Maps ? They still print them ? Reading maps is one of the most distracted driving abuses we as drivers do. A GPS with a nice English accent female voice is much more comfy. But, now I have two women in the car telling me how to drive.
I don’t read maps while I drive. Mrs JT likes to driver her van on long trips and she uses the GPS. When we refer to maps, I do it. I also use the extra features on the GPS like traffic maps and looking forward at the directions while she keeps driving.
I’ve never been lost using a map. On one trip with my son, I did not bring a map because he had his smart phone with GPS, and we got lost, very lost. Since then, we take a map and he uses his smart phone with GPS to help me find coffee shops and restaurants along the way.
GPS, the little handheld units, are a godsend when hiking the back country though.
paper maps ;
.don’t run out of battery power.
don’t ever need to be plugged in.
don’t require connectivity.
don’t need a password.
still work perfectly after being stored
allow the addition of personal notes for permanent future reference. ( writing scratch notes on them )
make excellent stored historical references.
can be close up or wide area view without losing details.
etc.
We didn’t get lost but one trip our route changed due to a stop I wasn’t told about and we ended up taking a back way between my aunt’s house and the gathering in the suburb’s of Portland Oregon, the very outdated map we had in the car had the major roads but there had been so much development since it was printed that 75% of the streets we passed weren’t on that map. Thankfully we just had to keep going on that road until we got closer to our destination, then the map I printed from Google helped us get there the rest of the way.
Dag, you aren’t supposed to read the maps while you drive. You’re supposed to pull over in a safe spot and read them, then proceed. That’s what I do.
I think electronic systems are great, but I also think that’s a far bigger distraction than a map. People commonly interface with the GPS while they’re driving, whereas most people with maps pull over.
Pulling over to read the map…er, air chart, in a Cessna 172 ?
now THAT’s a challenge and a half.
Ken, ken, ken, this is a CAR forum! {
Hmmmmm… maybe if drivers had to file flight plans??? Perhaps they’d plan their route ahead???
Yes, mother (
( most humerous because I just responded to cdaquilla’s caution on the rotor thread )
I’m not usually reading here at this hour, usually just at work. But tonight I sit up waiting for the kids to come back from the dance performances for this 93rd Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonials. the boys newest neighborhood friend and mom are new to town and have not seen them before and are taking all the time the need to see all the action.
Paper maps have never, ever failed me and provide a much bigger picture so I’ll stick with them.
Regarding mountainbike’s comment about people dinking around with the GPS while driving, some guy in an oil field company pickup almost whacked me about a year ago from doing just that.
As I was passing him on the 4-lane I could see him putzing around with a dashboard mounted GPS so I edged over towards the center median a bit.
As I got beside him he crossed the center stripe on me and I had to go for the median while laying on the horn.
He snapped back into the real world and veered back into his own lane while waving and mouthing “I’m Sorry”.
After that he dropped his speed to about 50 and I could see him in my rear view going back to the GPS…
@same
Don’t tell me. Tell that to all the " knuckle heads" who still read these things in traffic. They are the same ones who swill their latte and can’t get through the morning without a caffeine fix while driving. What we are suppose to do and what many do are two different things. Having a voice as a gentle reminded of when to turn and not just for specific directions is very valuable for safe driving. Even if you know the route, gps units ( with the right voice and language) 
are much less of a distraction. Reading maps then actually remembering what they say driving through the outskirts of Boston is practically useless while driving. I believe like you that even listening to a radio or a voice gps is a distraction but having to find a place to stop, and read and/or not doing it at all is much worse. IMHO, there is no comparison.
@ok4450
For that one guy who never bothered to learn how to use his GPS until he drove and did nearly cause an accident, there are hundreds passing you and others every day who do and no one out side ever realizes it. There are obviously idiots who use every device to distraction. But reading vs listening has a minimal negative effect if used properly and relying on your memory in traffic when there is no place to review directions vs an already calibrated gps…has no comparison. I guarantee I can more safely navigate through an unknown route in traffic using a properly prepared gps then reading a map or written directions with no place to easily stop. Guaranteed !!!.
Btw, I always have maps as a back up like we always proactive dead reckoning while sailing when we used Loran in the old days and gps now. Nothing says you should not verify one with the other. But, when you are actually behind the wheel, gps has the huge advantage. For one thing, it’s a constant speed and traffic reminder. Btw too. Some of us actually drive alone and don’t have an advantage of a co pilot. I save lots of gas with my gps.
ok dagosa. now you ve gone too far…
your just asking for more road rage if you want people to give up their coffee
Gee Wes, I was under the impression that the caffeine and sugar laced drink "could " provide an indirect influence on some of the road rage. Ingesting mood altering chemicals (coffee certainly does that by admission of those who depend on it) is just another way of dealing with the stress of traffic after a sleepless night of drinking caffeine laced beverages, colas and like, the night before. Combine that with a little alcohol over a twenty four hour period, and your gps and having to read maps becomes an irritant instead of an aid along with every other driver on the road. I could be wrong; let me think on that while I sip another strawberry latte.
I don’t have enough hands for a map, so I attach it to the visor and let it hang down. That way I can read the map, hold my 32-oz drink in my right hand, and a Red Robin Gourmet Burger in my left hand. No problem!
well I m much happier after my morning coffee, but I don t do road rage either way. if traffic is unsafe I just get off that rt. my jobs have always started very early, so traffic was never a problem on the way in.
if I had to deal with traffic backups every day I think I would change my life somehow to avoid it.
I m not a fan of large cities.
I would have preferred ben franklins blueprint for society.
the supposed fact of Europe, and America, needing immigrants because of low birthrates seems silly to me.
I think less people means more resources per person and a better life.
My Garmin has been very useful, especially navigating a strange city, but I still keep a Road Atlas under my seat…
@Wes
Without third world labor both here and abroad, how could we enjoy the benefits of gps. It would be too expensive for you and I. They ( immigrants) just want to move somewhere they can enjoy the fruits of their own labor. Otherwise, they are stuck in the hinterlands reading a map and drinking coffee instead of expresso.
I think we should offer statehood to mexico and central American countries. that would solve a lot of problems
That’s no the president’s agenda for next year…
Actually, these was a lot of discussion about legislation to allow tractor trailer trucks coming across the southern border free access to all our country’s roadways. I don’t know what the final outcome was.
“I don’t have enough hands for a map, so I attach it to the visor and let it hang down. That way I can read the map, hold my 32-oz drink in my right hand, and a Red Robin Gourmet Burger in my left hand.”
…and the fringe benefit is that you don’t have to look at all of those dangerous drivers on the road, since your vision is blocked by the map!
;-))