GPS vs Maps

[6zfshdb]

Humorous article in the Guardian by Zoe Williams on navigating around London by bike without using GPS technology. Apparently, it's healthier?
I guess this assumes you don't get hit by a bus while you stop to read the map.

Can I survive for 24 hours without GPS navigation?

Spatial memory is a use-it-or-lose it commodity, so I gave life without Google Maps a try

www.theguardian.com

My wife always likes to carry a map when we travel and doesn't use GPS. I guess her elevator will continue to go to the top floor long after mine crashes into the basement.

 

[spokewrench]

I suffered an episode of Alzheimer's when I woke up in a field of stubble in November, 1973. For two days I'd been in snow and a 30 mph crosswind on my way from Red Lodge to Buffalo. When I awoke, it wasn't snowing or windy. I remembered I was in Iowa.

Normally, I navigated without maps. I knew where the states were, and road signs pointing to cities would tell me where I was within a state.The sun was my compass. On this morning, for some reason I couldn't recall where Iowa was. Then I remembered it was Minnesota's southern neighbor. I headed north. As soon as I crossed the border, I had my bearings. Unfortunately, Minnesota greeted me with heavy rain, which continued across Wisconsin.

 

[indianajo]

I have a map of the US in my head. I spent my years 2-4 standing in the front seat of the car to avoid motion sickness. So I knew my way to & from grocery (24 miles) by age 3. Totally illegal these days.
My wife reports GPS ran her & daughter in a circle 3 times on way from Elizabethtown to Paducah. I navigated my brother to the airport in MI to pick up a gyrocopter via Rand McNally atlas. Then he referred to his Apple phone to lead us out, which immediately directed us onto a gravel road. We had to stay below 5 mph to avoid scratching the windshield of the craft on the trailer. So I still don't own a GPS navigator.
My Rand McNally atlas was obsolete 2017 so I did not take it on my recent trip to Houston. I stopped at Wal-mart in Union CIty, TN to buy a new one, and they do not stock them anymore. I missed the new freeway Union CIty TN to Dyesrburg because it is labeled TN130, not I-69. Unfortunately the new Rand McNally atlas the wife bought me from Amazon is easy-to-read and leaves out such details. I missed an unmarked turn in the I-69 construction in Nacogdoches TX and lost 30 minutes. You are allowed to look at a paper map while driving, but you are forced to pull off and park while looking at google maps on your phone. As parades of trucks passed me on US 59 in 55 mph construction speed zones, then blocked both lanes at 54 mph uphill in 75 mph zones, I decided to come back from Houston via Huntsville, Crockette, Alto, Rusk, Ponta, Troup, Arp and Kilgore, then I20 to Marshall and US 59 again. Unfortunately Google maps had mostly wrong route numbers from Ponta to Kilgore. I had to stop in every hamlet and search for the next town names on signs to navigate, in the dark and the rain. No compass. The new Easy To Read Rand McNally atlas does not even show any of the roads Rusk to Kilgore. Another problem with google maps, when you spread cities out big enough to show the smaller streets, all the main street names disappear. I lost 20 minutes trying to meet my brother at Cracker Barrel N. Houston because Ella blvd is broken at Greens Bayou and I did not see that until the road ended. Then I got in the wrong lane trying to get on I45 North from N. Shepard and had to drive a box to turn around and try again.
I am really enjoying Delorme Maps, which are quasi-geosodic but not as out of date as the USGS ones. As I was sneezing my head off last midnight, I spent 90 minutes reviewing Idaho Montana and Utah. Mostly tracking railroad routing versus the Oregon trail, but also the Overland route to Sacramento. Which route across Great Salt Lake is still a mystery. UP owns both the northern route acroos the causeway (SP) and the southern route around the lake. Which is high traffic flow now? I discovered in Colorado in 2022 that UP is allowing trees to grow through the D&RG rails through Tennessee pass (US 24), which they now own.

 

[Brian-s]

I am very glad I grew up with needing maps. Having an idea of how interstate in the US are organized, having a basic idea of where things are how things are laid out in my state and neighboring states is beyond helpful.

GPS is a great tool though, I still can't imagine using it without having that base knowledge of how everything is laid out.

Interacted with people that rely nothing but Google maps, anytime it sends them in a wrong direction they are completely lost. Again because they have no basic understanding of how even their own neighborhood is laid out.

End conclusion: I recommend using both.

 

[BEC111]

This has been fascinating. I must be lucky since I live on the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) which is so heavily mapped. The only times I’ve had GPS issues, recently, is when there’s new or emergency road construction. I even was successful using Apple Maps in the Israeli west bank in areas that did not appear in the satellite images due to security.

OTOH, the turn by turn navigation in Ride with GPS can be extremely frustrating when the turn announcements come after passing the actual turn due to lag.

 

[Urbancowboy]

GPS is nice but not 100% trustworthy. Maps don't need electricity and in an emergency one can start a Fire with it IF one has a Lighter or Matches along. I use my eBike as a fun activity. When on my eBike I pretty well always know from experience where I am and what Compass direction I am heading.
My workplaces are mostly very remote without cellphone service. There I use a Garmin Inreach with Map but also have Paper Maps for just in case.

Cheers

 

[Roamers]

We periodically do orienteering to maintain our skill. Once you can read a map, it's fairly elementary to follow a map.

 

[Tars Tarkas]

If you know how to get where you're going without maps, great. Obviously, you don't need GPS either. I just went to Europe for the first time and used GPS all over the place. Amsterdam, Zurich, Milan, Paris, etc. Worked great. Few problems, and no stopping to unfold, firgure things out, and then carefully refold multiple maps. In situations like that I'd much prefer GPS.

I was using Google Maps, so I if wanted to look at a map, it was right there, on something I had in my pocket anyway,, showing me exactly where I was, and if desired, where I wanted to be.

Around home, yeah, I can find the grocery store without maps or GPS

TT

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Love maps of all kinds and rely on both GPS and paper maps at various times. Generally prefer phone-based GPS mapping on my bike but sometimes carry paper geologic maps of areas I'm trying to learn.

Time permitting, stopping to study the landscape with supporting topo and geologic maps is something I enjoy regardless of the mode of travel.

 

[mschwett]

kind of a weird premise. GPS is a locating technology. a map is a visual representation, 2 or 3 dimensional, at a reduced scale, of a physical place.

maps on a phone or tablet are amazing, essentially limitless with far more types of information available than one could ever have hoped to carry with paper. since they are usually free, you occasionally get what you pay for, but they're updated far more often and there are quite a few different purveyors available. paper maps are beautiful and i very much enjoy collections of them, i have fond memories of navigating the country by them in my late teens, but they're obsolete if you have access to a little electricity.

GPS only tells you where you are on the map. it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when someone blames getting lost or being late on "my GPS was wrong" which is honestly quite unlikely. perhaps the wayfinding that google, apple, waze, or someone else provided was wrong, or perhaps the underlying map had some roads or traffic limitations wrong, but it's really quite unlikely that the GPS location finding was all that wrong. it's a pretty simple, amazing technology that has led to major improvements in quality of life for so many people who move around often by land-based vehicles. maps that show where the traffic is bad! amazing.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I think it is a question of Appropriate Technology.

Very few of us could successfully navigate on a maze of poorly marked roads with no clear reference points. I know from experience how challenging and confusing that can be. Even with fancy technology it can be tough and you can expect to make some mistakes along the way.

On the other side of it a lot of cities, especially in Western North America, were platted with very regular road grids and very well-defined naming conventions for those roads. So if you have a street address in (or near) one of those cities and know the system you can navigate directly to any known address (well, nearly any -- there are always weird exceptions) without maps or gadgetry of any kind.

Still further into the weeds, navigation software that integrates with real-time traffic data is tough to beat and if you are trying to get around in an urban area with awful traffic is a lifesaver.

Left unsaid is the obvious fact that if you are driving in a strange city or country without navigation tech of some kind you will certainly see some unexpected places.

 

[fooferdoggie]

kind of a weird premise. GPS is a locating technology. a map is a visual representation, 2 or 3 dimensional, at a reduced scale, of a physical place.

maps on a phone or tablet are amazing, essentially limitless with far more types of information available than one could ever have hoped to carry with paper. since they are usually free, you occasionally get what you pay for, but they're updated far more often and there are quite a few different purveyors available. paper maps are beautiful and i very much enjoy collections of them, i have fond memories of navigating the country by them in my late teens, but they're obsolete if you have access to a little electricity.

GPS only tells you where you are on the map. it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when someone blames getting lost or being late on "my GPS was wrong" which is honestly quite unlikely. perhaps the wayfinding that google, apple, waze, or someone else provided was wrong, or perhaps the underlying map had some roads or traffic limitations wrong, but it's really quite unlikely that the GPS location finding was all that wrong. it's a pretty simple, amazing technology that has led to major improvements in quality of life for so many people who move around often by land-based vehicles. maps that show where the traffic is bad! amazing.

I never drove so my navigation skills were null when I started riding more. sometimes even following my GPS I miss things like I can't see the street sign so don't know to turn there or when I start you cant always tell what direction you need to start.

 

[6zfshdb]

IMO, most maps are better at giving you the big picture. It's easy to see your location in relation to other landmarks, which can be a considerable distance away. Sure, you can zoom out a GPS device but you're looking at a relatively small screen, which lacks detail. The more you zoom out, the more data is lost. You then have to zoom in again to get the detail back but you've lost perspective relative to your original location. When hiking & biking in remote locations, I mainly use GPS but I also carry a topo map for this purpose..

 

[Brian-s]

GPS only tells you where you are on the map. it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when someone blames getting lost or being late on "my GPS was wrong"

This is why I think it's a good idea to have a basic understanding of maps, they give you the broader picture of where you are rather than just the small two three inches you can see on a screen. But then I got I also think basic map reading should be taught in school at some point it's a math class even

 

[Mr. Coffee]

... I also think basic map reading should be taught in school at some point ...

Some of us were taught basic map reading in school. Not just highway maps but USGS contour maps. Mostly in the sixth grade if I recall.

 

[teskow]

"IMO, most maps are better at giving you the big picture. It's easy to see your location in relation to other landmarks"
This is so true.

 

[mschwett]

on a related note... it really surprises me how many people don't know which direction is which. sometimes when giving someone (simple) directions, i'll say "go north x blocks then turn left."

... "which way is north?"

given that most american cities have large areas of roughly n-s-e-w street grids, and the sun is somewhat reliable in it's path to the sky, and the pacific ocean is still most often west of the north american continent, this seems an odd thing to not internalize.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

on a related note... it really surprises me how many people don't know which direction is which. sometimes when giving someone (simple) directions, i'll say "go north x blocks then turn left."

... "which way is north?"

Yes, quite astounding. To avoid blank stares in the Denver Metro Area, I'd have to say toward or away from the mountains, or toward or away from the Springs (Colorado Springs) instead of west, east, south, or north. Here in coastal north San Diego County, the ocean stands in for west, the City (San Diego) for south, and Oceanside or Camp Pendleton for north.

You could use LA for north instead, but we try not to mention it here.
;^}

This widespread ignorance of compass directions probably explains why the signage at freeway entrances puts, say, "I-25 Colorado Springs" in the biggest font and "I-25 South" in the fine print.

 

[Roamers]

which way is north?"

Directions are easier around here once you learn the Mississippi River flows east to west.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

... "which way is north?"

My pet peeve is people who orient their maps any way but having North at the top.