Do you miss maps?

I was never good with paper maps so no, I don’t miss them a bit.

I was delighted when I went to AAA to renew my membership that they had a map dispensing machine for local and regional maps. And I was off on an adventure into the Sierras a couple weeks back and bought a map at a gas station.

Works better in a car because I can see detail while also seeing the big picture!

@zenvelo I haven’t seen maps at a gas station in years. Maybe it’s an East-West coast thing.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room I’m not great at them and think GPS, etc. is wonderful but I do like to also refer to a map at times.

I still only use them. I keep a map of my county, Berkshire county (just over the border in MA.) and one of Albany and surrounds. I use them all the time. Around here, nothing changes very much so there’s no outdated routes. (Hurrah for the mountains).

My Rite Aid carries the local ones and occasionally, when mine have gotten ragged and ripped on the folds, I have ordered dupes online.

@janbb: “wondering about an alternate route”

During navigation, click “Route and alternates” and hit the alternate button to see the alternate routes. The advantage here is that you see the commute time compared and the current traffic.
Additionally, you can zoom out and around and check out the bigger picture.

I still use maps on road trips. I do loooooong driving trips quite regularly, and experience has taught me that a GPS is not sufficient. My GPS has broken down unexpectedly, and occasionally it will have a weird hiccup and decide that the most expedient route is a ridiculously long detour. It pays to get a sense of where you are and where you are going, even if the GPS is the thing that you interact with the most. And all our gas stations have road maps, thankfully.

@tom_g Not all GPS units offer alternative routes. Also, I find for myself that fiddling with a paper map is much safer while driving than fiddling with a GPS. I think something about the stress of not wanting to hit the wrong button means that I give the GPS too much of my attention when I’m interacting with it.

I shudder when I think about looking at and fiddling with a computer screen while I am driving, plus having to listen to a disembodied voice in a frequency that my aging ears don’t like.

I experimented with a friend’s GPS…no, thanks.

I love having a GPS in my car. I used to keep it in the glove box and used it only when I was going somewhere unfamiliar, but these days I keep it on all the time. Fo one thing, I like being able to see a digital read-out on my speed, and for another, I keep forgetting where I live.

@glacial: “Not all GPS units offer alternative routes.”

Good point. I was referring to Android – not one of those old GPS devices (I do not miss those.).

Miss them? I still have them and use them regularly, especially when traveling somewhere I don’t know. GPS does not compare to being able to open a map and really understand quickly where you are in relation to other things. Moving an arrow up and down on a little screen, or zooming out so you lose have the roads just isn’t the same. When we travel we often stop in the welcome center in a new state and get a couple maps, I keep them in a plastic box at home for the next time we are going throught the state. I also have a Rand McNally Road Atlas that I always bring with me when we travel across state lines. I write in the margins exits that have restaurants we like and other notes that will be helpful next time we drive through.

I have my map of Pinellas County in my the car I usually drive the last two weeks (since I moved here) and probably will keep in the car for another few weeks.

@tom_g You talk about them as if they’re obsolete, but they are widely used. Not everyone has a smartphone. I don’t, on my student’s budget.

As a new driver who doesn’t know the names of anything, I must admit the idea of GPS is appealing. “Turn right, turn left” is nice when you just need to get there. But at the same time, I have stories from my friends whose GPS’s have directed them to a completely bizarre place, and they had no idea where to go from there, and no way to figure out how to get home. One time, my friends and I were meeting at a church in the suburbs… His GPS directed him to a golf course across town, and he had to call us so we could get on Mapquest and give him step-by-step directions! It worked out eventually, but took him an extra two hours to get there! I like the idea of having a map as a backup, and knowing how to read it.

Then there’s my mom. When she graduated from high school, she moved to college out of state. She’d hardly even driven the family car, but she bought a car with her own money when she got there. She got a job with a temp agency, and had to get around Minneapolis on her own. She had no idea of where things were, but getting to a different job every day was the only way she’d have food. She’s always telling me that her ability to read a map kept her from starving.

So I guess I like both, and hope maps stick around, at least until I learn all these arbitrary highway/freeway/exit numbers. Why can’t they just be numbered in a logical manner?!

I can’t help but wonder…. Am I really the only one who turns the map to be oriented in the same direction I am? My dad can’t figure me out and thinks this habit is some sort of a crutch.

@RandomGirl I like the map always pointing North, but that is probably because I grew up with paper maps.

Even with GPS being able to read a map is very important. Not only is GPS wrong sometimes, but it also doesn’t work well in rural areas sometimes and then you have nothing in the middle of nowhere. In cities GPS often does not know about new roads and new highway ramps. You need to be able to picture your car driving down the road no matter how the map is turned so you make the correct turn left or right when the need comes up.

I keep two sets of maps in my car all the time. The layout of the metropolitan area where I live (the greater Phoenix area) and a map of the entire state (Arizona). I really can’t justify going out and spending a tidy sum on a standalone GPS for my car that I would end up using only a couple of times a year. I have a GPS application on my smart phone but I think my provider charges a fee for it and once again, if I’m going to use it so infrequently, why pay extra when I can pull out a paper map that is immediately at my disposal all the time?

@glacial: “You talk about them as if they’re obsolete, but they are widely used. Not everyone has a smartphone. I don’t, on my student’s budget.”

The industry took a huge hit, and analysts have been referring to the death of the stand-alone GPS market for years. But they are pretty cheap now, so it’s a good option if you don’t have a smartphone – or are stuck with an iPhone ;) When I had one (Garmin) a few years ago, I had nothing but problems with it. I think those would make me miss paper maps.

Additionally, @janbb had stated: “Prompted by following Google Maps to get some place new this week and wondering about an alternate route.” That’s the reason I offered the alternate route option.

I got my drivers license in the early 1980s, and I always kept several maps in the car. I usually had the maps for every county in my state as well as the counties of bordering states. I transitioned to using internet maps coming from a paper map perspective, and I often disagreed with the MapQuest suggested routes based on my life experiences.

Currently, I use the map app on my iPhone, or the Google maps app. However, I do not rely on them to get me to my destination; instead, I usually will preview the options and plan my trip when heading in an unfamiliar direction. The lack of pre-planning a route and trip are what I think most people are missing by relying on navigation technology.

@janbb – I always used Hagstrom Maps for our area. It looks like they are still available.

I like them. I keep an AAA map of Western NY, and another for the Finger Lakes region in all cars. I also have one of those large Atlas of the States book that you can get for $5 when they are outdated.

Sure I use a GPS but a paper map shows me the big picture instantly. I’ve been blessed with the ability to always know where North is so paper works great for me. I use whichever is most appropriate.

Finally, in a snow emergency a paper map can be used as a survival tool. It can cover you, start a fire, be a signal marker, act as funnel, be a place mat, serve as an electrical insulator, be a fuse, or even (dare I say it?) act as toilet paper in a pinch.
Let’s see your GPS do that!

@hearkat Yes, I think I need to go to Barnes and Noble or somewhere and get some new Hagstrom’s. As I said, my old Monmouth and Ocean County maps are nearly useless now.

I do like GPS and Google Maps as well but would like to be able to use both.

@janbb – I drive around the town I grew up in and get lost because of new developments. It’s crazy! That site I linked had $5 shipping now – might be better off ordering what you want rather than taking a chance the B&N will have them.

I still use maps if I am going into an area that I am unfamiliar with. I don’t have a Smart phone because I don’t think I am smart enough to use one, so I don’t have access to GPS.

I kinda liked maps, except if you’re driving, then no. GPS is technology, some people like tech, some people don’t. But I think they fit together, if one doesn’t work, then try the other.

Not one bit, and since I haven’t had to stop and ask for directions in the past 10 or so years, I’ve noticed that my penis has gotten ever so slightly larger and my voice just a tad deeper.

I do. I always felt I was learning something besides just directions when I read them.
My husband uses a GPS that I got for him one year. She is SUCH a bitch and she’s really judgmental too!

Every time I see this question I want to go take a NAP!

Recalculating…....

No, but the wife’s fairly accident prone…oops, I just went down the wrong route didn’t I¿

Well, the GPS shore don’t help the accident prone. “Turn. Left. TURN LEFT. TURN LEFT NOW!!!”

@tom_g Even alternate routes sometimes are tricky, because sometimes I want an alternate route only halfway there. LOL.

I still use a map, simply don’t trust a GPS

One day your car won’t work, good idea to have paper maps too.
I like looking at old maps. (archives).

I used a road map this morning after leaving the local hospital complex. I thought I was taking a short-cut to somewhere but ended up nowhere I recognized.

I hate it when that happens! We got totally lost in Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago, taking back roads. It was fun. At one point my husband yells, “We HAVE to be SOMEWHERE!”

@Inspired_2write… if your car doesn’t work you don’t need a map.

@RandomGirl I’ve known other people who like to orient the map to the direction they’re driving in, but I can’t do it. I want north at the top. I think this is because I can never forget that it’s my car that is moving, not the planet. :)

GPS units usually have an option to change the orientation in this manner, though – so I’m sure a lot of others navigate as you do.

I use them in conjunction with a GPS when I am on a trip. Sometimes my idea on how to get somewhere and the machines are not in sync. The GPS does not have the mindread app yet and with a paper map I can find more interesting routes.
Also, I still use topo maps when hiking and camping.
And, you can get Atlas’ in the ½ price bookstore for $1.00 these days because no one wants them I guess. (I have 5).

@Dutchess_III Get one of These for your hubby.

Perfect @rojo!

I love maps, any map, paper, atlas and GPS, I don’t have sat nav I don’t feel I need it. We have a great book here in Melbourne called Melways and it is often given as a gift to new drivers. I love love love my Melways, the navigator looks up the route and follows it and I drive.
I also like google maps but it doesn’t know the local landscape like I do and makes some seriously strange route choices.
An out of town driver just ran into a family member the other day, running trough a stop signed intersection and when asked why she didn’t stop her answer was ” the sat nav told me to go straight through I didn’t know there was an intersection!!!!!!!”

@Arewethereyet I thought Sat Nav was just the Brit word for GPS? Are they different things?

I don’t miss them because I still use them. Yes, nothing compares to the convenience of Google Maps, but it’s not the be-all end-all. Google Maps doesn’t show county or city borders and sometimes those things are useful (hence why I use paper maps often). I’ve been using Thomas Brothers maps of California (very detailed map-books) for years and don’t plan on stopping…

And I almost never use GPS. I’ve always been good with directions and was always “the navigator” whenever I’d go on a trip with my family. I like to plan a route myself and not trust a computer to do it and then sue when it leads me into a ravine…

Sat nav is gps from my understanding

Satellite Navigation=Global Positioning System. GPS uses the satellites to send us into ravines.

Maps exist, just in different forms.

I still have a map of California and a Thomas Guide of Los Angeles/Orange/Ventura county.

You never know.

I am with @Pachyderm_In_The_Room I never read maps well.
Of course this is coming from a left handed right brained blonde.
Besides maps are sloppy and always hard to unfold and the print is so small the whole experience sucks if you ask me. I just drive in oblivion and somehow get to my destinations. lol

I have a road atlas of the UK and a small collection of 1” and 2.5” to the mile maps of Scotland. If walking or cycling in unfamiliar territory I like to take a map with me.

MAPS ?!?!?!?

I thought you sad NAPS!

Now, those I do miss.

That’s what I kept seeing too @rojo!

@Coloma I can NOT believe you just dissed blonds! You are in SO much trouble with the PI po-lice. Doesn’t matter if you’re referring to yourself. It’s just so wrong. (I’ve had a few blond moments in my life too, though…. :)

I can study maps for hours. I love them. I have several maps and atlases that I’ll never get rid of, even if they are outdated.

I’m a left handed blonde and I’m wiz with maps and maths :D

@Arewethereyet Haha..well, I am more right brained, but, the split is pretty even these days in my brains maturity. lol

Ha ha! The first time I learned about left/right brain I was in college. We took some test, and were told that if the results of the test were that we were left brained, to go stand at that wall. Right brain, stand at the other wall. The teacher had told us one side controls emotions and the other controls logic, but he hadn’t yet told us which side did what. Of course, we all assumed right=logic, which, of course, is wrong.
Well, after the test was taken the majority were standing on the right brain brain wall. I was one of the few on the left wall. While we were on the wall, that’s when the teacher told us what was up. I’ll never forget…one guy actually switched sides! Sad part was, I don’t think he was trying to be funny.