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I agree to a point that using GPS you never really learn how to navigate around a city/area. You become dependent on them. You'll continue using GPS to get to the same or general area every time because you aren't using landmarks, cross streets, etc. But for me GPS is a life saver. So much more information then just instructions. Very useful in new areas
Oh, I am old school --- I grew up loving maps and atlas. Plus I had a pretty good sense of direction - I could tell my dad at the age of 5 that he missed the exit he needed to take.
Definitely if you're too dependent on GPS you lose a sense of direction, and if you get out of range (satellite or cellular) you can be hosed. And you miss the forest for the trees if you're too hung on it.
I don't totally trust GPS because sometimes little things aren't caught up on it, such as road closures, residents-only gates to gated communities, etc. It can be useful to find an address "for the last mile" in an unfamiliar area, though.
The thing is, people who rely on GPS don't learn to understand the big picture of a place. They only think about getting from point a to point b, and have no clue what the rest of the area is like or what the other possibilities are.
If you don't learn the bigger picture, how can you ever find anything in the future?
Use of GPS makes you more reliant on GPS makes you more reliant on GPS.
If a satellite goes down, the streets will be filled with Millennials roaming around aimlessly bumping into one another and sobbing.
You should have just as much shame from using a GPS as you would stopping to ask for directions. Better to end up lost in the wilderness than admit that you are lost.
I don't totally trust GPS because sometimes little things aren't caught up on it, such as road closures, residents-only gates to gated communities, etc.
And those are on printed maps? Hell, looking at the map I posted, most roads aren't even on them.
You find a restaurant in Portland either by roaming around and stopping at one that looks good, or by looking up a specific one before you go and getting there easily based on your knowledge of the streets of Portland. I've only been to Portland once, but I'm sure I could find a specific restaurant just by looking it up on a map (electronic or paper) before I went, then just taking off and going. If someone calls during your journey and tells you to meet them at restaurant X, you get there by finding out the street address, then just going there.
How do you know where a single street is while you're driving in an unfamiliar place, especially if someone calls you and says to meet them there? On that map I posted? Sorry, been using paper maps for decades and GPS is vastly superior. If I'm travelling from out of town, and "just driving around" I could miss most places easily just by driving past the street that CONNECTS to the street I need to be on. Will a paper map like I posted help? Not a chance. While my GPS will know exactly where it is, and the nav screen I posted will show the connecting streets before I even get there.
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You find a specific address on a specific street by having a picture of the streets of Portland (or wherever) in your head and going straight there easily without any effort whatsoever. OP is right about the grid system (although the hearts of very old cities like Boston are based on waterways rather than the grid).
Don't try that with Washington DC. I swear most people live there because they haven't figured out how to get out. You might know the basic grid, but the diagonals and one way streets (that can change on opposite sides of a cross street) will mess you up bigtime. And I just got back from San Diego where there's hardly a straight road to be found outside of a small area downtown. A paper map wouldn't have helped me on the seat next to me. The GPS, however, ALWAYS got mere where I needed to go, even around heavier traffic, which a paper map would not have done.
And maybe you are blessed with a photographic memory for grids and street names for every city across the country, but most of us aren't. I want to actually pay attention to DRIVING while I 'm driving, not looking over at a paper map that doesn't have most of the detailed information I want ANYHOW. And maybe I'm visiting from out of town and CAN'T look up and print out or memorize complex city street names on a non-grid to find where I'm going to go for every trip away from the hotel. But you obviously know every street in every town and every city in every state already and have no need to know which street connects with which other one to get where you need to be, because no place in the country is unfamiliar to you. You'd better watch out for nosebleeds from holding it up so high. High horses? You're on one of the tallest.
BTW, how do you get to 143 Camel Driver Road on a paper map based on this of Columbia using your "memorize the grid" method if you're from out of town and staying in a hotel in Baltimore?
Or on this one (which is what an actual paper map woud look like, like the one I posted before)
You might think Columbia is just a dot with a grid, but as the detailed map shows, there's not a straight line to be had in the whole town.
Last edited by Tiffer E38; 09-01-2016 at 03:46 PM..
Ok so "I don't use GPS." is the new "I don't watch TV." for people to feel better about themselves huh...
I use it to save time, know about traffic, and lessen hassle - sometimes even around here if I'm going someplace I've never been even if I am familiar with the area. Just having to circle a block If I approach a destination from a less than advantageous way because of a one way street is annoying to me that a GPS might save me from doing. If I am travelling, my wife and I will have both our phones and the car's GPS running just in case one comes up with bad info or a better choice.
But we are thankful to know this makes us lesser humans to many of you and that it warms your hearts that we might miss some of the great outdoors or drive off a cliff or into oncoming traffic because we use it so much.
If what you're saying is true, then why not eliminate street names and highway numbers? Naming streets is for luddites who still compare them against maps and compass directions. Let's give each building a hexadecimal unique identifier number (shown only inside the GPS, not on the buildings themselves), and let people drive on nameless streets and "turn right in a quarter mile" when their GPS tells them to. It's new, it's modern, it's cutting-edge.
Because GPS doesn't tell them that, it says "in a quarter-mile, turn right on Washington Avenue". So the street names and signs are still needed to compare them against navigation guidance.
And nobody has an issue with someone who wishes to use paper maps and compasses and study the route before they leave home, they have an issue with those people that insist that is the only way it should be done and you're an inferior human being if you need or prefer technology. Your friend didn't sign on here whining about how you insist on using your knowledge of the roads and won't rely on gps, you signed on here whining about how he uses gps.
This is an issue my friend and I get into headbutting matches over. I can't stand using a GPS. I know the Chicago street grid, and most suburban areas, and prefer to navigate the old-school way: with my knowledge of streets, a road atlas or Google Maps, landmarks, written directions, and a compass. Plus---and correct me if I'm wrong---I find the GPS voice prompts whiny, aggressive, and patronizing. I like knowing that I'm good with navigation and using that to find my way. Although I think what helps is my photographic memory for locations: I have to drive somewhere once, and I'll remember how to get there for a long time. Even if I go somewhere new, I will print out maps and directions before even looking at a GPS device.
My friend is the opposite. Great guy; I respect him to pieces. But he will say "how high?" when a GPS says "jump!". I've driven with him, on his GPS system. He's taken multiple weird turns when only one turn will do, got off the interstate and got right back on, sat in nasty traffic and refused to detour around it, all because a GPS sent him that way. When I'm driving him, I pretty much order him to "put that damn thing away". Conversely, if he's driving, I just grin it and bear it; because his car, his rules. That said, when I suggest deviating from the GPS goddess (the voice is usually female), he takes my words into account, as he knows my hidden talent of being good with directions.
Now, I'm not a complete luddite. If I know I'm lost and can't find my way back onto a familiar road, or if I find myself somewhere completely unknown, I'll eat crow and turn on the GPS on my phone. Also, if I'm using Uber/Lyft and the driver prefers to use a GPS, I don't complain, either, since I'm the one going to him for help.
i agree with you. for many years my "GPS" system was a rand mcnally, and i drove across country and back many times using only that. and years ago before GPS was even thought of, my brother and i navigated the streets and interstates of LA like we were natives using only maps.
Your friend didn't sign on here whining about how you insist on using your knowledge of the roads and won't rely on gps, you signed on here whining about how he uses gps.
Yes, willingness to blindly follow GPS prompts, without even asking "really?" when a certain turn looks particularly inane, does bother me. But me and him have a treaty of sorts. Neither pushes his navigation method when the other guy is driving, unless directly asked. I don't begrudge anyone for navigating with a GPS, my views on it nonewithstanding. But I was curious if anyone else thought like me.
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