to think there should be a Satnav that allows you to choose the easiest, safest route (rather than just the quickest)

I usually use Waze but I wish it would allow me to put in the height/length of our vehicle, I have been on an unfamiliar route only to discover a low bridge that we can't fit under. On narrow country tracks it can be more difficult for us to navigate passing places etc in my little boy's vehicle than it is in my car.

why do you need to cope with country lanes if you will never usually drive down one

One day you might be diverted away from the main road for some reason - accident, oil spill, protest, whatever - and find yourself having to drive down country lanes.

Google maps is awful for sending you on narrow hilly farm roads instead of the main road that is 3 minutes longer.

I can believe it fairly easily.
I grew up and learned to drive in a big city and then moved to a rural area when I was in my early 30s. I was terrified driving here at first - tiny, twisty roads with big hedges, tractors, wild life, passing places, generally stuff that I'd never really encountered before. I couldn't believe that there were speed cameras on the road to my new home because surely it was a physical immposibility to speed on a road like that? But at that stage I thought nothing of zipping into tiny spaces on city roundabouts or crossing 4 lanes of urban motorway to get to my turn off at rush hour.
Now if I go back to my old city I am practically having palpitations on some of the roads that I drove every day when I lived there, and I've turned into one of those people who would have had me muttering "oh get a move on, you could get a bus in there!" at roundabouts. But single track roads no longer faze me in the slightest and yes, it's quite easy to exceed the speed limit on the way to my house if you aren't careful. There are some roundabouts round here now but they are quiet on the whole, and they weren't there when one of my local friends did her test. There was only one set of traffic lights on the test route then too and she's not a great urban driver. But if there was a world championship for hill starts my money would be on her. For most people, what you do day to day is easy and the unfamiliar isn't.

No, you normally have 3 choices - fastest (time), shortest (distance) and then eco. Sorry I left out that eco is meant to avoid traffic lights, busy junctions (both of these to avoid stopping and idling) but it's also meant to keep you at a fairly constant speed so it does sometimes avoid motorways if the speed limit differs substantially from other nearby roads.

But obviously bear in mind they are algorithms and Google is American so often works best for the way that US roads tend to work. A bit like how Tesla self drive is much more erratic on European roads than it is in the US.

Rural America most likely would meet the criteria of having lots of single track with passing places but no roundabouts.

I thought the eco route was just shorter, it certainly doesn't avoid stop starting, often increases it, because more junctions instead of going on the motorway or A road that bypasses built up areas.

I refuse to believe that there are people who can easily handle a single track with passing places but who get stressed out by roundabouts!

I might blow your mind with this but people do occasionally travel out of their local area...

If anything, being able to drive means it's actually more likely you'll travel further afield...surely it's sort of one of the main advantages to being able to drive?

Surely very few people live somewhere where there's ONLY an option of motorways vs tiny rural roads. Isn't it only something like 20% of the UK population live rurally! I live in a fairly major city and have both motorway and B roads (and everything in-between) within 5 minutes drive.

I would try greenest/most eco friendly - this minimises stopping and starting.

But yes the best thing is probably to plan the route in advance, either on a computer and then send to your phone, or on the app directly and save the route before you even get into the car. You can click on the route and drag it onto different roads to avoid roads you don't want to go down.

I would say buy a paper road atlas and plan out the route that way, but I do think google is good for avoiding traffic and it is helpful to have the verbal reminders rather than having to memorise the whole route (or what my mum used to do - scribbled directions sellotaped to the steering wheel!)

yes! I've had satnavs that give you the option to avoid motorways, but not ones that give you the option to prefer bigger roads and avoid country lanes where you have to reverse half a mile to give way while keeping an eye out for horses!

Same here. And I will often turn left and go round a roundabout if that's an option to avoid waiting ages to turn right.

People always say this but why do you need to cope with country lanes if you will never usually drive down one?

Or why do you need to be able to drive on motorways if you live on Jersey or in Cornwall? Or in the Highlands?

You need to be able to cope safely with the driving you do or need to do.

Get a sat nav (or sat nav app) designed for HGV. That'll avoid the narrow routes, schools etc by default. Search for something like "TomTom GO Expert Plus" or "CoPilot GPS" (app).

Exactly!

Can I reverse into a passing place 200m back up the road to let a tractor past, yep no problem. Do I actually want to, just to shave 3 minutes off my journey? not particularly.

Oh, I feel you. I remember this past winter, I had to visit a school in a town about 15 miles from mine. Google Maps got me there fine, down a main road, and then a sensible route through the town. Then, the return journey, it sent me some bizarre cross-country route. It was pouring with rain, and just miserable. Unfortunately, I didn't know the town well enough to be able to re-trace the route I'd taken in.

I've got a 5+ hour drive to Cornwall later this month, and I've already carefully planned the route, in order to stay as sane as possible. I'll have a piece of paper next to me with the main roads I need listed, so I can just follow that, and not rely on Google Maps too much. I've also chosen a route that follows a road I know for the first 1:30, which will help.

I'm rural and agree with you. To me country lane is a track that has grass growing in the middle and extremely rate passing places. I'd rather avoid any single track winding road.

We have a single track road joining two major A roads I use almost daily. I don't mind these as I can pull over or reverse back to pull in as I know it. But long windy ones that go on for over a mile? No thank you!

What makes these roads worse or when you reverse back and the person in front keeps creeping up to my bonnet, so I just then pull forward to re adjust if I'm going to hit a bush. Not run in a old car with no sensors or rear camera. Typically a large car with blinding lights too.

It’s built in with BMW. When I input a new destination it brings up a little map of usually three routes and you choose which one. I can also drag the lines or set waypoints (eg via a certain junction or place). Once we found the preference settings I was even happier. My favourite bit is it tells you which lane you need to be in at busy junctions. No more hasty lane changes at motorway junctions! But I’m sure other satnavs offer these things if you dig in the menus - I had time to kill waiting for a delayed train so invested the time wisely!

We kinda knew where we were heading but I put google maps on to be sure 🥴 took a right arse wipe of a journey including a single track with no passing places
next time we will wing it

It can take quite a long time to check the route options its giving you

we've got one of those near us. You can be sat trying to get out by turning right onto the fast A road for ages, and there are lots of accidents there. I go slightly further to get on the A road at a roundabout instead. Probably saves me time, certainly saves me danger - but the satnav just sees "slightly shorter route".

Yes this! It's not about your ability to drive or not, but that quite often what it thinks is the fastest route really is not as its single track with high hedges and lots of bends so you have to go at about 20mph rather than the 60mph it thinks you can go at.

There usually is.

I agree. I'd spend a couple of minutes to avoid a horrible right turn with poor visibility.

It's too subjective. I feel safest on a motorway and find that easier. Talking to friends who learned to drive in rural areas, they are more comfortable on narrow lanes. You can check the directions and find which route suits you best.