memorising street maps (San Jose, Santa Clara, Cupertino: transfer, neighborhoods, luxury)

[sandy7]

I'm usually known for having a pretty magnetic memory for incidents and especially numbers but it seriously puzzles me why I suck so much at remembering routes. If I were to drive down to an unfamiliar place or neighborhood, I have some mild trouble threading my way back. Not to mention my dependence on the GPS which has a deleterious effect on my remembering skills.

Any ideas to improve?
London Taxi Drivers' Brains Video -- National Geographic


-S [admitting to several jaw-dropping moments while reading the likes of sonarrat show off their heroics in zoning in on remote places in the area]

[sonarrat]

Somehow I knew I would be a part of this thread.

The thing about San Jose is that there are a lot of important roads, and they don't always behave the way you expect. It's sometimes easier to remember the exceptions to the rules. But mainly the problem is learning what freeways you can access where. For example, it's helpful to know that you can't connect from northbound 87 to southbound 101. You can, however, take the N First exit and then take a right at the bottom of the ramp at N First, and then it's the next left after Brokaw. Easy to remember because it's Old Bayshore Hwy - the old designation for 101. You can also access 880 in either direction once you're on 101, which is another thing you can't do from 87.

Then there are things like Moorpark and Parkmoor in SJ. Moorpark is the main road, and it goes all the way to Cupertino. But at SJCC, Moorpark turns into a one-way street and dumps you onto 280 southbound. If you want to keep going eastbound towards Willow Glen/Lincoln Ave on Moorpark, then you take the ramp to 280, but immediately duck off at Meridian, go north, and take an immediate right on Parkmoor. There are signs for Lincoln Ave. On the other hand, if you're starting around Leigh Ave and want to go westbound from there, you cross over 280 at Leigh and get onto Parkmoor, then cross back over to Moorpark at Bascom. There are a few other places in downtown that are equally confusing.

Let's say you're on Market Street. Around downtown, there are signs saying this way for 880, this way for 280. What they don't tell you is that you have to go 2 miles to get to 880, and it turns into Coleman Ave first.. it's easy to feel like you must be lost when you start seeing signs for the airport, even though you're going the right way. It's about a mile to get to 280 in the other direction, too.

Other than that, I learned a lot more about the area I've lived in all my life when I started getting on Redfin and just figured out what ZIP codes were where, what the neighborhoods were, what kinds of properties I saw in those areas, and what they key access roads were. If you're driving on Story Road and you start seeing lots of ramshackle Victorians, then you're in the numbered streets around downtown. If you see '50s ranchers, then you're on the east side. If you see old bungalows and start going up a hill, you've probably gone too far and need to turn around. If you see old bungalows and notice that you're actually on Goodyear Street, you really need to turn around!!

[mrzod]

Very insightful sonarrat. Thanks and repped!

[bigdumbgod]

VTA office downtown (1st/Santa Clara) will have brand new system maps of the South Bay sometime in January, which are an immense help in figuring out the transportation grid here, particularly in regards public transportation.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

VTA office downtown (1st/Santa Clara) will have brand new system maps of the South Bay sometime in January, which are an immense help in figuring out the transportation grid here, particularly in regards public transportation.

Don't get me started on our public transportation.. the best thing I can say about it is that you never need to transfer more than once to get to downtown SJ, from anywhere in the entire system (excepting routes that are intended to serve specific schools), so it's very well centralized in that respect. But that single-minded focus has made it difficult to get anywhere else unless you live and work near the same street, which is not something most of us have the luxury of doing.

[sandy7]

thanks for the tips, will work on them