and provided link to give notice of the conflicts. Solano County surveyor and Public Works dept. also agreed to notify TeleAtlas of the conflict of names, including the problem of incorrect street names in some locations of Ryer Island.

In the meantime, Solano County suggested all visitors to Ryer Island used this link: http://maps.live.com/

Over the last two or three years, a substantial conflict of mapping information has come up which remains unresolved. Google and other GPS services have been contacted about this problem, but resolution and correction is a slow process. The conflict of island names is very important for at least two reasons:

1. People trying to get to the Real Ryer Island, Tyler Island or Long Island in the California Delta region get frustrated and confused, very understandably, because they are provided incorrect maps and directions from usually reliable sources.

2. Scientists, researchers, boaters and agencies reviewing reports on location, soils, levee history, seismic history and other important matters can (and have) inadvertently use date from an incorrectly labeled island and apply the data to the REAL Ryer Island.

Apparently the confusion of "which Ryer Island" started when the USGS officially named Long Point Island "Ryer" instead, on 1/19/1981 (Click to see USGS report -to the right) even though there was already an island with the same name! This USGS decision has resulted in much of the confusion of data reporting for the OTHER Ryer Island.

USGS Database for Ryer-Suisun Bay

USGS for Ryer-Steamboat Slough

October 2008 update: After a visit with Public Works and Survey offices of Solano County, the County agreed to take on the task of notifying TeleAtlas who does map labeling for Google, that the street names for the Real Ryer Island are labeled wrong, and that the other island in Suisun Bay is known as "Long Point Island" according to county maps.

For example, Google Maps lists the Real Ryer Island as Tyler Island, another Delta location. It lists a place called Long Island near Roe Island as Ryer Island. The Real Ryer Island is very large and easily accessible by bridge or two ferrys but the island Google Maps shows viewers is an inaccessible island in the Suisun Marsh. See the problem? Other mapping GPS services seem to recognize Ryer Island correctly, but not the street or road names of the Real Ryer Island. Please go to the above pages for links, map print screens and details of the conflicts.