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The wife has a GPS but I still carry a load of REAL maps in the glove box and continue to pick up more as I travel to other states. I will admit the GPS has come in handy on occasion, but I still prefer my maps.

schlepporello wrote:

bloke wrote:Using a PAPER MAP, I wove through all those under-Lake-Michigan towns (Gary, etc., etc...) until I found where the freeway was opened back up. The other band members (with their internet phones and GPS's) got to the hotel about FIVE HOURS after I did.

Just another reason why I travel with a host of maps and don't own a GPS device.

No GPS in my vehicles, either. Just a good old road atlas.

I have a GPS, but use it more for "where the hell am I" instead of "how do I get there."

I can only get so much info from a 4" screen that I can't get from an 11 x 17 (or bigger) map.

I have a gps, but I also print directions or use maps. The gps is my main navigation tool because:

a) I have absolutely no sense of direction, and
b) unless the map is turned the same direction I am going, I will confuse left and right.

I may get there late, but I won't wreck my car trying to read a map, turning it as I go.

Hey bloke, if it's any consolation, the first requirement for Second Class Scout after you complete your Tenderfoot is still to orient a map with a compass and take a 5-mile hike or 10-mile bike ride with the map and compass, and two of the First Class requirement is to demonstrate how to find directions day and night with just the map but without the compass, AND using a compass complete an orienteering course.

So, you can be sure that during these floods, downed power lines, tornadoes that blow down everything, and other natural disasters, that Scouts will be able to do just that and keep everything going.

Road maps, Gazzateers, and topo maps have a special place in my car. As a passenger, I love following our route on the map.

I'd rather unfold a paper map for navigational purposes before using a GPS.

Merry Christmas -

Steven

Never depend on just one navigation aid. That's from a Power Squadron boating course but applies equally to driving (and flying).

Not all GPS's are created equal. My Garmin reroutes rather handily and receives traffic reports. If it knows about a traffic slowdown it reroutes around it with a couple of keystrokes.

Well, Bloke, I'm one of those people that uses the GPS exclusively. I find is superior to maps for several reasons.

1. I can choose shortest distance, fastest time, plus avoid any obstacles I wish (tolls, ferries, roundabouts, gravel roads, major roads, cities, etc) It can do instantly what would take considerable time with a map. It can do that better than I can because it can actually see the numbers (sure a map "scale" helps, but it is still pretty crude)

2. The navigation equipment comes with technology to calculate all of my trip costs after I insert average gas price.

3. It knows the speed limit, knows how close I am to the speed limit, and directly calculates how I can drive my car more efficiently. It will even directly show my savings performance over the long term.

4. Garmins have several detour features that can help you in any situation where the road is different, gone, or obstructed. I literally press detour and it will re route away from my course within a set radius in front of me.

5. It automatically can find the nearest gas station for me and has a search engine for most things I need to encounter on my trip (restaurants by genre, gas, community services, malls, auditoriums, etc)

6. I use my gps in map mode. North ALWAYS points up, just like a regular map. The 3d mode doesn't help orient me and familiarize me with the area. When I use map view, it reads like a map that moves and I have a much easier time remembering and learning routes.

7. Trip calculators. Some cars have them built in, mine doesn't. Knowing my average speed, time the trip took, my current speed, how long my car was stopped, etc ALL have improved the speed of my trips.

I do keep an atlas under the seat. It was $8 at a truck stop on sale. It has never moved from that point. It has never needed to. I've never been in a situation where my garmin wasn't superior. I think the ability to read a map should be mandatory, but can't personally question the Garmin's abilities. I was a huge skeptic but the Garmin christmas gift (when they first came out) has paid for itself numerously in time saved, efficiency improved, and overall trip experience.

I have driven 165,000 miles with my Garmin and it has yet to "do me wrong". Being a procrastinator, klutz, clutter minded tuba player, this tool has saved me from many late gigs and rehearsals. The ability for a technological device to perform innumerable tasks well, over the long haul, legitimizes its quality and need.

My wife is hopeless with a map. A navigator she is not.

Since using my GPS for the past few years I can honestly say that our trips are MUCH more pleasant and uneventful.

Strangelove wrote: Who here still uses and abacus or slide rule? Flint and steel?

I do. I still use them because I can. I also have a GPS because I want to.

bloke wrote: Ryan, don't pull that stereotypical thang and claim that you have "no sense of direction". The trumpet player in our jazz band pulled that crap on me in the car when those freeways in Indiana were flooded from that hurricane. After he said, "Hey man, I'm not a good navigator..." my quick retort was "you are now, sumbich"...and handed in a stack of maps...He did a superb job of directing me through all of that mess.

an example:

Less than 2 blocks from my current house is a subdivision that was built after WWII. While I was a driver/manager for Domino's Pizza, I would constantly get lost while driving. I would get into this subdivision, and not be able to figure out how to get out. I would have to pull over, get my bearings, and then continue. Sure, I could direct you if I'm in the passenger seat, but once behind the wheel...fugetaboutit.... and I would still have to rotate the map so that the streets were pointing the way I was going. Difficult to do while driving.

btw, when I'm in the basement of my house, I still have difficulty telling which way the driveway runs. or for that matter, what room is above me.

Sad, I know. But I've been that way my entire life.

I'm still "old school" (by modern standards) in that I plan my routes on Mapquest and/or Google Maps (sometimes I bring both) and keep a road Atlas in the back seat of my car. I like the fact that my Blackberry has a crude GPS and that I can access Google Maps from it, BUT here is one fact you can't deny....

When you lose power, your paper map still works. Of course, if your car loses power, you may have a bigger issue than planning your route.

Having driven across the country recently using only the fold-up paper maps, I think the key ingredient is a good navigator. I drive, she says "Turn...Turn... TURN"

Where I live, cell phones often don't work. My basic plan is to work out the gist of the trip, write it in LARGE print on a 3x5 card, and always carry a headlamp.

Oh, asking directions frequently helps, too. And, come to think of it, enjoying being lost may be the most valuable asset.

In Oct., when my wife started working as a home hospice nurse, I finally bought a GPS. She uses it religiously and I seldom use it. The few times I have tried it, it seems to work well enough. As someone else mentioned, it is best to leave the GPS 'off' during routes with which you're familiar otherwise the thing will frustrate the hell out of you. I also get the sense that GPS users would be much better off if they were to pay attention to their surroundings and apply a little logic rather than "turn left here, bear right there, etc". All that being said, I think it was a wise purchase for my wife. There have been a very few occasions when she has called me for directions because her GPS led her astray. However, I'm unable to recall a time when maps have led me astray.

Strangelove wrote:I've been using GPS for 6 years, or so, and have rarely had to U-turn. I guess we'll just have to disagree on this one.

I'm at about 4 years, and the only time I've had to U-turn is because I didn't trust the gps.

Tubaryan12 wrote:

Strangelove wrote:I've been using GPS for 6 years, or so, and have rarely had to U-turn. I guess we'll just have to disagree on this one.

I'm at about 4 years, and the only time I've had to U-turn is because I didn't trust the gps.

I have had an occasion where a GPS was flat wrong. It directed me to roads that did not exist. Seems the road changes had not been filed to whom ever they get filed to. I tried to find a friend's house in a gated community and 'you could not get there from here'. I finally called him and asked for directions. I was a good mile in the wrong direction by following the GPS.

That said, I like the GPS most of the time because I can use it to find where I am. Once I know that, it's pretty easy- map or no map.

Paper maps and a compas.

I have been "mapquested" a few times (discovering a lovely motorcycle road on my way to a gig once, but I digress) and have a number of motorcycle friends who use "gps'd" as a descriptive for becoming hopeleslly misdirected.

And I have a tremedous east/west confusion that 25 years of pushing a patrol car around the county hasn't erased.

My buddy had a fancy new car and we were going out to Lee Stofers farm in Iowa. I knew the way having been there several times. My pal insisted on using his fancy car's built in GPS. It took us on a route completely different from how I usually went. He insisted it would be faster and better. It took way longer and to add insult to injury when we hit true backcountry gravel farm roads it went nuts. It started talking faster and faster and constantly changing it's mind. Finally about 5 miles from Lee's place it announced "Lost Lost Lost - you're on your own!" and then it just shut up and shut down.

I have never laughed so hard in my life.

I drive to a lot of gigs in the Sierra Nevada mountains and all over Northern California (been doing that since before GPS was invented, so I do still keep maps in my car) but I do also now use a small Garmin Numi to help me when I am avoiding traffic jams on the freeway or other diversions from my normal route. It can refresh and adapt to random changes quick enough in the situations I find myself in, most of the time. I do check Google Maps for traffic conditions when I can - it is faster than the traffic feed Garmin has.

(Have you seen the PBS program on classical musician "road warriors" ?)

It was also very handy when I was in Europe (and there, you don't want to be using cellphone maps - the roaming data charges will run way up on most phone plans!)

Since I also have helped design GPS units (military, avionic, and civilian) in my "day job" I know how good they can be, and also know of their limitations. In my personal experience, if updated regularly, 95% of the time they are correct, or correct enough - even the tricky one-way streets of Seattle are usually not a problem.

A few times when I didn't bring the GPS I have tried to depend on Google Maps on my cell phone - that can be good sometimes, but in poor cell coverage areas it is a total fail. In parts of the hills above Oakland and Berkeley there is very spotty coverage and totally twisted roads. Even though I have lived in this area for 40 years and used to ride my bicycle and motorcycle all over the place I still can get lost without a map or good GPS.

On the other hand, I have ridden my motorcycle across 23 states and driven a beat up VW van through those and 18 more - without any kind of GPS. Good paper maps and a "feeling" are usually enough.

I did get totally lost in Baltimore, however. Twice.

Just got a GPS device. Total waste of time when navigating a route I already know. Saved time when needing to get to a specific address in San Antonio rather than using Mapquest before I left (I don't have a new cell phone w/ data plan so I have to plan out before I leave the house). Think it will be good visiting an unfamiliar city and wanting to find places to visit (again should save time than figuring out route on maquest). For long distance traveling in unfamiliar territory, I still agree w/ Bloke an old-fashioned map will probably get you in less trouble over the long run.