Reviewing the BBnav

While I am a frequent driver, I do not own, nor ever have I used a satnav, so when asked to review BBnav, I had no idea what to expect. Immediately, I was impressed by its simplicity, consisting of a single on/off button and a touch sensitive screen. My first action with the BBnav was to go to the quick start option and set a destination. Of course, I didn't look at the instructions, because I am a man. Fumbling about, it wasn't long before I had the destination postcode programmed. This could be quite difficult for a person with limited dexterity, as some of the 'buttons' are on the small side. There is a 'wand' for use with the screen, but getting it out of the slot at the back of the device may be even more of a challenge.

I hit the go button, but it was a good five minutes before a little car appeared on screen in a multi-coloured map, showing my current position.

My first adventure with the device took me to the Camden area of London. The disabled folk in Camden are special. Not only do they have a normal Blue Badge - a nationwide phenomenon, which when displayed on a disabled person's car allows us to park in designated accessible parking bays - but they also have a 'green' blue badge. Most of the disabled bays in the centre of London require an additional differently-coloured badge only available to you if you live, work or study in that area.

Unfortunately, the BBnav didn’t seem to know this, so I found myself driving past a dozen empty Green Badge disabled bays flagged up on the gadget's map as blue, before I saw one I could use without getting a ticket. BBnav also doesn't inform the Blue Badge user that they get an extra hour on meters and pay & display bays in Camden. Someone travelling into London for a visit wouldn't necessarily know that there are different parking restrictions for Blue Badge holders in different boroughs, so that's where this particular product should come into its own. By studying the key which comes with the device, users should be able to recognise various parking restrictions by a change in background colour on BBnav’s map. Navevo, the product’s developers, will be amending the Camden info in time for their next update, downloadable from their website in the very near future.

On the next outing, I took the BBnav for a drive all the way across London so that I could play wheelchair tennis. I was asked whether I wanted to travel inside the congestion zone or not - a useful option for someone visiting London because, although disabled drivers are exempt, the vehicle has to be registered in advance with Transport for London.

I also tried to use the device to find disability-friendly points of interest and information on accessible public toilets and car parks during my journey. It takes practice to navigate the complex menu system to find this stuff, and while it is possible to search for POIs when you get to an area, BBnav tends to assume that you will plan every aspect of your trip in advance on the machine, rather than looking for access information while on the road. Symbols for toilets, car parks and points of interest flash up as various icons on the gadget’s map, rather than being read out loud by a voice. It does make planning a trip more straightforward than using the internet, but isn't ideal if you suddenly need to stop for a coffee or to use the bathroom.

On my journey across London, I had to make an executive decision on several occasions, as the BBnav's map was indicating one route while the voice was telling me something entirely different. No matter how many times the voice implored me, I was never going to drive off the side of the Westway flyover to land on Edgware Road forty feet below. Apparently, the device thought I was travelling on the road below the flyover - a mistake which could have been made by any other regular satnav.

When I got to Hammersmith, I followed the instructions a little too literally, getting into the right-hand lane to turn right off the roundabout, only to find myself in the bus depot, where I was tooted and scowled at from all directions by irate bus drivers.

Despite our disagreements over the route, the BBnav did warn me about upcoming speed cameras, a service which users can subscribe to for a fee, with updates regularly downloaded online.

This made me wonder why the additional, disability related information on the BBnav couldn't be offered as a subscription download to all satnav devices. The manufacturers believe that this would be unlikely due to the cost of the licence to use the databases containing all the disability related information. The databases used on BBnav are owned by PIE, the Public Information Exchange, who sold Navevo the rights to use them and who make available an online and printed version of the Blue Badge guide used on the device.

BBnav holds access information for 150 UK cities, which are listed on their website. More are being surveyed all the time by PIE and will be downloadable from the product’s website as soon as they become available. Navevo say that we are very lucky to have a database containing access information for so much of Britain. They would love to develop a similar device for other countries, but the relevant information on disabled parking, accessible toilets and disability-friendly points of interest just hasn’t been pulled together. The big satnav companies make their products with a global market in mind, so it would be a mammoth task to assemble this information for every country they serve.

On balance, BBnav is a useful tool for disabled drivers who travel regularly to unfamiliar places. At £195, as with many disability-related products, the limited numbers involved means that the cost is higher than the equivalent mass market satnav. Hopefully, the success of the device will make other manufacturers start to consider the market potential of the 2.6 million Blue Badge holders in the UK.